What the hell do elementary students carry in their backpacks...

[WCGreen]

I mean really now, it looks as if they are going on an Arctic exploration instead of going to school for five or six hours.

The question might be, what do they leave at home?

[msongs]

1. soda, flaming hot cheetos (their breakfast), maybe gameboys, books if their moms make them nt

[Strong Atheist]

2. You would be surprised, says the teacher... nt.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Probably don't have the kitchen sink...

Lots of big heavy books...

Maybe a laptop?

I haven't been around elementary school students in decades, so I have no idea, really...

:shrug:

:hi:

[seabeyond]

4. take home folder that ends up HUGE until cleaned out. pencils. erasers

books, lots of reading books. library and from home. and sweater or coat if warm at end of day. lunch

[redqueen]

37. Yep... books books and more books...

my kids have to bring home at least two or three for homework most nights, plus the library books, plus the folders.

And then there's the sweater/jacket, the art projects they bring hiome, which get shoved in there so they get nice and crinkled on the way... :)

[seabeyond]

66. art projects they bring hiome, which get shoved in there... lol lol. yup. nt

[blondeatlast]

47. Pretty much nailed it. Some school districts have enough that the kids have a take home book

AND a book for their desk; my son's overcrowded but upper-middle-class district has to share books between TWO CLASSES.

My pet issue is public education funding for every district from the Phoenix projects right up to the Scottsdale district. A risiong tide lifts all boats.

[seabeyond]

68. 8th grade math. first and so far last class he had his own math book.

it is a weird world our kids are in. beginning of every year books would be handed out to us first day, a cover and htat would be our to do, first day of schol. now it is really odd for kids to have classbooks.

and water bottle. forgot the water bottle

[Davis_X_Machina]

5. Damned if I know.

The high school I work in must have 700 empty lockers -- based on the size of the backpacks I see they have to be empty. I'm surprised seniors all don't cross the stage at graduation listing to starboard.

Or they used their four-wheeled lockers in the parking lot.

[rwheeler31]

6. They take eveything that makes them look older.

Early onset hunchback is in our future.

[babylonsister]

7. I want a teacher to weigh in. Too much? nt

[Ozymanithrax]

8. They are not allowed to have lockers...

so they carry books, gym cloths, and everything else they need at school.

[NYC_SKP]

9. That is correct in many schools. Kids carrying around books and supplies for every class, all day.

I went by my old high school a couple years ago.

the hundreds of lockers that were usable when I attended in the seventies were all welded shut.

security concerns...

[hedgehog]

10. I live in a town tha literally gets 10 ft of snow each winter on a regular basis.

The lockers at the high school were only about 4"wide. Try to hang a parka in that! Forget about boots.

[Davis_X_Machina]

11. Lockers vary wildly in size.

Some are big enough to stuff a freshman into. They don't struggle much if you stuff them into a goalie's gear bag first, and then stuff the bag into the locker. (Don't ask me how I know -- I haven't checked the statute of limitations on it...)

[Ozymanithrax]

45. In California and the Ohio distirict where my SIL lives...

Lockers are not allowed in any school. This even includes private schools. This is true for most the nation. It was done to reduce the incidence of drugs and guns in schools, or make them easier to find.

[Toucano]

19. That is sad.

How did we let the world get this way?

[abumbyanyothername]

20. I think you could say that it started with Reagan

or maybe even Nixon.

The economic powers in this country got very afraid of the Kennedys backing the civil rights movement. They enlisted the racist forces in certain areas of the country. Lacking economic opportunity, young men in certain communities turned to illegal markets (drugs), where competitive advantages are gained through violence. It didn't take long for the kingpins to realize that utilization and exploitation of minors made more economic sense as underage offenders face less draconian treatment in the hands of the criminal justice system.

Those juveniles, inculcated into violence, spend part of their time at school.

For a different and more detailed slant, you could check out Bowling for Columbine.

[WCGreen]

12. I didn't have a locker in Elementary School

We had a clock room for our boots and coats and desks for our books and such...

[CaliforniaPeggy]

13. You probably didn't have more than one or two classrooms ...

These kids rotate through several classrooms during the day. I think it's a lot more like high school now.

[Pangolin2]

58. We used the clock room to check our wrist watches

:rofl:

[slampoet]

14. Students are no longer allowed to go to their lockers between every class. They have ALL their Books

for the entire day in there.

Again this is one for the people not smart enough to figure out that the braille on the drive through ATMs is for BLIND PASSENGERS so they don't need to give their personal info to their drivers.

[WCGreen]

15. I haven't been in an Elementary School in over 40 years...

Nor do I have children of my own.

I'm curious. No need for snark...

