An
article in the New York Times about children walking to school surprised me. This article discusses how many parents won't let their kids venture just two blocks away to catch a school bus or walk to school themselves. Parents are concerned about their children getting abducted while walking alone. While, unfortunately, kidnapping is a concern, some parents are going a little extreme. Children are being individually escorted out of schools by an official to an approved car, parents wait in the car at bus stops with their children. Are these precautions absolutely necessary or are parents crushing their child's independence?
Every once in a while, we will hear a horror story on the news about something terrible happening to a child when they are only blocks away from their homes. If these kinds of abductions are preventable by parents, why shouldn't they drive their child to a location only a few minutes away? What are parents teaching their children though these safety precautions?
Hi Madelaine,
ReplyDeleteThis is a subject I love to talk about. In the past. we even did an entire unit called "Women & Children", which, among other things, focused on the rise of "helicopter parenting".
You blog design and writing is elegant. But think about how you could tweak this post to make it more relevant to American society.