Why don't children walk to school anymore?

[Clemenza]

Cue Pedobear pic in 1..2..3..

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Nice, you from BP? I JUST bought a house here a few weeks ago .

~Anthony

I used to live in NW Mpls. You know the triangle cut off he RR tracks? Yup, I grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. I didn't get to ride the bus since I was within a one mile radius...as the crow flies. If I didn't cut across the switching yard every day, it doubled my walk.

 

[cronos]

I see the little ones getting on by themselves around here ...

Here as well.

And many other walk also.

 

[airdata]

I think the world is percieved as being more dangerous.. whether it is or not is up for debate. Before the internet you'd never hear of most crazy shit that happens to kids and what have you.

I don't think I'd let my kid walk/bike unattended to school.

 

[ProchargeMe]

Kids don't drive to school yet?

 

[Markbnj]

As a father of three in a a suburb of a major northeastern metropolitan area, I think it is due to two things: media and moms, and the feedback loop between them. Almost no children walk to school around here. Almost no children bike to school, or events, or just go out and play and run around by themselves during the day. Their lives are scheduled and they are shuttled from place to place by harried parents as necessary. The reasons are an unjustified fear of danger. As a father and husband, my success rate in arguing against these fears using statistics and logic is near zero. No, wait... it's zero.

 

[vi edit]

There's a lot of different things going on. I walked to school as a kid. But I lived in a small town of 2000 people, we usually walked in packs of 2-6 kids and almost everyone knew everyone else.

As suburbs continue to grow, small towns shrink (or consolidate) and schools get more and more spread out walking is no longer an option.

And for those that it is an option, people are recluses any more. They never talk to their neighbors, rarely have their kids talk to other kids. Everyone lives in a little bubble and is paranoid about everyone else. You just don't see packs of kids walking any more like I remember them. With all of the mobile electronics, phones, Nintendo DS's ect...social interaction with another person is a lost art. So that herd mentality of kids walking in a group for protection is dead.

 

[Possessed Freak]

They built a new HS in my town a few years back. In their wisdom they put it on the other side of tracks that goes through the South side of our town. There is some law stating that children can be bussed if they have to cross train tracks. So 1/4 of a mile away... buses. Yep.

Still see plenty of kids that walk though.

 

[diesbudt]

The movie Ransom happened. And Jaws. If you walk to school there's a good chance you'll get either kidnapped or eaten by a shark.

I lived 1/2 from my high school, and walked every day. I can say once or twice I did see a drosel fin move along the pavement. I never ran so fast.

 

[Mixolydian]

In many neighborhoods in my area, kids don't live close enough to walk to school - nearest schools are over 5 miles away.

 

[highland145]

I lived 1/2 from my high school, and walked every day. I can say once or twice I did see a drosel fin move along the pavement. I never ran so fast.

Whoa, land shark. You were lucky.

 

[nageov3t]

I've never seen this.

in every town I've ever lived in, there are kids walking to school every day.

the crossing guards in my town vex the fuck out of me because they give me the dirtiest looks for making rights on red even when legal... I actually try my best to leave my house ~15 minutes before they go on duty so I don't have to deal with them.

 

[Imp]

I was going to say paedos...

 

[radhak]

I remember back in elementary/grade school everyone either road a bike or walked to school, many walking over a mile.

Now no child walks to school, in fact I am sure if a school found out a child was walking to school alone they would complain.

What happen?

Where do you live?

My kids have walked all the time to their Elementary school (half a mile away), unless it rained and I took pity on them and dropped them by car.
There are many other kids who walk an average of a mile or more to the same school. I see them mornings and afternoon, all the days. Nobody complains, least of all the school (they even maintain a list of kids who walk, kids who take the bus and kids who are car-riders).

My older is in middle-school now - farther away, so has to take the bus; but I see some kids who walk or bicycle to her school from pretty far away, maybe 2 miles or so, cutting across traffic too.

Our area is not rural by any terms; suburban at the very least, or a regular 'city', judging by the traffic and offices.

 

[Dirigible]

Kids here walk to school.

It's dangerous though. All the tiny knives and other terrifying items discarded just outside school property to avoid the zero tolerance severe punishments mean the kids need super thick boots to wade through without being sliced to bits.

 

[KIAman]

I wouldn't let my kids walk either until they got to high school. Sounds normal. What's wrong with that?

I didn't start biking to school until I got into highschool myself.

 

[SamQuint]

I had to walk 1 mile to school when I was in the second grade. Was also a latch key kid so I walked home to an empty house each day.

Also had to take the city bus 8 miles to my High School.

If I had a kid I would not let them walk alone until they were in 5th or 6th grade.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Safety. Back in the day it was actually safe for a kid to be alone. Now there's way more murderers, rapists etc.

 

[Lazarus52980]

I just have my kids sleep at the school at night...

 

[Phoenix86]

Rape, kidnapping for rape/ransom. Drugs. Bullies. Kids themselves are a liability to others.

It's terrible, the new things we have in this century.

 

[nageov3t]

Safety. Back in the day it was actually safe for a kid to be alone. Now there's way more murderers, rapists etc.

when, in the 40's?

crime rates have been falling since the 90's... if I was safe to walk to school then, my kids would probably be fine today.

(obviously, unless you're living in like Detroit or something, in which case bar your windows and home school until the full-body kevlar gets delivered)

 

[bignateyk]

There's a trailer park near me where there are literally two bus stops less than 100 feet apart. They really can't combine the two together?

It drives me nuts having to stop behind the stupid school bus every 50 feet on my way to work.

 

[DrunkenSano]

Lots of kids are also too fat and out of shape to walk to school these days. Thanks to their terrible parents.

 

[God Mode]

Bus unions.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

Safety. Back in the day it seemed safe for a kid to be alone even though it wasn't. Now there's way more reporting of murderers, rapists etc.

FTFY.