Legislature considering study on lightening student load

A bill making its way through the General Assembly would require the state to study and then set textbook weight limits for elementary, middle and high school students.

Carly Joseph, 14, an eighth-grader at Grassland Middle School in Williamson County, would be happy about that. She said her backpack got too heavy by the middle of last year.

“I started having back problems,” she told The Tennessean newspaper.

She changed the style of backpack but it didn’t help much. And Joseph is hardly alone. “You can see in the hallways where backpacks are ripped open from the books falling out,” she said.

Elementary spelling and handwriting books are typically some of the lightest texts in public schools, while high school biology and history tomes can weigh as much as a small cat or dog.

“Standards could be a good thing,” said Larry Gregory, director of textbook services for the state Department of Education. “What we want to avoid is rushing into those standards too quickly.”

If approved, weight limits could be set by July 1, 2005.

Many states, including Tennessee, are monitoring what happens in California, which studied textbook weights statewide and might be the first state to require lighter volumes.

A recent study by the California Board of Education found that the combined average weight of books in four key subjects — reading, math, science and social studies — often exceeded 15 percent of a students’ body weight, which is considered an unhealthy or unsafe weight to carry.

Some publishers are offering alternatives, such as Internet Web sites that students can log on to in lieu of taking a book home. “We’re seeing more and more publishers saying, ‘If you buy my book, it will come with a CD slipped in the back cover that has everything in the book plus some interactive activities,'” he said.

But educators said that probably won’t solve the problem for every student and every school. “For that to work, you’d have to ensure that 100 percent of your students have a computer,” said Doug Crosier, principal of Grassland Middle School.

Some educators aren’t waiting for the state to lessen students’ loads. They’re suggesting students finish homework at school, requiring them to store backpacks in lockers during the school day or permitting backpacks with wheels.

Jamie Allsmiller likes wrapping up her homework at the end of class but said few classmates use the rolling backpacks, which don’t always fit in lockers. “They’re not cool,” said Jamie, 12, a sixth-grader at Grassland who uses a bag with padded shoulder straps instead.

Teachers at Guild Elementary try to keep students from hauling too many books. “Children have a tendency to take everything they own home,” said Linda Bradford, principal of the 500-student school in Gallatin. “We do encourage students not to take a textbook home unless they have an assignment.”