Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

collegetowns.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

271–280 of 388 posts

Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#271

Post by scruple »

alistairSH wrote: post #158
Aurornis wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do we, though? Yes we do, and it's covered in the article. It's not kidnappers. It's distance to school. 80% of kids live too far to walk. It's not that their parents are afraid of kidnappers, it's that they literally cannot feasibly walk to and from school every day.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10917142/ And yet, even for students who live within 0.25 mile of school, a minority walk.

Because road crossing are genuinely terrifying today. The automobiles are too big and the drivers are too distracted. I have a hard time walking my kids across the street for school sometimes and that's with a crossing guard.

People are fucking nuts and are driving around in these oversized vehicles with their phones in their faces. You can very casually, very trivially observe this any time you want by simply walking down a semi-busy street and looking at the drivers as they go by.

Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#272

Post by jamesblonde »

robertlagrant wrote: post #230
aklemm wrote: post #5

Well that headline sums it up. After 10 years of dealing with it and wondering "how the f did we get to this point", it's satisfying to hear it called what it is. A small win in our family was in my son's final year of elementary school when he finally decided to try walking home 1.5 miles; that Spring was a delight for him. He was properly decompressed and had logged a minimum amount of physical activity for good sl…

My kids having been cycling a mile each way to school since they were 5 years old. It's definitely doable, although we're fortunate enough that we aren't both working long days, and are well off enough that school is that close.

A mile is not close. Disclaimer: I am european. Grew up in ireland. Lots of cars, but unless you're in the countryside or its raining, it's generally walk/cycle to school. In Stockholm now, you are 'shamed' if you drive to school to drop your kids off. "Normal" parents have cargo bikes to bring their small kids to school if it's a long distance (like 500m or more).

Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#273

Post by mingus88 »

mmooss wrote: post #165
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.

Maybe they are so different because you (and others) won't try to learn from different cultures. If not, probably nothing will change.

What exactly are you suggesting?

Japan is a monoculture and strictly traditional, not to mention very xenophobic. Everything works because the social penalties for violating those norms are severe. It’s effectively an ethnostate and not that long ago revered their god-emperor.

The U.S. is by contrast a diverse (geographically and demographically), broad culture of immigrant communities based on a concept of rugged individualism where states and townships run things as they see fit.

If you want to reshape the U.S. in the model of Japan … well

Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#274

Post by knowitnone »

ainiriand wrote: post #85
mmmlinux wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"he decided" is probably one of the issues here. back in the day it would have been "this is what your doing now kid"

That kind of upbringing worked out really well for the boomers, we are in this mess because of that. Kids should have agency and independence, but also a feeling of safety, trust, and security. You cannot force a kid to work against their own safety instinct because of your own selfish comfort.

Providing a feeling of "safety, trust, and security" contradicts "Kids should have agency and independence." The only way they have safety is if you are with them 100% of the time which means 0 independence. I'm not worried about kids because they will natuarally avoid danger. I'm more worried about adults causing harm to kids (America).

Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#275

Post by knowitnone »

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…

Certainly, at a certain age they do. I remember picking up very young cousins. But after a certain age, parents should be able to write a permission slip that allows them to walk home. Just because radio communcation is used does not do away with traffic jams. You're still driving, you're still lining up, and there are still a ton of cars which is what the article was talking about.

Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#276

Post by mingus88 »

DavidPeiffer wrote: post #160
mmooss wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone here should watch the Japanese TV series, Old Enough! . 2-4 year olds are sent out on their own to run errands, etc. Yes, really, 2-4 years old. And they succeed and are fine. https://www.ntv.co.jp/english/pc/2011/02/old-enough.html

In grad school, a friend from China explained that he stayed home on his own starting at like age 3. He was going down to the market outside his high rise apartment, buying basic groceries, and entertaining himself all day. It blew my mind, he saw nothing wrong with it.

That’s quite a tale you were told. As a parent I can tell you my children barely even remember being 3yo, let alone have the ability to reach the shelves and pour their own beverages at that age

Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#277

Post by WorldMaker »

wendyshu wrote: post #195
WorldMaker wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rural property owners in the US are somewhat likely to shoot first and ask questions about trespassers only later. In some parts of the country the Road is the only obviously public land. (Even that can't be taken for granted sometimes, as private streets exist in some areas, too.)

How many kids walking to or from school have been shot by rural landowners? What you're describing is illegal.

It varies from state to state. See "Castle Doctrine" and its variants, including the worst "Stand Your Ground" ones. The US has more pockets of dystopia than are necessarily obvious.

Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#278

Post by skybrian »

Aurornis wrote: post #88
skybrian wrote: post #58

The bar chart is pretty funny. "Over 3 miles" is the highest bucket? That's supposed to be far? I went to school in a semi-rural school district, one of the largest in the state by area. I just checked Google Maps and the high school is 13 miles away, 16 minutes by car (much of it highway), and maybe a half hour by school bus if I remember correctly. It could be a bit tedious, but it wasn't a terrible commute by any…

> The bar chart is pretty funny. "Over 3 miles" is the highest bucket? That's supposed to be far? The buckets were chosen because 3 miles is farther than you'd reasonably expect kids to be able to walk to and from school every day. They say this right under the chart. It's not helpful to do chest-thumping to compare whose farthest away from school when the entire point of the section is that 80% of people fall into t…

You’re right, I don’t get it.

Why is it expected that kids should be able to walk to school? Seems like that’s a pretty blinkered view by someone who never leaves the city? In a rural district, very few kids can do that, and that’s why there are buses for everyone else.

Also, why wouldn’t school buses work in a denser area? That’s why they have multiple school buses doing multiple routes.

All the usual arguments for mass transit should apply for school buses, too. Density should make providing bus service easier, not harder.

Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#279

Post by jerlam »

bluGill wrote: post #237
mmooss wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe they are so different because you (and others) won't try to learn from different cultures. If not, probably nothing will change.

There is much to learn from them. However there are dark sides of their culture too. They have high suicide rates, and are very xenophobic (much worse than Trump in the US) for starters. We can learn, but be careful as it isn't always clear which factors you want to emulate are tied to things you don't.

As of 2019, Japan's suicide rate is lower than the US.

Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#280

Post by [deleted] »

bluGill wrote: post #262
WorldMaker wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rural property owners in the US are somewhat likely to shoot first and ask questions about trespassers only later. In some parts of the country the Road is the only obviously public land. (Even that can't be taken for granted sometimes, as private streets exist in some areas, too.)

No they are not. That is what happens in the movies, but in reality those people are just like anyone else - mostly nice people. Even stand your ground laws which allow you to shoot without asking questions only apply in specific situations and are unlikely to apply (though without specific details I cannot say for sure)

[deleted]
Post reply on HN