Posted on 09/17/2025 9:18:21 AM PDT by fwdude
Our experiences walking to and from school were similar to those of most of our classmates. Their parents did not drive them to school or put them on a bus. They let them walk.
That was not unusual in America in the 1960s and early '70s. But it is today.
An article published in 2011 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine noted that 47.7% of students in kindergarten through eighth grade walked or biked to school in 1969. By 2009, that had dropped to just 12.7% of students.
A survey published in this same journal in 2019 reported that 16.5% of parents said "their youngest child walks to or from school at least once during a usual week."
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
Since the early 70's, after the federal government took control of all local public schools, the penchant was to desegregate, to "mix" different cultures together to see what happens, like a kid with a new chemistry set. As a result, grades were consolidated at single campuses, where children would be bussed across town in order to accomplish this asinine mixing.
My family lived 3 blocks from the elementary school and 2 blocks from the middle school. However, we were bussed 5 miles away to a common school for 6th Grade. It was a time waster and accomplished nothing useful.
A lot of other grades saw students bussed for desegregation purposes.
I can remember starting Kindergarten in the late 60’s. My sister, who was a year ahead of me, in 1st grade, came and got me to walk us home after school. First grade. I cannot even imagine that happening today.
At least they have shoes and don’t have to walk for miles to get to the school in freezing weather. (Yeah, my grandma was one of those. although, I think she did have some kind of shoes)
If it wasn’t uphill both ways then you dont know hard times....lol
If it wasn’t uphill both ways then you dont know hard times....lol
Barefoot in the snow.
“””At least they have shoes and don’t have to walk for miles to get to the school in freezing weather. “””
Grew up in North Dakota. Elementary school was a block away. Junior high six blocks. High school, a mile. We walked. Not too many nice days in the winter.
Some of us bought vehicles so we would drive for junior/senior year.
It’s just a lot more dangerous out there now. People are afraid to let their kids walk to the corner market.
For those of us without kids living at home, it’s almost as if kids don’t exist anymore, the yards and sidewalks aren’t filled with them, the streets aren’t filled with them riding to places, even the interesting places like the vacant lots or the little creek by the bridge are unvisited by children.
That was me! My family lived in the East Bay Area in the 60s and early 70s, and I used to go to grade school at a place called “Hilltop School.” It was well-named. On the rare occasions we took our bikes to school we would push them up the hill and then coast all the way home. You had to have good brakes!
After we moved to the South Bay all the schools I attended were within a half-mile radius of our home, so we always walked or rode our bikes. At least the terrain was flat so we could actually ride our bikes both ways.
Where I grew up, from 1963 on my family was within 1/2 mile of all schools, and of course I walked in all weather, rain shine or snow. That was the far western suburbs of Eugene, Or. A much different place and time from what it is today.
At 10 years old it was safe to take the city bus into town to see my ophthalmologist, visit the library, spend the day at the YMCA in the summertime.
Walking to and from was not just about getting exercise. There was the neighborhood “packd”. Kids of all ages being kids and the horse play that went with. It was magical
My days: 1957-1966.
I walked to school in 1954 to 1st grade and it was along RR tracks (in California). Was normal back then.
We walked to school 17/20 of a mile
We had to live one mile from the school to ride the free school bus
Another large problem is construction of enormous schools to cut costs. The high school in my neighborhood was built in the 50s and is considered small by today’s standards.
High schools in the suburbs are enormous. The one my oldest went to is the size of three of our local colleges combined.
This makes the geographic area from which they pull students very large.
Other countries don’t seem to have this problem on the scale we do, despite the fact every other country spends far less on education than do we.
Uphill both ways?
Parents started driving kids to school in our neighborhood when the local priest murdered one of my friends.
Kind of closing the barn door after the horse was three miles down the road.
I’ve heard some horror stories about busing ghetto kids into suburban schools. One person told me that decades ago when she was in high school, she and her friends felt so unsafe that they would frequently ditch school to get out of that atmosphere.
I think so many PEDO PERVERTS EVERYWHERE has something to do with this. Main reason kids can’t play outside now!!
I walked to elementary school, but our property was next to the school’s property. And we would play on the school’s playground and outdoor basketball court in the summer.
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