Quote:
Originally Posted by begratto
Here in Montreal pretty much all kids walk to their elementary school. I have three kids and they started walking to school by themselves starting in grade 1, as did the vast majority of their friends.
We live in an urban neighbourhood where streets look like this : within 1km from my house there are 5 elementary schools. As Acajack described earlier (he also lives in Quebec, albeit in a different city), there are crossing guards all over the neighbourhood at any place where kids could cross a street. Few people worry about how safe it is. It just is very safe, really.
There are very few yellow school buses in the inner city, they are only for kids who live more than 1.6km (one mile) away from their school.
In Secondary school (equivalent to grade 7 to grade 11 in the US and the English-speaking parts Canada), kids use public transit. The métro trains and buses are full of secondary school students at rush hour. My own kids became regular transit users at 12, to go to school, go visit their friends, to the movies, etc. Few parents give rides to their teenagers to their school. The vast majority walks or take transit. And students driving themselves to school is unheard of.
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My own experience...
Living in the Miracle Mile District of LA in the mid-1970s, my sister and I walked to school, which was only a few blocks away, and we walked with our friends who were also brother and sister and lived 4 or 5 houses up the street. Sis and I would walk to their house, and sometimes they'd still be eating breakfast, and then we'd all walk to school together. This was 1st grade for me. For kindergarten, my mom walked me to and from school---I had a different schedule than my sister when I was in kindergarten. I had to think about it, hehe it's all coming back to me now.
Then when my family moved to the burbs, my sister and I took the school bus to and from school. In 4th and 5th grade, I witnessed some bullying on the bus, as well as some fights breaking out on the bus. Some of those bullies were just big assholes.
In 7th grade, I went to a Catholic school in the neighboring suburb, and I took public transit/the bus to and from school (with the occasional ride from mom to school when I woke up late).
In 8th grade, I went back to public school, and took the school bus to/from school---again, with the occasional ride from mom to school because I woke up late and/or had to finish an assignment at the last minute (I was such a procrastinator).
My sister is 2 years older than me, so when I started 9th grade, she already had her drivers license so I rode with her to school. By the time I started 11th grade, I had my own drivers license so I drove to school for my junior and senior year.