According
to a study conducted by US Consumer Product Safety Commission found that in
1999, 800 students ended up in the emergency room due to overly heavy backpacks
(qtd. in http://www.montclair.edu/Detectives/curriculum/docs/4.4arts1.doc.pdf). These were just students that ended up in the
emergency room. Many students experience back pain that goes undiagnosed and
untreated or isn’t serious enough to land one in the emergency room. Ways to
prevent back injury are ensuring proper fit of the backpack, teaching proper
lifting techniques and encouraging students to complete homework at school as
much as possible without interfering with other school work or positive social
interaction. Another measure that schools have started investigating is the
usage of online textbooks.
I
believe that online textbooks would be beneficial to students’ physical
well-being because instead of lugging around a backpack with five heavy
textbooks, one could simply carry a Kindle or other similar device. I believe
that these online resources should still have clear section headings and links
to the individual headings to allow for convenient studying and locating
abilities. It would also allow navigation to be easier.
When I
was in fourth grade, local college student came to my school to conduct a
study. These students found that the backpacks of these nine to ten year old
children sometimes weighed over twenty percent of the individual child’s
weight. This is over the recommended limit of carried weight by a large
percentage.
As long
as there are not any negative effects on the eyes of the students, I see no
reason that e-textbooks should not be implemented into schools nationwide. As
long as the student can be trusted with a Kindle or other e-reader, individual books cannot be lost as is possible now.
E-books will be extremely beneficial to students everywhere.
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