2009
Forum
5
Backpacks cause more stress than homework
N icole C ampbell
Pain, suffering,
throbbing, anguish,
torment, aching, and all
because of a backpack that
weighs more than 17 lbs.?
These are symptoms of
possible strained muscles
and ligaments. And let's
not forget the shoulder and
back pain many of us feel
the end of the day. If school
is causing this unnecessary
pain, how can we reduce
the weight of backpacks to
save ourselves?
A heavy backpack
makes your back arch, and
the weight pushes
down, putting
pressure on
your shoulders,
according to
Paul Kane,
physical
therapist. So
what is in a backpack
that makes it so heavy?
Each textbook weighs
approximately three to five
pounds. So if you have
three textbooks, that's
almost 15 lbs. to carry
around every day.
Add about
seven pounds
worth of
binders
and
notebooks, and with
another three pounds for
a lilnch and miscellaneous
items, the weight quickly
adds up to at least 25 lbs.! A
common solution proposed
by many teachers is to
put the textbook in your
locker. Often a student's
locker is not close to their
next class, and for most
students six minutes
between classes is
not enough time
to walk from
the Music
Building
to
to grab something from
your locker.
For many students, their
backpack is 30 lbs, with three
binders, three textbooks, a
lunch, and possible sports
supplies. That is 13 lbs. over
the recommended weight!
Could 13 lbs. over the
greatest recommended weight
sway student's grades?
According to Kane, backpack
back pain certainly affects
your study and concentration.
If students' backs are
hurting, could it be affecting
their grades, mood and
consequently their future?
I propose we use online
textbooks so we-can keep
our textbooks off our backs,
or teachers could keep
** \ the textbooks in the
'x \ classroom for classes
that don’t use them
upper
often, and only
C porch for
,
have students
^ science, let
bring them
alone go to
home when
the lower D porch
necessary.
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,
Facebook at school presents potential Farmville phishing problems
D rake E dwards
Every day, I see people
at lunch, break and even
outweigh the benefits.
Imagine you're sitting
on the porch, and you have
a paper due by the end of
Another thing about
Facebook is the fact that
you can play games.
Remember when everyone
during classtime, w astin g
class. Y o u 're try in g to sta y
w a s ad d icte d to D olphin
their lives away on
Facebook. They should be
working or socializing with
their peers, but instead
they're too worried about
harvesting their strawberries
on Farmville. Joining groups
and making comments
on photos is distracting
them from doing their
schoolwork, cultivating their
social lives and finishing
assignments on time. All
of this because the District
decided to unblock the site.
It was unblocked so that we
could communicate with the
outside world, but I beleive
that the problems simply
focused, but that tab next
to Microsoft Word is just
begging you to click it. And
you do. Before you know it
you've spent an hour and
a half looking at photos,
playing poker and updating
your status every five
minutes.
I'll admit that I am a bit
of a Facebook junkie, but
I don't think it really has
a place at school. I have
been distracted at home by
the site many times, and I
could attribute that to a few
late assignments. So why
would I want to have that
distraction at school too?
Olympics? I'm pretty sure
Farmville will end up being
worse, not to mention
Facebook poker and
almost every other game
you can think of. So the
administration has basically
given us more chances to
play games, which is against
school policy. Great.
The final threat that
Facebook presents is the
possibility of phishing.
Lately, a countless number
of people have had their
accounts hacked, leading
random people to use their
accounts and spam others
with ads. According to
"You can use the internet
for school projects."
—Clayton Gelfand,
freshman
Curtis Nelson, Director of
Information Services for
passwords, phone numbers
and even personal adresses.
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Facebook helps you connect and share with
the people in your life.
the West Linn-Wilsonville
School, it’s possible for
people to fall into phishing
traps through Facebook.
Phishing is when people
acquire personal information
such as usernames,
What benefits do you see
in using cellphones in the
classroom ?
The only way to
preemptively stop the
problems before they start is
to just to block the site again.
If there's no Facebook,
there's no way these things
can happen.
"There are no benefits except
maybe for a calculator.”
—Megan McAfee, sophomore
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11 f % t k
w?
"So students can talk to their
friends in other classes."
"I’m from New York so I could talk to my
friends back home during school hours."
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—Kendall Jorgensen,
senior
—James Markivics, junior
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All Photos by Libby Kara