Editorial

Walking to school

Monday, October 12, 2009

Once upon a time, walking was how most students got to school. As school districts consolidated, students lived farther and farther away from their schools. The answer was school buses.

Before World War II, each family was lucky to have one automobile. Urban children and many rural students still walked to school. After World War II, families moved to suburbs. Mothers got cars of their own and started driving their sons and daughters to school. It wasn't too long until high school students also had cars to drive to school.

Now the Center for the Partnership for a Walkable America, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Transportation, is promoting walking to school because it promotes healthy physical activity and cuts down on fuel consumption, among other benefits.

The result? A project called the walking school bus. Schools around the country, including several in Southeast Missouri, are promoting walking projects that provide supervised walks.

October is International Walk to School Month. It's a good opportunity for parents to learn more about supervised, school-sanctioned opportunities to walk safely to school. If your son or daughter's school doesn't have a walking project, you might help start one.

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This is a terrific idea! I had to walk three miles too and from school, and remember only having one obese kid in our entire school. Now, I watch speeding soccer Moms race by in their large SUV's with one portly child. They compete with the other Moms to park as close as they can to the double wide doors of the school, so they can disgorge their double wide payload as close as possible. Imagine the reduction in childhood diabetes and other diseases, and the savings in healthcare costs that could be realized by such a program. That's not to mention the pleasure of watching our children grow up healthy.

-- Posted by Wilbur Right on Mon, Oct 12, 2009, at 9:01 AM
I agree that this is a bad idea. Is this only regarding schools who have ALL of their students within a mile radius? Because this would promote violence and sadly possibly more amber alerts..... The school I went to had kids who lived 10-15 miles away, they should not have to walk that far to go to school. Carpools have been used to " help the environment"

-- Posted by LadyIndian on Wed, Oct 14, 2009, at 4:35 PM
I agree that this is a bad idea. Is this only regarding schools who have ALL of their students within a mile radius? Because this would promote violence and sadly possibly more amber alerts..... The school I went to had kids who lived 10-15 miles away, they should not have to walk that far to go to school. Carpools have been used to " help the environment"

-- Posted by LadyIndian on Wed, Oct 14, 2009, at 4:35 PM

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