There is no doubt that the cult of individual use of the book, in which the student writes, draws, paints and takes notes, is a teaching strategy that is very different to what was advised and practised many years ago, when everything was registered in exercise books, sparing the integrity of the book as much as possible.

This current methodology certainly implies a closer link to the book itself, but this does not facilitate the solution to the problem at hand if the book has to be carried every day in a bag or rucksack. Unless teachers take the care to teach and guide their students to only take with them the works or books that are essential for the work that has to be done immediately.

The book, each book, when used like this, being simultaneously for reading and for taking notes, even one does not sort out what remains at home and what needs to be taken to school, sometimes becomes a useless dead weight, given that it is not always needed, added to the weight of so many others which are occasionally indispensable or also unnecessary and are carried in the bag or rucksack.

Some black and white or colour photocopies would solve the problem, but would imply some extra financial costs in the reformulation of education and schooling methods. And this would alleviate the pupils’ backs. But that is the essential question. It is a problem that until now has not been seen to imply any “systemic health risk” and thus does not justify any measures or investments. Indeed, due to a lack of adequate epidemiological information or through the passivity of the health authorities, the truth is that the problem does not seem to bother anyone, except those for whom the weight of the rucksack is doing damage.

This type of pathology is being diagnosed too often in our young people, and anything that can be done today to diminish its impact will reduce the burden of health costs in the future. Due to their not always well studied dimension in relation to their real causes and complications, these arthralgias, particularly dorsalgias and rachialgias, caused by the excessive weight of school bags and rucksacks, although they have not yet become a very obvious concern for those responsible for the fields of education and public health should at least become a warning sign for the media and civil society, which have always been standard-bearers in the great march towards political change in our country.

If such a system were implemented, that of the predominant use of photocopies and computer means, limiting the use of paper, each student could donate their own books to the school library at the end of each school year in order for them to be distributed to and used by younger generations of pupils, while the syllabuses are not changed, embodying the recent “Giving back” school project. It would be a useful and helpful initiative.

The other alternative, which has been mentioned above, would be the use of a bag or rucksack with wheels. We in fact believe that this solution, although it is not so fashionable for young people, is the method of transportation that has fewer risks for the user. However, this means of transporting school material also involves some care and rules for its use:

1. It is advisable not to overload the pulling weight, having decided that just because the bag is on wheels one can transport whatever one likes. It is necessary to make a daily selection of what is needed. What is not necessary stays at home.

2. The holder for the rucksack on wheels should be adjustable in order to better suit the length of the user’s arm, thus avoiding a too short or too long distance between the rucksack on wheels and the person pulling it. This correct adjustment not only reduces the child’s effort, but prevents imbalanced postures and incorrect bending of the spine.

3. As this is a tendon-muscle and skeletal effort it is necessary to reasonably balance the ergonomic effort made during the moments of pulling the above-mentioned bag-rucksack on wheels. It is thus advisable to pull this weight without bending one’s “arm”, or only bending it slightly, in order to avoid tendonites or other muscular lesions. On the other hand, the rucksack on wheels can and may be pulled with both hands: on the way to school with one hand and the way home with the other. In this manner there is a compensation for and a guaranteeing of the rotation of the spine, assuring a development of and muscle toning of both upper limbs and a healthy use of the articulations and of all the structures that participate in this daily effort.

4. The use of the bag-rucksack on wheels also implies permanent attention to the lubrication of the system, allowing it to slide easily and not have to be dragged. This care obviously aims at improvement and reduction in the pulling effort.

Limiting the daily load pulled on wheels, on one’s back or shoulders and reducing the annual costs to families with the buying of books, although it is necessary to invest in school logistics in order to create the necessary conditions for the pupils’ work and learning during term time, will simultaneously contribute towards to fundamental aims: young people’s health and family economy, particularly for those who live in somewhat difficult financial situations, and that is a sad and widespread reality nowadays.

This would be of benefit not only to our young people’s “bodily health”, but also their “economic health” and that of their families.
We are convinced that implementing a programme of this nature will in the medium and long term inevitably bring benefits and compensation in the fields of health, education, economy and politics.

Each citizen’s physical and mental well-being should be one of the highest aims of the domestic policy and practised by the state.
Only by supporting an educated, strong, healthy and responsible youth can we win the “major battles” of the future.

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João Frada
Doctor and Retired University Professor from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon
Lisbon, 12.04.2010
joaojcfrada@gmail.com