I did, but I grew up in a town of 13,000 people with the school less than half a mile away. Most places in the US are too car centric and the schools too far away for kids to walk.
I live in a town about that size, and I’d estimate that over half of students get to/from school via their parents driving them. Which is insane because the way the buses are setup, your kids will just be picked up/dropped off from whatever the nearest school to your home is, so the parents spending multiple hours each day going to multiple schools to drop off then multiple schools to pick up could entirely avoid it
It’s seriously the only real rush hour in my town is when school starts/ends
About the only edgecase I’ve seen with busing in my town is if you have multiple kids in school and one is special needs, because the special needs bus exclusively goes door to door and they don’t let siblings ride with them unless the sibling is also special needs, so parents have to be in 2 places at once for both kids to take the bus
…because young kids are insane and constantly make poor choices when left to their own devices.
I don’t think kids should walk to school independently until they’re at least about 9 or 10. Before that point their decision making skills are simply not developed enough and their understanding of risk is basically non-existent. Is it probably fine at a younger age? Yeah, but it’s not a risk worth taking, especially given how society at large generally considers all kids to require 24/7 parental monitoring even at ages where they should gain some independence
I did, but I grew up in a town of 13,000 people with the school less than half a mile away. Most places in the US are too car centric and the schools too far away for kids to walk.
I live in a town about that size, and I’d estimate that over half of students get to/from school via their parents driving them. Which is insane because the way the buses are setup, your kids will just be picked up/dropped off from whatever the nearest school to your home is, so the parents spending multiple hours each day going to multiple schools to drop off then multiple schools to pick up could entirely avoid it
It’s seriously the only real rush hour in my town is when school starts/ends
About the only edgecase I’ve seen with busing in my town is if you have multiple kids in school and one is special needs, because the special needs bus exclusively goes door to door and they don’t let siblings ride with them unless the sibling is also special needs, so parents have to be in 2 places at once for both kids to take the bus
…Why does the non-special-needs child need a parent to wait with them? Are they prone to wandering into the street or something?
…because young kids are insane and constantly make poor choices when left to their own devices.
I don’t think kids should walk to school independently until they’re at least about 9 or 10. Before that point their decision making skills are simply not developed enough and their understanding of risk is basically non-existent. Is it probably fine at a younger age? Yeah, but it’s not a risk worth taking, especially given how society at large generally considers all kids to require 24/7 parental monitoring even at ages where they should gain some independence