Take a load off

Heavy schoolbags have been a perennial issue since Yanrong was in primary 3 when a classmate’s mother sought out the school principal in an attempt to lighten the children’s load. The principal agreed to allow pupils access to school lockers. A neat way to address the problem.

But there is nothing like walking a mile in someone else’s shoes to understand that this was an issue that has not only not gone away but has also grown to become, well, weightier.

Although the distance from carpark to house was hardly a mile, the heft of that schoolbag on my back was undeniable. I dropped the bag on the bathroom scale. I was aghast at seeing the needle stop at 7.5 kilos.

To have that amount of weight resting on the shoulders of an 11-year-old girl is surely too much. Moreover, she has to climb stairs as her classroom is five floors up.

“Yanrong should either carry fewer books to school or store them in a locker,” I said to my wife. That sounded like a no-brainer but reality was altogether different.

When Yanrong got home, I attempted to get her to carry fewer books. Except that most of what I wanted to remove was met with fierce resistance.

“No, I need this in school,” she said, stopping me from taking out a textbook.

“What about these loose notes? Surely you don’t need them.” 

“Okay,” she conceded, before adding, “but only these. I need the others.”

When we were done, there was no discernible difference in the weight of her bag.

“What if we get you a roller bag?”

“What’s the point? I still have to carry it up the stairs.”

Lockers were also dismissed as impractical. First, they aren’t located in or near her classroom. Accessing them during school hours is problematic as lessons run back-to-back, save for a 30-minute break.

Second, school pupils are less adept at managing their belongings. Yanrong is pretty disorganised and I fear she’ll have a hard time keeping track of her books and notes if she were to leave them in her locker.

In the end, we settled on a less-than-satisfactory solution. These days, she carries a cloth bag in hand to lighten the load in her backpack. I am not sure if this helps.

Worryingly, following a health screening in school, Yanrong was issued with a referral letter to see a specialist to do a thorough check for scoliosis, a condition caused by a curvature of the spine. It seems her right shoulder blade bulges more than the other. Studies have shown that scoliosis mostly affects teenage girls. About 1.4 per cent of girls aged 11 and 12 have scoliosis, compared with 0.2 per cent of boys in the same age group.

There are no conclusive studies that link heavy schoolbags to scoliosis but I can’t help but wonder if my previous lackadaisical attitude contributed to Yanrong’s present condition.

Now all I can do is hope that she isn’t afflicted with scoliosis. Or if she is, if it can be corrected without surgery.