The schoolbag, a reflection of school history and its contradictions
From the moment it appeared, the schoolbag took on a symbolic role that went far beyond its original practical function. Playing a part in strategies of social distinction, it is regularly at the heart of debates on student welfare, reflecting the educational issues of the day.
Sylvain Wagnon, University of Montpellier
With each new school year comes the inevitable list of supplies, including the indispensable school bag. This familiar item has accompanied students for over two centuries. Its shape, weight, contents, and even its design tell a story: the story of school, of the relationship between parents and educational institutions, and of social, cultural, and economic changes.
How does the schoolbag, as a physical object and educational symbol, reflect changes in schools and current issues in education?
Historical and symbolic purpose of schooling
The primary function of a school bag is simple: to carry school supplies—textbooks, notebooks, pencil cases—between school and home. However, since its inception, it has gone beyond this logistical purpose. It has become a visual symbol of the student, a marker of belonging to the world of education.
Its form has evolved: handcrafted from canvas or wood in the19thcentury, it became an industrialized product in the20thcentury. In the 1960s, leather gave way to lighter and more accessible materials. From the 1980s onwards, it became a consumer product with the appearance of schoolbags featuring cartoon characters such as Goldorak, Barbie and later Pokémon and Diddl.
Schoolbags play a role in socialization and social distinction strategies ("Do you have your Tann's?" asks the cult advertisement from the 1980s) through high-end ergonomic models or gendered models. In many cases, choosing a schoolbag becomes a source of competition and conflict between children and parents.
In some countries, school bags are considered cultural heritage: the Japanese randoseru, given to children when they start elementary school, is an example of a ritual object that is standardized and passed down, often kept for a lifetime. Conversely, it can also be a symbol of generational distinction, personalization (patches, pins, key chains), and Instagram-worthy style.
With the technological advances ofthe 21stcentury, it has been supplemented by electronic or digital schoolbags that are connected and contain a multitude of software programs and documents, thanks to a tablet or USB drive.
Textbooks, homework, and academic instruction
Beyond its form, the contents of a school bag say a lot about the educational choices of a given era. It is the physical reflection of a teaching method based on transmission, where knowledge is passed on via textbooks, exercise books, and homework. As a mobile support for an educational model, it also acts as a link between parents and the school. A well-prepared, tidy school bag containing all the required supplies and well-maintained and protected textbooks, particularly those with book covers, is a sign of parental involvement for the school. https://www.youtube.com/embed/y1MKAdSZ2ts?wmode=transparent&start=0, 1965: What's in your school bag? (INA Officiel).
Since themid-20th century, schoolbags have continued to grow in weight and size, with the arrival of new large-format notebooks, individualized tracking booklets, correspondence notebooks, and digital media. Some students carry tablets provided by local authorities.
But despite changes in teaching methods and practices—which are now more active and student-centered, emphasizing personal work in the learning process—the schoolbag remains very much present. These approaches, which could have led to a reduction in the weight of schoolbags by limiting the intensive use of textbooks and homework, have not brought about any real change. The schoolbag remains the physical symbol of school, of the work to be done at school and at home.
In essence, schoolbags also reveal deep inequalities. Some children have complete, ergonomic bags that are well-stocked; others have worn-out, incomplete, or sometimes empty bags. These disparities reflect inequalities in access to educational resources. Policies to combat poverty—such as the distribution of school supplies at the start of the school year by local authorities or associations—often use schoolbags as an indicator of educational vulnerability.
Physical overload and cognitive fatigue
Since the 1990s, the issue of schoolbag weight has become a public health concern. Medical warnings are multiplying: back pain, muscle fatigue, postural problems. For more than twenty years, several ministerial circulars have recommended that schoolbags should not exceed 10% of a child's weight, a standard that is still rarely respected in schools today.
In response to these warnings, practical solutions have been implemented: wheeled schoolbags, ergonomic backpacks, lighter timetables, and lockers in schools. Awareness campaigns, particularly by parents' associations, have been launched, but the effects remain uneven. Because while the containers may be changing, the contents remain heavy: heavy textbooks, multiple notebooks, art and sports equipment, and digital devices. https://www.youtube.com/embed/N06s22L4C3g?wmode=transparent&start=0, "Le poids des cartables des collégiens" (The weight of middle school students' backpacks) (France 3 Grand Est, 2021).
Schoolbags thus become a symptom of an education system that does not take sufficient account of children's well-being. The overload of content and constant pressure of grades weigh heavily, both literally and figuratively, on students' shoulders.
The schoolbag thus embodies a profound tension between, on the one hand, the ideal of a school capable of adapting to the rapid changes in our society, more attentive to individual needs and the overall development of the child, and, on the other hand, the inertia of an educational model that continues to reproduce inequalities and impose a traditional view of learning.
The schoolbag of the future
The advent of digital technologies is profoundly reshaping the function of the school bag. No longer limited to carrying notebooks and textbooks, it now contains laptops, tablets, headphones, chargers, and other digital tools that have become indispensable.
The widespread use of digital work environments (ENT) in schools is transforming homework management, assessment tracking, and communication between teachers, students, and families.
Some educational experiments even go so far as to envisage a school without physical schoolbags, where all resources would be digitized and stored in the cloud. However, this model faces several limitations: persistent digital divide, high cost of equipment, unequal access to tools, as well as cultural, symbolic, and educational resistance to entirely virtual education. In reality, the physical nature of schoolwork remains dominant, and the schoolbag, in its traditional or hybrid forms, remains a central part of everyday school life.
However, school bags are evolving. They are becoming more environmentally friendly and ethical. Some manufacturers now make them from recycled materials and promote models that are themselves recyclable.
The schoolbag therefore remains an essential school item, a privileged witness to school and its contradictions. It invites us to reflect on what it means to learn, transmit, teach, and educate. Considering the evolution of this object, isn't it also a way of questioning the school model we want to build for tomorrow?
Sylvain Wagnon, Professor of Education Sciences, Faculty of Education, University of Montpellier
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Readthe original article.