Lockers vs Backpacks

Lockers vs. Backpacks– a question debated amongst students since the invention of school. Some students are big fans of lockers, and some prefer backpacks. Both have plenty of pros and cons, but what do students really want? Should schools even have lockers anymore, or is it best for students to only use backpacks? In this article, we will be discussing the benefits and drawbacks of both.

Lockers: Advantages

The first benefit of lockers is that it helps keep students organized and their books/items safe. You don’t have to worry about leaving your book or homework at home since you have it at school at all times. You also don’t have to worry about getting your items lost, since if you make it a habit of keeping your belongings in one place, like in a locker where nothing can fall out or potentially break (unlike in backpacks), you know where everything is at all times.

The second is preventing your back and shoulders from unnecessary pain and soreness. For your physical well-being, lockers are much better, since you don’t have to carry around all of your heavy textbooks, notebooks, and other personal belongings 5 days a week throughout the entire school day. Textbooks can weigh anywhere from 500 grams to 2 kilograms– on average, students have 6 subjects, so a backpack can be anywhere between 3 to 12 kilograms! Researchers recommend students carry a bag that weighs a maximum of 10% of their body weight.

Lockers also help students develop important skills. For instance, it helps students develop a sense of responsibility since it forces you to take care of your belongings in one space and make sure everything is correctly in there. Likewise, it helps students develop their time management skills since they have fixed time periods in between classes when they can get their supplies for their next class and thus, need to think ahead and manage their time so they can retrieve their belongings and not be late.

Disadvantages

One of the biggest disadvantages of lockers is that they can be too much of a hassle at times to use. Instead of keeping all of your belongings in a place like in a bag, where you have your supplies with you at all times, you have to go back and grab your belongings and put your previous class’ books back each time you have a new class.

Another problem is losing keys. Over half of all students end up losing their locker keys throughout the school year– some even lose them in the first week of school! This is both a problem for students and the administration since the administration has to issue new keys to students every time they lose them. This can add up to be quite a costly and time-consuming job.

Last is money. In schools that already have lockers, maintaining, fixing, and replacing lockers is very costly and takes lots of money from the school’s budget, which can be utilized for other types of funding, like for school supplies, clubs, restoration of other facilities, school activities, sports and so on.

Backpacks: Advantages

The biggest advantage to backpacks is the fact that you have your belongings with you at all times and don’t need to worry about leaving your supplies in your locker when you need them. This also helps minimize the time spent going to get your belongings from your locker during breaks, which you can instead use for socializing with your friends, for instance.

Another advantage is that you have your backpack forever. That means that at the end of the year, you don’t have to take your belongings out of your locker, put the decorations on your locker down (if you have any), and give your key back to the school. Doing this every school year is quite time-consuming and takes lots of effort, and having a nice, durable backpack that you can use whenever for whatever reason (like holding your books) is much more efficient.

Thanks to backpacks, you also don’t have to carry your books, notebooks, and pens for your next class clustered in your hands. This is uncomfortable, can weigh you down, and accidentally ruin your belongings in some sort of way. Backpacks counteract this.

Disadvantages

The biggest disadvantage to lockers is the back pain that it causes. As already discussed, backpacks tend to be extremely heavy. If you wear your backpack over just one shoulder or carry your books in a tote bag, you may end up leaning to one side to counteract the additional weight from it. This subsequently causes pain throughout the back, shoulders, and neck. Carrying a heavy backpack can also make students more likely to fall.

Another is safety issues, including theft and getting your backpack lost. If your backpack is lost or stolen, you’re risking losing all of your valuable belongings (like laptops, money, and phones), schoolwork, books (some of which might belong to the school), and important documents/IDs, which include details that have revealing information about your identity. This can be very dangerous, since recovering so many valuable belongings, whether that be a laptop or a wallet or a book borrowed from the school library.

So, now that you know the benefits and disadvantages of both lockers and backpacks, it’s now your turn to decide which one you’d prefer to use…!

Edited by Mariam Kalandadze