Today Is National Walk To School Day

[Henry]

Was talking to Don Pigeon a while back and he was telling me how happy he was around 1960 when the town decided that he lived far enough from school, so that he no longer had to walk to school from his home down on River Road.  Don's family lived on a farm on the River Road, know the place by sight, but not by number.  Prior to that time he and his siblings used to walk to school.  I guess there was a distance you had to be from the school in order to have the privilige of riding the school bus back in those days.

http://www.wcax.com/global/story.asp?s=9143513

[Mummy]

At forty-something, I can report that we walked to school and home for lunch AND back to school and home at 3 pm!  There were no options for eating lunch at school.  No options of taking the bus - it was not an option.  Looking back now it taught us much about "time management skills" and when to hassle so that you were not late for school.  My walk was longer than what it would be today if my child had to walk to school.  Thinking back, there were NO overweight kids that I knew.  Don't recall any "over active" kid in school who were suffering from NOT burning off steam.  Is it possible that we burned off our steam during our walk/run to school? 

I'm in my 40's and looking back I am wondering why do we have busing for the kids?  Why do we provide lunch at school?  Where are we headed in the future?  Dorms at the local school - then as a working parent we can email and schedule appointments with our kids for the weekends!