The schoolbag: a reflection of school life and its contradictions
From the moment it first appeared, the schoolbag took on a symbolic role that went far beyond its original practical purpose. As a factor in strategies of social distinction, it is frequently at the center of debates about student well-being, reflecting the educational challenges of the time.
Sylvain Wagnon, University of Montpellier
With each new school year comes the familiar list of supplies, including the ever-present schoolbag. This familiar item has been a part of students’ lives for over two centuries. Its shape, weight, contents, and even its design tell a story: the story of school, the relationship between parents and the educational institution, and social, cultural, and economic changes.
How does the schoolbag, as both a physical object and an educational symbol, reflect changes in schools and current challenges in education?
A historical and symbolic symbol of schooling
The primary function of a schoolbag is simple: to carry school supplies—textbooks, notebooks, pencil cases—between school and home. Yet, from its very beginnings, it has transcended this purely practical purpose. It has become a visual symbol of the student, a marker of belonging to the school community.
Its form has evolved: handcrafted from canvas or wood in the19thcentury, it became a mass-produced item in the20thcentury. In the 1960s, leather gave way to lighter, more affordable materials. By the 1980s, it became a vehicle for consumer culture with the emergence of backpacks featuring cartoon characters such as Goldorak, Barbie, and later Pokémon or Diddl.
The school backpack plays a role in strategies of socialization and social distinction (“You’ve got your own style,” as the iconic 1980s ad put it) through high-end ergonomic models or gendered designs. In many cases, choosing a backpack becomes a source of one-upmanship and conflict between children and parents.
In some countries, the school backpack is regarded as part of the cultural heritage: the Japanese randoseru, given to children when they start elementary school, is an example of a ritual object—standardized and passed down—that is often kept for a lifetime. Conversely, it can also serve as a symbol of generational distinction, personalization (patches, pins, keychains), and Instagram-worthy style.
With the technological advancements ofthe 21stcentury, it has been supplemented by electronic or digital schoolbags that are connected to the internet and incorporate a wide range of software and documents, thanks to a tablet or USB drive.
Textbooks, homework, and academic instruction
Beyond its form, the contents of a schoolbag speak volumes about the educational choices of an era. It is the tangible reflection of a pedagogy based on the transmission of knowledge, where learning flows through textbooks, workbooks, and homework assignments. As a portable embodiment of an educational model, it also serves as a bridge between parents and the school. A well-prepared, well-organized schoolbag containing all the required supplies as well as textbooks that are well-maintained and protected—particularly with book covers—is, for the school, a sign of parental involvement. https://www.youtube.com/embed/y1MKAdSZ2ts?wmode=transparent&start=0, 1965: What’s in Your Schoolbag? (Official INA).
Since themid-20th century, far from getting lighter, school backpacks have steadily grown in weight and size, with the introduction of new large-format workbooks, individualized progress reports, correspondence notebooks, and digital devices. Some students carry a tablet provided by local authorities in their backpacks.
But despite changes in teaching methods and practices—which are now more active and student-centered, emphasizing students’ independent work in the learning process—the schoolbag remains very much a part of school life. These approaches, which could have led to a reduction in the weight of schoolbags by limiting the heavy use of textbooks and homework, have not brought about any real change. The backpack remains the tangible symbol of school, of the work to be done both at school and at home.
At a deeper level, schoolbags also reveal profound inequalities. Some children have complete, ergonomic, well-stocked bags; others have worn-out, incomplete, or sometimes empty bags. These disparities reflect inequalities in access to educational resources. Policies aimed at combating educational disadvantage—such as the distribution of school supplies at the start of the school year by local governments or organizations—often use the schoolbag as an indicator of educational vulnerability.
Physical overload and cognitive fatigue
Starting in the 1990s, the issue of schoolbag weight became a public health concern. Medical warnings began to multiply: back pain, muscle fatigue, and postural problems. For more than twenty years, several ministerial circulars have recommended that the weight of a schoolbag not exceed 10% of a child’s body weight—a standard that is still rarely followed in schools today.
In response to these warnings, practical solutions have been implemented: wheeled backpacks, ergonomic backpacks, lighter class schedules, and lockers in schools. Awareness campaigns, particularly by parent-teacher associations, have been launched, but the results have been mixed. For while the physical containers have changed, the contents remain heavy: bulky textbooks, numerous workbooks, art and sports equipment, and digital devices. https://www.youtube.com/embed/N06s22L4C3g?wmode=transparent&start=0, “The Weight of Middle Schoolers’ Backpacks” (France 3 Grand Est, 2021).
The backpack thus becomes a symptom of an educational system that does not take children’s well-being seriously enough. The overload of material and the constant pressure of grades weigh, 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—one that is more attentive to individual needs and the child’s overall development—and, on the other hand, the inertia of an educational model that continues to perpetuate inequalities and impose a traditional view of learning.
The Schoolbag of the Future
The advent of digital technology is fundamentally changing the role of the schoolbag. It is no longer used solely to carry notebooks and textbooks; it now holds laptops, tablets, headphones, chargers, and other digital devices that have become indispensable.
The widespread use of digital learning environments (DLEs) in schools is transforming how homework is managed, assessments are tracked, and communication takes place between teachers, students, and families.
Some educational experiments even go so far as to envision a school without physical backpacks, where all resources would be digitized and stored in the cloud. However, this model faces several limitations: the persistent digital divide, the high cost of equipment, inequalities in access to tools, as well as cultural, symbolic, and pedagogical resistance to a fully virtual education. In reality, the physical nature of schoolwork remains dominant, and the backpack, in its traditional or hybrid forms, remains a central part of daily school life.
Nevertheless, school bags are evolving. They are becoming more eco-friendly and ethically produced. Some manufacturers now make them from recycled materials and promote models that can themselves be recycled.
The schoolbag thus remains an essential school item, a unique reflection of school and its contradictions. It invites us to reflect on what it means to learn, to pass on knowledge, to teach, and to educate. Might examining the evolution of this object not also be a way of questioning the educational model we wish to build for the future?
Sylvain Wagnon, Professor of Education, Faculty of Education, University of Montpellier
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Readthe original article.