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One term in high school I put a laptop bag strap on a hanging file box and used that as a bag for a semester. It made me nuts that teachers hand you stuff you need to hold on to that has no holes in it, but you're supposed to store it in a 3 ring binder. Everything you are supposed to bring with you to class is the shape of a rectangle, but a backpack is a blob that lets your stuff fall to the bottom. Best grades I ever got. Ended up hurting my back so I went back to a backpack. I got a lot of "why don't you just…" questions for a day or two and then it was chill.

This bag shape seems far superior for the purposes of carrying paper hither and thither than any other bag shape I've seen.

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Rectangular prism-based storage FTW.

I carried a briefcase for my last three years of high school (in the early 90s in rural Ohio). After the jokes subsided it became "just a thing" and, wow, was it nice. I ended up being able to get by w/o using a locker (beyond stowing my coat in the cooler months). Being able to lock it was a treat, too.

I assume it would never fly today because "security".

I was at boarding school and we didn't have lockers, so you needed everything for all your classes in your bag because the dorms were a hike (and you can't go back during the day until 10th grade).

> It made me nuts that teachers hand you stuff you need to hold on to that has no holes in it, but you're supposed to store it in a 3 ring binder.

That is why pocket folders exist.

Right? The classic Trapper Keeper!

Trapper Keepers are binders. Did they also make folders? Regardless, asked and answered yeronner: not big enough for a whole term. Things fall out if you turn your bag upside down or put the folder in upside down

They did make folders that were branded I believe. The Trapper keeper also featured pockets on the front and rear covers.

> Things fall out if you turn your bag upside down or put the folder in upside down

Rare problem from memory. The folder is usually easy to orient as it would have a pattern or picture. Same if it was in your binder. In addition, the pressure of the folder being in your binder or between books usually clamped the pages in place. There were also vertical and semi vertical pocket folders that prevented an upside down incident from spilling the folder contents.

they never have enough space for a whole term

I was super cool for a week when other students saw I had a three-hole punch that fit into a three ring binder.

This was recommended. Those things always suck. Also the paper tears with use in the binders. Not into it. Also the handouts come stapled automatically by the copier. In a hanging file I could leave them stapled.

3-ring binders, in general, were terrible. It was very common to pick up a binder and have the papers fall out because the ring mechanism was broken and didn't close correctly. I don't think any of mine ever lasted a single school year.

ugh, the WORST! The name says what they're for: publishing a single copy of a book. They aren't meant to get crushed in a backpack and opened hundreds of times, but we have yet to admit that we are failing the youth with this garbage technology. This randoseru at least seems like it would do a better job of not putting pressure on the outsides of the rings and making them stop meshing.

When my son gets to school age I'm going to work this problem with him. file folders, plastic accordions, whatever he wants to work with really. The true secret of success is typing your notes up later, but we'll deal with that when we deal with that.

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