That is sad.
First grade was the best, we were finally old enough to ride our bikes to school, 3 miles away. Unsupervised.
I’ll bet there are a lot of 6th gradeers not allowed to do that, even under a mile.
I’m almost 50, if that’s any reference point.
We walked to the neighborhood school K-3rd grade. Then we went to a different school, 4,5,6 and rode a bus. Then we moved and a different school, was 1.25 miles each way, which I could do each direction in 12 minutes, every day in 7th and 8th grade. High school was just a few blocks, but we always walked. My kids (now 27 and 31) also mostly walked to school all of their K-12 years.
We also walked all over the neighborhoods, rode our bikes 5 miles to track practice (then home afterward) every afternoon in the summer.
These days, due to whatever set of reasons, kids are not being this active.
I picked skinny parents.
Next time I’ll try rich ones.