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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

#61

Post by trevin »

Thinking through where I've lived -- a lot of the original school buildings built in circa 1950 were more in city center. The article touches on the move of schools to the outskirts of town as a cost savings measure but I think the opposite may be true.

As population and (perceived) facilities increased, the schools built new buildings in farmland or other wide open areas on the outskirts of town to have more room for stuff like stadiums, huge auditoriums, bigger playgrounds. The land may be cheaper but the new high schools are almost more like college campuses vs. stately buildings in the middle of town.

There's an appetite for more and we've relocated schools to make more room not save money.

Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#62

Post by vidarh »

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…

If I lived in the kind of third world hellhole where this was a realistic scenario, I'd leave the country.

Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#63

Post by me_smith »

My mom walked me to school until I was in 4th grade. She was a single mom and needed to work, so she decided to let me walk to and from school from then on. I made friends on that walk. 30+ years later, I am still friends with many of them even though we live hours away from each other.

I'm not a parent, so I don't know what I don't know; but, I've observed so many kids being shuffled between school, events, "play dates" where it is harder to build deep relationships outside of the parent's sight. Everything is being curated to "ensure" the kids are safe or on the "right" path.

I understand that we live in a different world, but I really do feel that its to the detriment of the kids.

Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#64

Post by RandomBacon »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #40
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…

> schools need to dismiss the kid to their parent Schools (EDIT: feel the) need to dismiss the kid to someone. That could be another parent, in the case of carpooling. It could be a bus driver. The root problem is parents chauffering their kids to and from school.

> Schools need to dismiss the kid to someone.

Do they? What's the citation for that law? Who are the schools dismissing the kids to when they walk home by themselves?

Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#66

Post by hombre_fatal »

sroussey wrote: post #31
hombre_fatal wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The traffic is caused by vehicles queuing up in line, period. The system you describe isn't necessary to cause the traffic. It's not the root cause.

I’m across the street from a school and there is always one parent that parks in my condo building’s driveway and blocks it. It would be too much for them to be in the line! Then sometimes, they leave their car and go in the school and we are trying to home or leave and they get angry with us!

Yeah, you can see a lot of creativity depending on what's available. Where I once lived in Houston, parents would park at a nearby strip center and huddle around the school exit. And then walk their kid across the 6-lane road (3 lanes in each direction) that Houston is obsessed with building back to where they parked their car.

Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#67

Post by Aurornis »

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.

Re: The School Car Pickup Line Is a National Embarrassment

#68

Post by colecut »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #47
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"

Every generation grows and becomes better than the last*.

/me says "ok boomer" in gen-z
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