A student is seen walking home from MHS on a particularly downcast day with their backpack in tow and a sour look on their face. As the walk begins to take its toll on them, they move increasingly slowly while starting to hunch forward due to the weight. With ten minutes to go, their backpack begins to feel like lead until at last they reach their destination and can hurl their backpack haphazardly into the nearest corner.

At the beginning of the school year most if not all teachers have incredibly specific guidelines in their syllabi as to what materials are needed for their class. Generally, core classes along with some electives require you to have a 1 to 2 inch binders ready for every class period.

Depending on a student’s class load and their teachers’ preferences one could be carrying up to four binders a day, a ridiculous feat that cannot be done with a normally sized backpack. Attempting to fit binders coupled with textbooks, novels, and other supplies can be a daunting task. Even with block scheduling, there is the possibility of having too many materials for one flimsy piece of fabric to hold.

Some might argue that lockers are designed for the purpose of keeping excess material when it’s not being used. This discounts the fact that many students don’t use or know where their lockers are. While walking through the hallways in September, students can be heard bragging about the fact that they “have never even tried to find their locker.”

A student is totally at the mercy of their teachers when it comes to the supplies for each school year. Students must not question requests for supplies that will never be used and binders that will never be filled.

Schools always place a large emphasis on the type of learner each student is, whether they put students into groups such as visual and auditory, or cater to a specific student because of their habits. With this same mind set, not all students’ learning processes are aided by the presence of binders. Some may prefer to use folders, while others like interactive notebooks and some wish to have accordion style folders. Each student should be able to choose a design to fit their style of learning and study habits.