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+--- Thread: Why don't kids walk home from school these days? (/showthread.php?tid=97898)
Re: Why don't kids walk home from school these days? - hal - 05-29-2010
decay wrote:This was a hot topic 10 years ago or so and of course, I can't find anything to back me up right now. But this is close: The book, Moral Panic by Philip Jenkins is available to read online at google if you like. Interesting stuff...
lots of us posted reasons why in response to your questions.
how do you KNOW there are "no more child-related crimes than there were 30 years ago"?
Despite the press hysteria, it is still the case that child sex murders are very rare. Of children under the age of 12 years old in the US, an average of 900 are murdered every year. Some 400 are murdered by a parent and are under one year old, and 54 kids (6 percent) will be killed by a stranger-- in only 3 percent of these crimes (27 cases) did 'a sex offense either [occur] simultaneously with or preceded the murder of the child'. Only five victims a year involved the murder of a child by a stranger in a sexual assault.
One such murder was that of seven year old Megan Kanka, who was raped and strangled in July 1994. Within a month her home state, New Jersey, introduced 'Megan's Law', which compelled sex offenders to register for a ten year period and if convicted a second time to serve mandatory life imprisonment. Two years later and some 35 states had introduced this legislation. It has achieved nothing in dealing with child sex abuse, only feeding the misconception of 'stranger danger'. This has resulted in the witch hunting of sex offenders and creating a climate of fear and loathing.
Such witch hunting also occurred earlier this century. In 1915 media coverage was 'intense' after the murders of two children in New York City. Mobs took to the streets 'looking for suspicious characters'. The New York Times campaigned for 'the state to provide adequate places of custody for the feeble minded where they may have the treatment by skilled physicians.' The introduction of such laws for 'sexual deviants' led to between 700 and 800 people being examined by the early 1930s. Again, in 1937, New York City became the scene of mob rule after sex murders of children (with one sheriff recommending that child attackers should be shot on the spot instead of arrested).
Yet who are sex offenders? In the 1990s in New Jersey a 12 year old boy admitted sexually fondling his 8 year old brother in the bath. He received three years' probation and was then required to register on a sex offenders' list for the next 15 years!
Re: Why don't kids walk home from school these days? - Monster - 05-29-2010
without reading what everyone else said, I'll give my answer briefly, perverts and weirdos.
while I live in a nice little idyllic North Jersey town, we still have, on occasion, reports of vans or cars following children, and/or pulling up beside them and trying to get them to come closer, or get in the car to direct them to their destination, etc.
On occasion we have high speed chases on our nice quite roads, sometimes even with gunshots, and sometimes the scum even get the kids they target.
Re: Why don't kids walk home from school these days? - $tevie - 05-29-2010
All the personal anecdotes are interesting and all, but none of them address the question as to why the kids in Hal's neighborhood no longer walk to school.
The elephant in the room is the fact that both parents usually have jobs nowadays, and there is no parent to accompany the children on their walk to and from school, and no parents standing on steps watching the kids go by nor in the houses should a child need help.
I walked to school and so did every other child in the immediate area. There were no desolate streets because they were populated by children, parents and crossing guards. It was a nicer time to be a kid if you ask me. How to reconcile this with feminism and materialism and all the other isms is rather tricky, however.
Re: Why don't kids walk home from school these days? - Ombligo - 05-29-2010
I walked my son to school in 2-5 grade, but caught grief from the school several times, especially in second and fifth grades.
In second they were almost insistent that he start riding the bus because we crossed a street without a crossing guard. I politely informed them that my son was learning how to cross the street safely.
In fifth I let him start going by himself and that got the school in a wad as well. the route was off roadway, mostly across the hospital's parking lot. The complained that he should have adult supervision, blah, blah, blah..
The kicker is in middle school they were fine with him having to walk 3/4 of a mile to the bus stop on an unlighted, no sidewalk road with speeding cars at 6:30AM (then the bus would drive by our house). I ended up driving to the stop ever morning, he got home on foot though.
Not like when I was in school, I walked ten miles each way and it was uphill, both ways - in the snow!
Re: Why don't kids walk home from school these days? - N-OS X-tasy! - 05-29-2010
Jeez, by second grade I was walking myself to and from school (~ 6 blocks). Even in kindergarten and first grade I walked myself home from the bus stop (about three blocks from my house).
