Did you walk to school? (Some startling data.)

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https://letgrow.org/shocking-stat-day-8 ... eneration/

Interesting.
I walked to two of the schools I went to, but rode the bus to all the other ones. Distance the main reason.

I lived an hour away from my elementary school, immagine how late I'd be if I walked. I'd be all grody and sweaty and ... just no.

Plus, there are some creepers that can snatch kids up as they go and do who knows what to them! It's really horrible!

I walked to school up to grade 6, and then took the bus.

The lack of walking is a symptom of helicopter parenting which is a symptom of fear being all out of proportion in America.

It is not only social skills that suffer but physical and mental health.

The lack of walking leaves you vulnerable to the obvious diseases such as heart disease and stroke but it also lowers your resistance to germs and viruses. As kids in the Free Range parenting era, we got dirty as hell

The kids pick up on their parents fears leading to mental illness which also can lead to physical illness.

I never walked to school once. I wouldn't have been able to get up early enough to walk 20 miles to school, attend school, and then 20 miles home again before dark.

On the other hand, I would sometimes get off at a previous stop and walk or run the mile home from there. In many cases, I could get home (3/4 mile across the field) before the bus would have got me home.

To be more explicit. there was a stop at one house on the highway. The driver could then have three choices. He could turn north and take me home half a mile north and half a mile east, he could go straight ahead and take several kids home that lived a mile west, or he could turn south and take some kids home that lived half a mile south. My house was usually the last because from there the driver turned north and went home so he didn't have to retrace half a mile back to the highway. So by the time he went to the other two houses, dropped off the kids, and got turned around, I could already be home.

When my father was a kid, he lived about two miles to the northeast of the house and the one room schoolhouse was in a pasture about a mile and a half to the south of the house. The first day of school, my grandfather saddled up two horses and rode with him to school. He then waited around until school was over and rode home with him. From then on, my father rode the horse the four or five miles each way to school and back by himself.

In my town (the one where my office is located), kids are allowed to run around pretty much as they wish. You'll see 9 or 10 year old kids who leave the house after lunch and don't return until supper. It's also not unusual to see kids as young as 9 or 10 taking their younger brothers and sisters to the park to play.

My nephew's daughter used to go to the park by herself to play when she was about 6 or 7.

In spite of this, kids don't walk to school as much as they used to.

One thing you see when the weather is decent is junior high and high school kids walk to Main Street and back for lunch. That's about half a mile each way.

My elementary skewl was close but it had bus service & there's no sidewalks at all between my parents & there.The road my parents live on is also a major highway between two close cities thou I think one was a town back then. My other skewls were not close so I have never walked to skewl.

Last edited by nick007 on 05 Dec 2017, 2:22 am, edited 1 time in total.

preschool to grade 6, i took the bus with my mom. the schools were a couple miles away.

grades 7 and 8, i walked. the school was LITERALLY across the street.


grades 9-12, i walked and later, when i got a bike, biked. the school was about 4 blocks away.

college (present), either bike, bus, or driving depending on the time, schedule, weather and how late i am. the school is about 2.3 miles away.

Not surprised, in all honesty.

I've always either walked or ridden a bicycle to school, with the exception of grades 1-3 and half of the 4th one until my family moved out of Helsinki, as well as university. Those schools were far enough that I had to take a bus. Unless I felt exceptionally athletic, which I never did.

Your town resembles an era I thought was long gone. That is how we grew up. We went out in the cold and especially if it snowed. For gym class we went out in our gym shorts every day it was not raining and the tempreture was 32F or above.

I think some of the reason kids don't walk to skewl is because towns & cities have gotten alot bigger. Skewls are further away & some of the kids who live close don't walk is because of really bad traffic on the roads & no sidewalks so it's it could be unsafe(at least in Louisiana cuz there's big ditches rite on side the road in some areas like where I live).

I used to, but my social anxiety has lead me into doing online courses for college. Now I don't leave the house unless it's to get groceries and stuff. The days of going to a physical school are over! And never will I want to do that again...

Interview with Lenore Skenazy


Bill Maher had a comedic but pointed take