don’t panic

I haven’t written anything in a while. I found that most of the things I wanted to write about were just so depressing that I couldn’t do it. What’s the point?

Okay… I’m over that now.

The Union-Tribune on-line had this article today about how kids are actually not allowed to bike to school in a number of San Diego County schools for fear of traffic accidents and abductions.

But it’s the unsaid undercurrents in this article that really struck me. If riding your bike (which is categorically faster than walking) puts your child at risk of being abducted, then how is walking going to be an safer? When I was in elementary school, I walked about two miles to school and back through an urban neighborhood about three times a week. During that walk, we never even considered that we were in danger of someone dragging us into their car or luring us into the canyon; it just never even came to mind. Were we safer then? It would seem so. But I don’t see this as a local change. This problem is sociological at a national level.

And interestingly, another of the reasons that kids don’t ride bikes anymore is because they need to lug 40 lbs of books around with them each day. I’ve seen those wheeled “backpacks” that kids tow around these days. What the hell is the board of education thinking?? Has the publication industry so duped the leaders of education in our country into thinking that our children really must have a 450 page hardback tome on geometry in order to learn the same things we learned as kids from a 50 page paperback? Are they really that stupid?! It angers me to see these new textbooks that sport incredible six-color printing technology and embossing on the covers, when we are cutting art classes out of the curriculum because “there just isn’t enough money in the budget.” Of course there isn’t, but this is nothing new. Schools are always shortchanged and under-funded. But who’s pushing the printing industry for cheaper, lighter textbooks? Uh… no one. And why? Because cheaper, lighter textbooks don’t make money for the publishers who put them out.

The article did mention how we are culturally changing our road structure such that we have less and less sidewalks and bike lanes, thus making it harder and more dangerous for our kids to get to school should they actually be allowed to ride their bike. And since more kids are being driven to school in their cars… excuse me… SUV’s, there is much greater congestion around the schools such that we are literally sending them into a death-trap each and every day. “Drop-off moms” are the most despicable drivers in existence. It would do the county a great service (and be a LOT more profitable to them) if instead of laying pointless speed traps on our freeways, the police would stake out schools and fine the hell out of the drivers that break sixty different traffic laws every morning as they dump their kids out the car and race off to get to work on time. I avoid schools like the plague in the morning and afternoon. Those places harbor the rudest, most self-centered drivers anywhere by a long shot. These same people complain that our schools aren’t safe enough while they flash by at sixty miles an hour (ignoring the crossing guard) because they have a big meeting that morning.

Oh, and did I mention that they cut funding (again) on bus transportation?