[Fumesucker]

24. But the responses on an ATM are given on a screen that you have to be sighted to read..

I don't recall ever encountering an ATM with a voice response..

Perhaps it might be possible to learn and memorize the responses but how does the blind person learn in the first place?

[slampoet]

40. That is what the headphone jack is for.

Do you really want the ATM shouting, "You have taken out $500!!" to any mugger that cares to hear?

[Fumesucker]

43. Never looked at one closely enough to see a headphone jack..

Learn something every day I guess, eh?

And yes, I had thought that the scenario you mentioned would not be a particularly wise one.

[slampoet]

48. It isn't a senario but a real life case taken from a disability magazine.

There was actually someone who had the job of making ATMs more usable for the disabled and really screwed up.

It seems to be an extremely rare condition being able to put yourself in someone else's shoes.

I think of things like this whenever the GOP use empathy as an insult.

Lack of empathy can be bad for many businesses, including banks.

[Fumesucker]

50. It doesn't surprise me that happened..

I meant "scenario" in the general sense, not as a hypothetical so much..

I recall that Joe South did a song about empathy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Do4VZxkrLhI

Edited for speling.

[LWolf]

63. Elementary schools generally don't have lockers,

and elementary students generally don't travel from class to class. One group of kids, in one class, all day.

I've never attended, my grown sons never attended, and my grandson never attended, an elementary school that required gym "clothes," although the district I currently teach in does ask parents to provide shoes for the gym floor. Those shoes are kept on a shelf that goes with the hook the kid hangs his or her backpack on. They aren't carried back and forth.

Books are kept in the classroom unless there is a reason for the kid to take the book home. Elementary teachers don't ask kids to keep all their books in the backpack, and they don't assign work that requires them to carry all those books home at one time.

A lunch, a binder, a jacket, a novel or picture book, and one textbook can add up to a pretty heavy load without assuming that elementary kids are carrying "ALL their Books."

[Mariana]

16. A lot of the textbooks are huge

and heavy as hell, plus they have all their notebooks and binders. The poor kids have to drag them home and back to school day after day because God forbid they don't have a bunch of homework to do every single night even in the early grades. It's ridiculous. It has to be bad for their growing bodies to be carrying that kind of weight.

[exboyfil]

23. Huge and filled with very expensive textbooks that can

be had for very little online (I bought four books for my soon to be 8th grader to study this summer - her Physical Science textbook (prior edition), her Algebra I book (current edition), a Schaum's Physical Science, and a Schaum's Algebra 1. I spent around $16 including shipping and handling. A single one of the two textbooks would cost $80+.

Given the dollars we spend through the Dept. of Education I honestly don't know why we can't come up with a better method to do textbooks. Look at the 6th-8th grade textbooks (if the kid is not taking Algebra in 8th grade). The content is practically identical. I would think the Dept. of Education could come up with very inexpensive subject packets that do not require a 1000 page textbook. These could include pull out worksheets along with the text etc.

For goodness sakes Schaum's can put Elementary Algebra in a $13.95 book that is 400 pages long that covers everything you need for Algebra I. I am amazed about the amount of fluff in textbooks.

Could you imagine how many dollars school systems could save with open source textbooks (and the students would save in college). Textbooks are an incredible racket. Pay only once in the creation and licensing and never again (except the marginal costs of printing packets that could even be retained by the students later - especially useful for Math and Science). You would think school districts would jump at the chance.

[tj2001]

27. You can replace most textbooks with Schaum's

Yes, most high school textbooks - and many college introductory textbooks - are full of fluffy crap. Lots of nice color photographs, though!

[PVnRT]

29. Yep

New editions are put out to make money. My no-frills textbooks from college have plain gray and green or red covers, no color photos, and just information inside. Now, they need graphics and color and a bunch of crap that adds nothing to the information inside.

[FarCenter]

31. Not only that, but there are wide margins and half the page is blank

Plus, the use of color printing means coated paper. The coating materials used to make the paper whiter and hold the colored inks are very heavy.

But apparently this is what sells to the adults choosing textbooks. It's not the kids who choose.

[Lars39]

32. I've got some old textbooks from the 1920s and '30s.

They are crammed with facts, almost no pictures, and are all about the same size...5.5x8. Higher level of literacy, too.

[Mariana]

33. I used a math text from 1987 for 7th grade

when I was homeschooling my daughter. No color illustrations and it was light and easy to carry, although it was larger than 5.5 x 8. The newer editions of the same book have the same content but are MUCH larger and heavier.

