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The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

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Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#201

Post by knowaveragejoe »

Aurornis wrote: post #67
lvl155 wrote: post #43

Counter point: I used to walk home from school. Got robbed at gun point several times. Jumped for my skin color numerous times. Had a neighborhood buddy who got stabbed three times on his way home and survived. I can go on and on and on. I had to learn to walk an extra 20-30 minutes to avoid these situations. I will never let my kids walk home in 2025. Edit: no one told these parents to drive up for pick up like a dr…

I'm sorry for your experience, but this is extremely location dependent. Walking home from school in many areas is perfectly safe. In other areas it's not. Making blanket statements or restrictions without context doesn't make sense.

I live in a US suburb where a good chunk of elementary school and upwards walk home. This suburb is >60 years old. It's all about planning.

Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#202

Post by gizajob »

adrian_b wrote: post #109
gizajob wrote: post #2

I looked at the author’s Google map view of the 2 miles they couldn’t walk to school, and the enormous grassed area next to the road would have meant I’d be walking that quite happily in the UK.

During nice weather, surely, but it might be very unpleasant when raining. When I hear these stories about how children in USA go to school, I am always astonished. In Europe, my parents took me to the school one single time, for the first school day, when I was 6 years old. Everyday after that I have gone there and come back alone, for a walk of about one mile and a half. Several years later, I continued my studies…

“Nice weather” /= UK

Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#203

Post by bryanlarsen »

brodouevencode wrote: post #115
Aurornis wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's an entire section and even a chart in the article that explains why this is different now In 1969 only about 30% of kids lived too far away from school for walking to be a realistic option. In 2009 (and today) that numbers is around 80%. Walking to and from school is great if you can do it. Most people cannot do it.

Seriously - I'd love to have my kids walk but we are 22 miles away (in a rural area).

When I grew up in a rural area I walked 1/3 mile to meet the school bus. Is that not still the typical experience?

Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#204

Post by analog31 »

Y_Y wrote: post #21
giarc wrote: post #4

I think this article misses the one big problem (as I understand it). It's that schools need to dismiss the kid to their parent. I have family in North Carolina and I understand that cars have the family number displayed, and someone with a radio communicates to the school staff "Car 315 is here", they then find that kid and dismiss them. Just do away with that. When the bell rings, send the kids outside and they wil…

Would be much more efficient to assign numbers to the child abductors instead, assuming that they are less numerous than the legitimate families.

Just give the abductors an NFT that represents the child.

Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#205

Post by lvl155 »

Aurornis wrote: post #154
lvl155 wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kids go missing roughly every minute in this country. I am not risking anything to feel good about implied negligence.

About 95% of children reported missing to the FBI were found to have run away. Child abduction by strangers is extremely rare: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-wisconsin-missinggirl-dat...

You keep referring that article but you can feel free to look up official stats.

Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#206

Post by gizajob »

ghaff wrote: post #194
aleph_minus_one wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yeah, this is much better than the numerous suburbs without sidewalks (such a weird thing from a European perspective) As children in such a situation, we would have a lot of fun as pedestrians to be a nuisance to the cars that drive on the road, too. :-) Having this perspective, I rather think that the reason why sidewalks are built is because of the complaints of car drivers.

As someone who has done a bunch of long distance walks in the UK, I’ve encountered any number of relatively rural or small town roads with no shoulders along walls or hedgerows that are at least as scary as a pedestrian as anything I’ve encountered in the US.

And yet you’re still with us. Jumping onto the wall or into a hedge is part of the fun.

Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#207

Post by aerostable_slug »

mitthrowaway2 wrote: post #184
bink wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really dislike it when Japan is brought up as a comparison with the US, especially when it comes to crime or schooling. The cultures, poverty levels, and crime rates are so vastly different that it's never helpful.

It is if you consider cultures, poverty levels, and crime rates to not be immutable geographic traits, but a result of policy choices. The US can't take a giant leap to kids having Tokyo-like freedom, but it can look at what Japan does differently that results in such a society (eg. its public education system, public transit, policing, street design, typical vehicle size, etc).

You cannot legislate positive cultural attributes into being. There's no way to fine people into reading to their kids, picking up trash when they see it, deciding to put the grocery cart back, prioritizing academic achievement, etc.

Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#208

Post by alwa »

fatnoah wrote: post #107
alwa wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Normally I’d ding a comment like this as low-effort, but… I honestly can’t think of any more appropriate reaction. I know I’m behind the times, but I was surprised recently when, at an elementary school in the US, they showed me painted lines on the floor of the classroom, indicating the zones out of the line of fire for somebody shooting through the small, jail-like window in the door… apparently they train the babi…

> I know I’m behind the times, but I was surprised recently when, at an elementary school in the US, they showed me painted lines on the floor of the classroom, indicating the zones out of the line of fire for somebody shooting through the small, jail-like window in the door It all seems overdone and ridiculous, but when you get a phone call from your child as they sprint from the school building to the safety of the…

Uff. I can't even imagine. I'm so sorry for you and your kids alike. And I guess it's not the precautionary floor lines that strike me, it's that this style of violence really is so pervasive—and we've concluded that it's such an inevitable part of childhood now—that the reasonable thing to do is to reify it in the physical architecture of their day-to-day lives. And in training young minds to imagine themselves unarmed in a situation of combat...

Of course we don't get to just choose innocence and be surprised by a style of evil behavior over and over again. But I wonder also sometimes if, just as suicides can inspire people who hear about them, large-scale and permanent institutional response to kids-shooting-classmates gives form and legitimacy to that avenue of acting-out, when disaffected kids think about acting out.

Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#209

Post by lamename »

qball wrote: post #197
rdtsc wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That wouldn't work in US until the whole culture changes. An individual family may do this, and then someone will call child protective services because there is a lost, unaccompanied child. Happened to my coworker: kids were playing outside and a neighbor called the authorities on them. Not clear if they really thought the kids were in danger, or just did it out of spite, but what ensued was a nightmare of CPS calli…

>That wouldn't work in US until the whole culture changes. This is one of those things laws are great at. Delete the power of idiot Karens and the culture will return to normal. It works for Utah (and to a point, Texas); it can work for your polity, too. When children are at far greater risk of abuse and abduction by concern trolls and the State, and they very much are in New World countries, your society is broken.

Nice. What laws are you referring to?

Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#210

Post by mmooss »

jerlam wrote: post #111
chungy wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That, and just let kids walk home. It's good for their muscles.

Many of them can't walk home from school. As the article says, most students now live too far away from school (greater than three miles), and many rural/suburban areas have underdeveloped sidewalks and traffic systems. If three miles sounds like not a big deal, it certainly is when you have short legs, a backpack full of books, and uncooperative weather. I was lucky enough to walk to/from school for most of my schoo…

Yes, adults walk ~2 miles/hr. 1.5 hours is too long. But there are bicycles which go ~5 times as fast. Now it's a 15-20 minute trip.
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