I’ve seen this 2015 documentary of some sort from the perspective of Japanese vs Australian kids being able to commute to and from school on their own without parental supervision. The thing is that parents in Japan encourage kids to be independent from a young age without being “babied” too much while apparently in Australia it’s common for parents to drop kids at school.
Now: why is it common for American parents to either drop kids off themselves or kids using the stereotypical yellow school buses on commuting to school rather than letting the kid use public transport themselves or walk to school on foot on their own? I’ve heard that a father got arrested in the US just for letting his son walk to and from school due to accusations of “child endangerment”.
Most places in the us do not bave functional public transport. In New York, I believe, it’s not uncommon for schools to use the public transit network instead.
Most of my friends in school lived 10+ miles from school, and figure walking a 10 minute mile, crossing who knows how many dangerous roads.
So our solution is the yellow school bus. Public transport for kids to get to school and get back home on time; with only a minimal amount of walking (which is super important here because it’s cold enough in winter kids can die in minutes.)
It may not make sense, but it kinda works?
Sorry. Every time I hear ‘yellow school bus’, this plays in my head.