Every year, millions of young children develop back problems due to the ghastly weight of their backpacks. Millions of trees are cut down just to make workbooks and textbooks for schools. While students continue to have back pains at early ages, the technological revolution has developed compact, light, laptops; some weighing as little as two pounds. Will we continue to place strain on the growing backs of students? Or should we consider replacing the heavy textbooks and notebooks with laptops
Although laptops are still quite expensive, ranging from 250-700 dollars each, the price of a single laptop compared to the cost of multiple textbooks is significantly less on the school district’s wallet. Textbooks usually cost around a hundred dollars or more, yet the information gets outdated quickly and schools have to dig out more cash to purchase up-to-date textbooks. With laptops, textbook publishers and teachers would be able to edit and update the information more easily on electronic copies of text. Teachers would be able to select certain pages of workbooks to use online, instead of buying whole workbooks that we only use half of.
Not only would this be easier on the school’s budget, but also on the environment. Over fifty million trees are chopped down each year to make textbooks in the United States alone. Four billion trees worldwide are chopped down yearly for paper, notebooks, workbooks, you name it.
The heavy, lagging weight of a backpack often causes long-term health issues and back pain for students. Asides from notebooks and binders, students also have to carry pencils, pens, and spare paper. And let’s not forget that many students bring lunch from home. The weight all adds up. The average high school student’s backpack weights between ten and twenty-five pounds, while the average laptop weights between three and eight pounds. A study conducted by Brandon Macias of UCSD’s Department of Orthopedic Surgery concluded that students often carry...