Posted on 11/28/2008 2:32:45 PM PST by naturalman1975
A TERRITORY man has been making his five-year-old son walk two-and-a-half hours to school every day, after he was kicked off the school bus.
When Jack Burt confessed that he'd been banned for five days for hitting the bus driver in the head with an apple core, dad Sam thought he should learn the hard way.
He and Jack last week were getting up at 5.10am for the dusty 13km-hike from the Darwin rural area of Herbert, all the way to Humpty Doo.
Mr Burt also took the wheels off Jack's bike so he couldn't be tempted to ride to school.
At the end of the old-fashioned punishment, Mr Burt, 38, took out a public notice in the Northern Territory News.
"Jack Burt and his dad wish to thank all the kind people who stopped to offer them lifts in the past week," the ad read.
"It's good to see a number of good people in the community."
"Jack hopes to be allowed back on the bus on Monday."
(Excerpt) Read more at ntnews.com.au ...
This is what I keep telling people. Teach your kids responsibility. Take every chance you get to teach them values instead of pampering them and excusing them of their responsibilities.
I think this is okay, since his dad was walking with him. Good exercise for all, male bonding, no obesity :-). Riding bikes together would have been fine, too.
Why, make you 'FEEL' better?
Concern for the kid's safety noted.
What better lesson could the kid learn, even if his Dad did walk with him?
Excellent dad.
back in country days, kids walked a long ways to school
without parents down dusty roads carrying lunch pails
>I’m OK with it as long as dad is willing to spend the 5 hours per day walking with the kid.
>>”Jack Burt and his dad wish to thank all the kind people who stopped to offer them lifts in the past week,” the ad read.
Looks like he did.
Let a 5-year-old (not a 15-year-old, a 5-year-old), walk 8 miles down the highway alone? No way on this earth. My 14-year-old could run it in 40 minutes, though, and then demand a brontosaurus for second-breakfast :-).
That is a Great Dad. Five years old is not too young to start figuring out the consequences of your actions, and the fact that his Dad is walking him to school is a tremendous display of a loving Parent.
I’ll bet you a buffalo nickel that young man never acts up on the bus again.
As the twig is bent, so grows the tree. Way to go, dad. You are worthy of the name.
I would be proud to call the Burt’s my neighbors.
Did the Dad walk both to and from school each day, for 2 round trips for himself?
The sad part is that this would not have even been a print worthy story just 30 years ago in this country. Now a father doing what a father is supposed to do: raise a boy to a man, is considered “special”?
Yes, parents putting themselves to a real inconvenience in order to do what’s right for their children is newsworthy. Of course, one does have to wonder what the father’s day job is ... or maybe he works a night shift. (Or maybe I should have read the article more closely :-).
Mr Burt, who owns a crash repair shop in Palmerston, has also been sacrificing his nights, working back late because his morning starts have been delayed.
Dad owns his own small business - a crash repair shop - and has been working back late at night to make up the time he’s losing in the morning.
Dusty days were not so long ago. Our local building inspector was walking dusty roads in the 1950's....to a one room school house.
15 miles away, I was going to a city school...paved streets, street lights, sidewalks, buses.....the best of everything.
Watched the city (Rochester, NY) fall into decay and the area of his one room schoolhouse turn into a wonderful town...in which I now live.
Dad owns his own small business - a crash repair shop - and has been working back late at night to make up the time he’s losing in the morning.
LOL. Haven’t you heard all the stories of your parents walking to school through the snow and bad weather?
This father cares and I for one support him. He wants his child to learn the values in life.
Uphill both ways!
2 1/2 hour walk to school at 5 years old?
Glad I don’t live in the area. I’d have done a lot more than offer that father a ride.
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