Back to School Tips

[57]

I haven't seen a thread on this, so I thought I'd start one. The first "tip" came on Monday with an excellent article about not driving your kids to school.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...ry/lifeFamily/

Not only will it ease the traffic, lower pollution and save you money, but it will give your kids more independence and less likely to make them obese. If you walk to work or to transit, or cycle, the same holds true.

Hoping to beat the back-to-school traffic jams? Tell kids to hoof it

It's time to brace yourself for back-to-school traffic, which turns the morning rush hour around almost every school in the city into a congested jumble of SUVs and minivans, four-way-flashers blinking as kids in backpacks hop out.

When did it become compulsory to drive your kid to school? Why, even in a dense downtown neighbourhood where the schools draw students mostly from nearby streets, do so many end up getting the chauffeur treatment from Mom or Dad?

One creative vice-principal, exasperated by the traffic jams blocking buses in front of an east-end school, even started handing out fake parking tickets to rebuke illegally parked parents. In other cases, the chaos has prompted the school to call in the real police to help come up with a traffic-management plan or to simply run a blitz with real tickets.

Clearly, if we are serious about reducing the number of trips we take by car in this city, then the school run has to be a target.

According to one estimate, up to 25 per cent of rush-hour car trips involve taking students to and from school. A 1998 study pegged the number of Canadian children who make it to school on their own power, walking or cycling, at just 36 per cent.

Leave aside those who send their kids out of district to special programs or French immersion, and of course those who live far enough away to warrant a school bus. Many of these car trips to school must involve transporting a child less than one kilometre - an easy 10-minute walk for most.

Sheila Dove, the transportation safety officer for both Toronto's public and separate school boards, said the problem at some schools with parents and their cars has clearly gotten worse with many parents insisting on blocking bus-loading zones.

"There's a sense of entitlement, that 'I'm late for work, and I can park here, okay? This is my child,' " Ms. Dove said in an interview. Sometimes, parents zipping in to drop off a child have cut off school vans or even blocked a ramp used to help disabled students off a bus, she said, and then have refused to move: "It's just not right. It's obscene. You know what? You're not even supposed to be here, why is your car here?"

There are many reasons behind the driving-your-kids-to-school explosion, among them a long-time trend toward overprotectiveness, and the hectic lives of parents who make the school run the first leg of their commute to work.

Cathy Dandy, the trustee for Ward 15 with the Toronto District School Board, says schools need to go beyond timid gestures such as promoting walk-to-school weeks to combat the problem. Instead, she thinks schools should indoctrinate students with the environmental and other benefits of walking to school, so they go to work on their parents: "If you can get that kind of healthy buy-in, I think your children are more prone to shame you into good behaviour."

Some schools promote a concept called a "walking bus," where parents share the duties of walking a group of kids to school in a procession, which brings walking back into the picture but still allows for a higher level of supervision.

But Ms. Dandy - who, ahem, does drive her youngest child to school on the way to work to avoid forcing her to cross a busy street - thinks schools with traffic problems, especially ones that are increasingly irritating those who live nearby, may also have to clamp down hard. Some, for example, force parents to drop off their kids somewhere other than the front door, and enforce those rules mercilessly.

There are other reasons to hoof it. Can it be coincidence that the childhood obesity epidemic seems to have ballooned as the number of children walking to school has sunk? Why not leave the car behind this week as school begins, if you can, and show your kids what it's like to walk, just like the old days.

(Most of my elementary and high school years involved a 20 minute brisk walk each way. University was also a 20 minute brisk walk each way, year round.)

[jvincent]

You should see the traffic near my place.

The major street that ours intersects leads to two public elementary and three private (elementary and highschool) schools. The traffic in the morning around drop-off time is ridiculous.

It's almost exactly 1km from our house to their school and they walk it unless there's a wind-chill advisory. It's uphill too, BTW.

The number of kids who get driven that live closer is crazy. I can't remember what the bus radius is but realistically anything under 2KM is a piece of cake. It's 10 minutes from our place at dawdling-kid speed and a 20 min walk isn't a hardship.

[hugh]

When I was growing up, my public and middle schools were nearby.

Today, in my part of Toronto, many public schools have closed leaving it a lengthy walk to school across busy streets without crossing guards or even many kids to walk with.

Frankly I would not allow a 5 to 10 year old to walk that distance. For high school and university students - definitely.

I couldn't read the articles because it was a subscriber only but I would suggest the writer likely doesn't have small children in Toronto

[hockeymancw]

On the topic of walking, it was 3 blocks to elementary, 4 to Jr High and a 45 minute walk to High School.

As far as tips, for anyone starting university, the best money saving tip I can have is to not buy your books before classes start. Chances are you will only rely on one of the required books. Go buy that one when you require it, and if you need another book for an assignment, go get it from the library. Also, go to the student union and look for used out of edition books. You can pick them up dirt cheap and 99% of the material is the same as the newer edition. For 5 business courses, I could get all the books for under 100 bucks a semester this way.

[57]

Since it wasn't too long, I've copied the entire article into post 1 - I forgot that as a subscriber I could see it while others could not.

[haystack]

Soon as they close the halfway house for sex offenders I will let my daughter walk to school. In whats suppose to be a good area of Toronto (baby point) I've gotten letters from school on 3 occasions warning of attempted abductions. She goes into grade 7 today so for me it became compulsory about 8 years ago.
Another person with no kids to tell us how to live our life.

Thanks for the whole story I had the misfortune to speak with Ms. Sheila Dove last year regarding a school safety matter and it all makes sense now.
My advice to them is go ahead " bring it on."

[57]

The writer did say that there would be extenuating circumstances for some people/children. The people he is talking to are the ones without extenuating circumstances and who can't do a "walking bus" for example.

I have another tip though - pack your kids a healthy lunch/snack...

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/0...n_school_meals