[dmr]

17. All I know is it was dangerous to look inside my son's backpack

He's all grown now, but I would find all kinds of shit in his pack, along with wadded up papers galore, stubby pencils, play dough, Matchbox cars, Lego's, smeary and inky, inked out pens, Popsicle sticks, crayons, slime, crumbs, old candy, an old forgotten school flyer on upcoming events, used up tissues, toys, and unidentifiable crap.

Love little boys.

[abumbyanyothername]

18. Kindle and other E-book readers

will be a godsend to students.

Imagine . . . all your textbooks for the weight of a Harlequin Romance.

[redqueen]

39. Just as soon as we can break up the textbook racket.

I can't wait.

[gauguin57]

21. A friend's daughter was just showing me her new backpack for 5th grade.

The backpack is half the size of the little girl. And I'm not exaggerating. She looks like she's going backpacking across Europe, for god's sake.

[tj2001]

28. Somebody could get a Ph.D. on orthopedic effects of locker policy change

[nadinbrzezinski]

22. You'd be shocked

but trust me, them backpacks are not loaded just because.

[Hannah Bell]

25. all the things the schools no longer supply. soon, toilet paper.

[FLAprogressive]

26. Because, often ridiculously, kids have too many textbooks to carry PLUS all of the other binders and

crap.

[Vickers]

30. My kids' backpacks are stuffed. Textbooks, binders, a lunch, etc.

They do more homework than I did in college.

:wow:

[rucky]

34. Laptops for students would be an excellent public investment

IMHO

[walldude]

53. I bought my Autistic son one of those mini-laptops

because he was having trouble with written work. We had to fight the school tooth and nail to allow him to use it. This year I see a number of students with them.

[Wednesdays]

35. In our child's case, 40 pounds of books and a long list of TEH RULES

Over the weekend, her homework assignment was to copy (in longhand) the school rules. The original was 4 pages (typed). :eyes:

[Mariana]

55. How to make kids hate school in one easy lesson:

Give them stupid, pointless, time-wasting bullshit assignments just for the sake of making them do homework.

[immoderate]

70. Can you think of a better way of familiarizing them with the rules?

And they'll never be able to say they weren't aware of a rule. It's in their own hand writing.

--imm

[surrealAmerican]

36. If you think it's bad in elementary school ...

... just wait until middle school. We had one year where seven different teachers each required a two inch binder for their class alone. Add textbooks, supplies, gym suit, and lunch to that, and it weighed almost as much as my child.

[GreenPartyVoter]

46. Our kids frequently carry more than one bag. My cheerleaders stuff their

overflow into their sports bags or carry plastic shopping bags. Since we have practice down the block from the school (we have no gym) all their stuff has to go to practice with them. Rare is the day that I don't hear, "Coach, can you help carry my bags? Pleeeeease!!" I try to help the primary graders when I can, but I'm usually bogged down by 3 large heavy bags myself. LOL

[havocmom]

38. Since some schools have been so broke they ask kids to bring toilet paper...

one wonders if they now carry porta potties

[ensho]

41. the only thing I ever carried was my lunch bag

we didn't have a lunch room and ate at our desks.

each room had a coat room and above our coat hooks was a shelf for our lunch bags or boxes. or maybe a show and tell object.

we didn't have home work in elementary.

I never believed in homework for any of the 12 yrs. I figured if they couldn't teach what had to be taught during the day then something was wrong with the teaching.

adults seldom bring home work from their work places; why should kids.

and I told my kid's teachers that.

(this didn't count for special projects that took time to prepare)

[Blue Diadem]

42. It's so heavy that I see kids leaning forward, like they're afraid they'll tip over

backwards if they try to stand up straight. It can't be good for their little backs.

[doc03]

44. I saw the lockers in our new high school

I swear they are no more than 4" wide, you would have trouble cramming a winter coat in one. Apparently they have to carry everything on their back.

[Arugula Latte]

49. A lunchbox takes up most of the space in our case. nt

[pipi_k]

51. When did all this happen, anyway?

When I was a kid in Elementary School, we didn't even need backpacks. The only thing kids would be seen carrying to school was a lunchbox. Those of us who went home for lunch didn't even have that. Everything was provided for us in school...notebooks, pencils, crayons, rulers, etc.

We didn't even get homework until Junior High (in my area that started at 7th grade). So all we had were books and our assignment notebook, easily carried with a rubber bungee type thingy.

I graduated in 1970, so it's not hard to figure out the timeline.

As for my kids, they went to school from the mid 70s on. Same thing...no backpacks, everything they needed was provided.



So my older granddaughter is in 2nd grade and has homework.

Her younger sister, and their cousin, my grandson, are both five, starting Kindergarten in about a week. Backpacks full of stuff. I'll have to ask one of their parents what the hell they bring to school. Well, I do know that the younger kids have to bring a change of clothing to school, but for the rest...who knows...