Re: Why don't kids walk home from school these days? - Lux Interior - 05-29-2010
Ombligo wrote:
Not like when I was in school, I walked ten miles each way and it was uphill, both ways - in the snow!
Man, I was wondering how long that was going to take!
Re: Why don't kids walk home from school these days? - cbelt3 - 05-29-2010
When we lived down the street from the Elementary school, my kids walked both ways. But the school was built in the middle of the subdivision development, and the school even assigned 'walking buddies' to K-3 kids who didn't have an older sibling to walk with 'em. Nice neighborhood, whole bunchalotsa kids. So the school encouraged it, and had a crossing guard on the one road crossing for the neighborhoods on the other side of the main road.
And yes, the whole 'panic' issue is primarily the fault of 24 hour news networks, and people like "Nancy Grace" who fan the flames of paranoia by making parents think that remote and random acts against one particular child will definitely happen to their child. And these 'news media' morons do this for the basest of reasons- to help sell toilet paper and viagra. There were statistically more violent acts against children when I was a kid, but you only heard about them in the local newspaper (unless it was particularly aggregious).
And yes.. from 7th grade on, I rode my bike (or cross country skiied in winter) to school 5.6 miles, with hills in both directions both ways.My kids still roll their eyes when I tell them that.
Re: Why don't kids walk home from school these days? - Mini 9 - 05-29-2010
The house next to my daughter's school has a girl that waits at end of her drive, her feet might actually be ON SCHOOL GROUNDS. But a bus picks her up, drives 20 feet, and drops her off. NO KIDDING.
Why can't kids walk? Have you seen the huge numbers of scum that occupy this country now? Again, go back and look at the great depression. Those men standing in line, with nearly full SUITS, in an orderly, decent, mature fashion. Those days are dead. That America is dead forever.
Re: Why don't kids walk home from school these days? - Doc - 05-29-2010
AlphaDog wrote:
[quote=Kiva]
there is actually some really interesting research being done by a lady at Stanford (forget the name) about how kids are less resourceful, have worse problem-solving skills, social relations, etc. then they used to. She attributes it to the fact that adults put kids in bubbles and that nearly all their interactions are adult driven.
kiva
I sure wish I was working on that project! I have the same gut feeling but, of course, nothing to substantiate it. Or refute it, for that matter.
Apparently, we're also destroying kids' ability to empathize.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-05/uom-ecs052610.php
Just great.
In case we haven't done enough damage, ourselves, the second half of the 21st century is going to be dominated by sociopaths.
Re: Why don't kids walk home from school these days? - Robert M - 05-29-2010
Hal,
It's a different world. I grew up in a nice upper middle class area on Long Island. When I was the age you presented in your original post, I'd take the bus to school, my mom would drop me off, I'd walk or I'd ride a bike, depending on the time, circumstances and weather. I was close enough for all of these options. If weather permitted, I'd usually walk or ride a bike home.
No more.
Here are four reasons:
1. Scheduling and after school activities including hanging with friends. These days, many of the activities I used to do after school as a kid are far enough away that a car is required to get to them. Sports individual and/or team)? Depends on the sport and who offers it. Hanging with friends? Requires a car, bike or walking, depending on friend. Want to hang out in town? Bike or car. Walking is viable but it can be a hike and, depending on the way, along streets that don't necessarily have a sidewalk.
2. Traffic and dangerous drivers. This is a _major_ issue and it's become far worse over the years, especially with the advent of cellular phones. I don't trust drivers to follow traffic laws and be aware of what's happening around them. Jabbering on cell phones. Not stopping for a right turn on red. Ignoring traffic devices including stop and yield signs. You name it.
3. Street design. The majority of the local roads in my area do not have sidewalks. That means pedestrians are more exposed to cars. Taking into consideration dangerous drivers, it more riskier than ever to walk on roads that don't have sidewalks.
4. Backpacks. When I was in school, backpacks tended to be heavy because of the sheer number of "stuff" I needed to take to school each day. I taught middle school and high school English and based on my observations it's just as bad now as it was back then. I wouldn't want my child walking home with that amount of weight on hi/her back unnecessarily. A notebook or two, a textbook or two and some stuff, not an issue. Kids have much more than that in their packs.
Robert