You know the old joke about how your parents walked to school. Up hill. Both ways. In a snowstorm. (Even in summer.) While being chased by a tiger. A really hungry tiger. (I added the part about the tiger.)
Well, with child obesity rates on the rise, maybe it's time to pull that old chestnut out of mothballs.
What prompted all this? Well, April 8 is National Start! Walking Day, sponsored by the American Heart Association. (Oh, don't pretend like you didn't already know.)
Over at SuperEco, Frank Paynter says that while many of us old folks used to walk to school, our children are catching a ride. Frank points to an article on Yahoo! Green by Jeff Yeager that says only 30 percent of today's rug rats stroll their way to the hallowed halls of learning.
Frank wonders when the move from bikes to the minivan began: "Some people cite safety concerns, but the chance that a child will be injured in a car accident are astronomically higher than that he will encounter evil doers out to sell him into child slavery on a chocolate plantation or something." He's probably right, at least statistically. But parental fear is a very real thing, whether reasonable or not. There are plenty of things I did as a young'un that I have trouble letting my kid do, like go to corner store. Part of that is where we live (New York City), but part of it is simply that societal attitudes have changed.
As for walking to school, sometimes it simply isn't realistic. For example, I lived in the Bronx and went to school in Manhattan. Taking the subway (2 of them) took about an hour. Walking was not going to happen. My son is too young to walk, and we also live a little bit too far away from his school. So it’s a good idea, and I like talking about it, but he's going to have to get his exercise some other way.
Since The American Heart Association was kind enough to set the Start! Walking Day start date in the spring, I may join in. Not my son -- he takes the bus. But I'll start walking when I go to pick him up. Frankly, I need the exercise more than he does. At least he gets recess.
So let me ask you folks -- do your children walk to school? Did you?
Image/Source: SuperEco
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