[DefenseLawyer]

52. Homework. It's insane.

The amount of homework, even for elementary students, is out of control.

[Posteritatis]

54. Has been for awhile too

When I was in fifth grade I tended to get fifteen to thirty pages of math homework a night, call it thirty problems per page. It got to the point where I just said "fuck this," did a couple to prove I knew the stuff, and accepted the punishment from the school for not doing any of the rest.

[doc03]

60. They have to give massive amounts of homework because

about 3 days out of 5 in the winter they have a 2 hour delay.

[DefenseLawyer]

62. Uh huh

All those snow days in Texas, Florida, etc. are pretty rough.

[doc03]

65. When you ask a bus driver

or any school official why we have all the two hour delays and snow days. Guess what the answer is?

[Ilsa]

56. Even kids that are disabled and in special education need

Communication folders (parent - teacher communications), lunch or snack bags, change of shirt (or pants in some cases), school forms folders, and a means of taking home classwork.

[SoCalDem]

57. I still remember when our first kid told us he needed a backpack for school

I said.. "You have a class for camping?"

I feel so sorry for these kids & their 40# backpacks..

There's no need for it either.

The solution is incredibly simple.

LOCKERS....and a longer school day, so they have time to GO to their locker

We had two sets of school books.. one book stayed on each desk and was used IN SCHOOL , by every student who sat at that desk every day.

the other set stayed at HOME.

We had a single ring-binder with paper, and a few pencils/pens, and that was IT.

It would make security a snap too.. no backpack, no way to "bring things in"..

[revolution breeze]

59. My third graders contents:

1. Take home folder
2. Journal
3. Spelling text book
4. Math book
5. (At least) one library book
6. Sweater
7. Lunch
8. Pencil case

[aikoaiko]

61. When my kid starts school, I'll be buying a second set of books for home.

Its way too much for him to carry back and forth.

[npk]

64. FWIW. I see a lot of kids using backpacks with wheels and a handle

The middle school that is right next to my house actually sent out a letter to middle school parents urging them to consider buying a backpack that has wheels and a handle so the kids can wheel the backpack around. I see most of the kids that go to this school using these type of backpacks. It's funny cause in the morning these kids look like they are fixing to catch a flight on a business trip.

[gauguin57]

71. Teachers who are itinerant (music/gym/art teachers who travel between schools) often have those

My sister is a phys ed teacher who teaches at three different schools, and she HAS to have the wheelie airline-type luggage to get her materials from school to car to different school. A friend's daughter is an itinerant music teacher, and has the same setup.

Samsonite or American Tourister should set up a special deal with schools!

[treestar]

67. It's just convenient

We had to carry piles of books and a lunch separately. It's much easier to put it all in a backpack.

I remember these crazy plastic things you could use to at least bind the pile of books together.

And you don't need a separate wallet/purse either.

If you have after school activities, you can carry the special/extra clothes for it - rather than separately.

[LWolf]

69. Lunch. Jacket. Binder/folders. A few books.

They don't have to carry all their books. Depending on the grade, they will carry a book they are supposed to read every night, and maybe a math book if they have math homework.

States and districts set allowed amounts of homework. I've worked in 2 states, 1100 miles apart, big districts and small districts.

20-30 minutes a night was the maximum homework allowed for any student K-3 where ever I worked; 30-40 minutes for 4-6. It wasn't the amount of paper produced or pages read, but the amount of time spent that was limited.

It gets different when you get to middle school and have more than one teacher assigning homework. Then, you can get kids who get homework from a few teachers all on the same night, and have to carry multiple textbooks along with everything else.

When an attempt is made to create teams of teachers who work together and plan together, they can cooperate to spread homework out so that students aren't doing as much in one night as you get in large systems where teachers are not connected with their students' other teachers.

My 6th - 8th grade students have quite a bit of homework. They get math every night from their math teacher, and reading and spelling every night from me. They are given some time during the school day to get some of it done. We don't send home science or social studies homework.

So they carry a math and a reading book home, in addition to their binder, their lunch box, their jacket, and, at the end of the week, their gym clothes for washing.

This year, since they extended our day, I am going to see if I can open my room for 30 minutes or so before school for anyone who wants to come in and do homework then. School doesn't get out until 4:15, cutting the available time and energy for homework short.
I'm also going to make sure that they do all spelling/word analysis stuff in class, and give them more reading time in class, to try to lessen time spent on homework. My partner has agreed to give them more time to work in class as well, so that they won't have as much math to complete.

We're trying to fold some of the homework into the extended school day.