The burden of school bags on children starts from the development of an educational society that goes all the way back to more than 500 years ago. As the field of more advancements and knowledge progressed, the material for it did as well, which impacted the youth in different ways. Overpopulated, poor or third-world countries are the main bearers of the effects of the burden of school bags on children and teenagers whereas the more developed countries have multiple strategies and allowance electronxz.
Some countries like India prefer theoretical studying over practical learning with narrow and repetitive strategies rather than focusing on the child’s preference of interests and mental health, thus suppressing the possible potential of future multi-talented and diversely progressing country. It has come to the point that the weight of school bags and the innocent curiosity of a child starting from age 4 turning into a burdensome tactic which they find every way to avoid and yet end up in the endless void of their ancestral way of learning.
History
The British way of education system imposed by Lord William Bentick after 1835 has led to many advantages:
- That was beneficial to the British economically with the collapse of gurukulas and degradation to the original Indian society which provided one of the world’s first universities and had a literacy rate of a hundred percent with the best emotional and physical fitness India could offer.
- Children learned the way of life and the solar system and the speed of light without the depressive way of learning we have today way before any foreigner’s influence.
- Mathematics and Ayurveda and other medicinal drugs were discovered way before the European, Turkish, and Persian invasions and yet what we have now is a narrowest version of the discoveries the Vedic times have made and progression in the form of mental illnesses like depression, paranoia, anxiety and attention deficit hyperactivity disorders starting from the age of 10 or lower.
What is Burden?
The term “burden “defines the physical aspect, such as neck paralysis, nerve compression, and the rolling of neck and back muscles more anteriorly downwards to compensate the weight on the upper thoracic muscles leading to bad posture which can affect the, breathing rate of the lungs. It also makes the previously present deformities such as scoliosis and kyphosis much worse.
Long- term effects can also cause the nerve signals to pause and create a decreased and abnormal nerve impulse transmission between the brain and neck. Prolonged pressure can cause overproduction of action potential, leading to spasms that can also affect the muscles. Lower back pain and lumbar pain is also quite prevalent in teenager or adolescents.
The Burden of School Bags
The term burden also gives path to a series of mental problems that go unaware to most parents. Society, teachers, and even their own parents consider children smarter or more studious and dedicated when they carry around all the necessary books and yet have a form of distaste towards children more inclined towards electronics such as laptops or iPhones, which could contain more educational knowledge than the books in our current generation. This especially is true for more traditional families and communities.
The main causes for this is, the less integration of more advanced knowledge along with more advanced ways of learning and less theoretical way of knowledge. The burden of a tiny heart of a child from a young age with physical and mental health doesn’t provide a strong outspread of love for learning, but a strong resent and a reminder of the failures and workload that they have to carry. Another indication given for the term would be the failure of teaching by the teachers themselves.
The other main influence in a child’s life other than the parents and their peers are the ones that teach them every day and spend time influencing the curious mind of a young child starting from the early days.
A Closer Look at Neglected Students
Teachers do less and rather add on to the weight by making them bring other volumes of the same material and explaining less vocally and demonstratively to the entire body of the room. They tend to focus on the handful of children and leave out the others that struggle academically due to different factors.
The schools themselves tend to not provide projectors or release academic lectures that are taught in schools online for reviewing making it difficult for children, especially the ones attending through a longer distance for education.
There tends to be an indirect influence from government as well for not encouraging these ways of more advancement and a nasty and infuriating focus on draining off the funds provided to the education systems and rather focusing on restricting the knowledge and development deserved by the country as well the younger generation. The government could provide paying jobs for school transport facilities, incorporate more electronic, based teachings and, more schools so that the nearby youth can attend them without taking too much while carrying their weight on them.
Statistics
In India, the state of Maharashtra passed on an announcement based on evidence based research that carrying anything more than 10% of their body weight is not recommended since anything more than this weight impact the child’s spin and the, posture along with their respiratory and nervous system along with musculoskeletal system. Ironically 65% of the children in school in a rural village carried more than the allowed weight.
Another study also found that the weight usually increases after sixth grade, which needs a voice of concern. The “school bag syndrome” can affect boys more due to their tendency to carry heavier school bags compared to girls.
Urban areas also seem to be carrying heavier books compared to rural areas. All these state that even though there are varied proportions of struggling children, the cause always to have one root directly or indirectly-Education system.
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