Can you remember kids walking to school? I do. For the younger children, parents walked with them, sort of like a leg-pool of one parent walking a small group to the school, making sure it was clear to cross the streets and adhering to all the other walking rules. When the children got into the upper elementary grades, they got to walk by themselves because by then, they knew the way to and from school, as well as all the safety rules, OR they had received a bike from Santa and could pedal themselves to school and home.
Of course, that was back when drivers were many fewer, including moms who stayed home and daddies who drove to work. The drivers who were in the cars and on the way to work concentrated on driving: no cell phones, no on-board videos playing, no putting on make-up, reading the paper, sending a text message. Drivers were content to just drive the car to work.
Today, one of the local school districts announced that no buses will be available for high school students: walk, carpool, ride a bike, or take the city bus. The district had to make many challenging decisions to work with the funds that are available, so some levels of the multi-sports' programs have been cut ... and kids are not going to ride the (school) bus to school.
There are guidelines for the younger kids: Students in lower grades will be bussed if they live farther from schools than the following distances:
• 1 mile, grades K-3.
• 2 miles, grades 4-5.
• 2.5 miles, grades 6-8.
The person who wrote this news release evidently is not aware that one rides a bus, but the kiss given before entering the schoolyard is fondly called a buss: the students in the lower grades are going to be transported (bused), not kissed good-bye (bussed) by the district.
Parents are up in arms: MY kid is NOT going to walk when ... it's hot, it's cold ... it's too early in the morning ... there's too much traffic ... fill in the blank. On the other hand, walking is healthy and this Valley has one of the highest rates of Diabetes II in SoCal, so the exercise will benefit the children's health issues. Many of the children are also fat, one of the first differences I noted between where I used to live and living here, so walking to school may trim and tone children who are carrying too much weight on their young bodies.
One parent wants to know how the family can afford to buy a car so their child can get to and from school, an expensive solution to an affordable problem: buy them a city bus pass, buy the child a bike, car-pool with a neighbor, OR walk with them on the first day of school so they know how to get there the next day. No one "has" to buy a high school student a car!
We are a nation of lazy people and over-indulged children who need to "go green," as well as live within a budget. Bus transportation has always been free on the surface, but OUR TAXES pay for those buses and because the people refuse a tax increase to pay for all the free services available in the Great State of Caly-phone-ya, WE ARE BROKE.
Get over the personal inconvenience and retrain your child to be a responsible (junior) citizen who can get to school and back home again, one way or another.
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2 comments:
While I agree in principle with what you are saying, my only issue is the rise in child predators and child abductions. Most are grabbed on the way to or from an activity where the predator can easily see the times and routes used.
However, this is certainly not the issue that the parents are making it out to be.
PS - my verification word is "sessican".
We had a teenage girl chased down and alomost abducted about two blocks from our home a month and a half ago. A couple years ago a teen girl got kidnapped from her bus stop about a mile from our home. She was never found.
I wouldn't mind my child walking for exercise, what worries me is exposing children to the perverts out there, that makes me cringe at the idea of sending a teenage girl on a 3 mile walk to school.
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