Youngsters in a Pack of Trouble

“An army marches on its stomach.”--Napoleon I.

Ergo: “School kids march (to class) on their backs.”

How so? Take a look at all the young fashion minions trooping along sidewalks en route to schools throughout the Southland. These “our-hope-for-the-future” students are universally festooned and burdened with-backpacks. Big, little, designer, grunge, bright, dull . . . you name the backpack version and our kids have to wear them.

Now take a closer look: There is something definitely wrong with the picture of young backpackers-in-motion. Local legions of soccer moms and other parents really have been deluded by marketers and badgered by kids into a perpetual backpack-buying cycle. Such fashion peer pressure is exacerbated by my perception that our stylish students do not have the slightest idea how their favorite freight should be loaded. Instead, the young troops innocently lurch along with out-of-balance, low-slung packs.

Whatever the cargo may be, it definitely is not loaded according to any logical weight and balance plan. Watch a group of backpacking kids: arms dangle uselessly forward of their bodies, heads thrust painfully ahead of shuffling feet, torsos sway to and fro, and backs, shoulders and hips warp into a painful looking semblance of balance.

Observing kids misusing backpacks brings to mind an inventory of medical terms painfully familiar to adults: backache, pulled muscle, shin splint, slipped disc, arthritis, bursitis, sprain, strain, stooped posture, and so on. Although such ailments are more applicable to the adult stages of life, it does not take a medical degree to wonder why anyone would prime the pump for premature youthful disabilities.

A nontechnical given about backpacking is the importance of basic good posture for a child’s back. Military basic training emphasizes utility of purpose beginning with posture. Why not kids? The “L.L. Bean Guide to the Outdoors” suggests: “No pack or duffel bag will lighten weight or cut down on bulk--that’s up to you--but a well-selected pack will generally handle even over-enthusiastic loads with a minimum of strain to your muscles and sinews. Basically, a pack should be large enough to accommodate your gear, convenient to load and unload, durable and comfortable to wear. . . . When backpacking, balance and convenience are critical. If you expect good footing, load the pack so that the heavier items are high and close to your back.”

Yet, in all fairness to moms and dads blithely heading their teeter-tottering packers back to school as January overtakes them, the words of English philosopher Francis Bacon come to mind: “The joys of parents are secret, and so are their griefs and fears.” Why stir up a health crisis so soon after the kids were bombarded by holiday images of Santa Claus slinging an obviously too-large, overloaded, out-of-balance backpack over his ancient shoulders?

And anyway, Santa would look a LOT cooler next year if his pack was color-coordinated, celebrity-labeled, tapered, and. . . .