Not to sound like a codger, but I would walk a mile and a half to and from kindergarten

[Recursion]

This was the early 1980s, when the violent crime rate was about double what it is today.

But, today, parents are investigated for neglect when their kids walk less than a mile to a park. I really hope the pendulum swings back in the other direction soon.

This makes me wonder: do schools even have crossing guards in front of them anymore? I know the elementary across the street from me in DC did, but the kids there all lived in a two-block radius.

[bravenak]

1. Me too.

1986, me and my sister walked through Marvin gangster hood every morning to get to school. Alone. She was 7, though. I saw shootings, fights, winos, crackheads, pedophiles, masturbators, public sex, everything you can think of. I think that's why we arrest parents for that now. I can't imagine sending my kids anywhere alone. I saw too much too soon. Made me sort of the opposite now. The 80's were crazy.

[Hekate]

3. Bravenak -- yikes, yikes, yikes

[bravenak]

4. Just saying...

Bad shit happened. I was glad to get supervision. Loved it. Best thing that ever happened to me. Saved!

[Hekate]

2. In my California town, we definitely have crossing guards by the elementary and jr. high schools.

The streets are very busy with cars, so there are also school zone signs and sometimes flashing yellow lights as well.

As for the rest of your post, I really don't understand that amount of helicoptering unless you live in a high-crime zone.

[Agnosticsherbet]

5. I walked four blocks to school, and then stood across the street

and waited because we were not allowed on the school grounds until the bell rang. This 50's and early 60's.

After school we walked home.

The deep belief that we are constantly in danger from crime has been created by the media with enormous success.

In San Diego the do not have crossing guards at any elementary school. Putty children out in the street to help other kids cross would be considered irresponsible and child endangerment.

[Hekate]

7. Crossing guards are supposed to be adults, not children. I've never seen a kid in that role. nt

[Agnosticsherbet]

9. Grew up in Oklahoma, and all crossing guards were children.

In elementary school, 4th graders and above could be crossing guards.

This was in the late 50's and early 60's, so my info may be dated.

[Hekate]

11. Smaller population, slower pace of life. Maybe that's why.

[Agnosticsherbet]

13. Blackwell, Oklahoma. Town of ten housand people.

[Art_from_Ark]

16. I remember seeing a Peanuts comic strip where Charlie Brown was a crossing guard

and he was enjoying his authority over the other kids, until Lucy came along and said "Fuzz" under her breath.

[Hekate]

31. LOL

[KamaAina]

71. In Cockeysville, Md., we called them "safeties".

I should have known that volunteering to be one permanently marked me as a dork.

[Journeyman]

10. I was a crossing guard in the 4th grade. A residential street divided the grammar school. . .

with Kindergarten through 3rd on one side, 4th to 6th on the other. 4th grade students pulled crossing guard duty after school for that street only.

(Edit: This was in the '60s in Southern California.)

[Brother Buzz]

12. I was a crossing guard when I was in fifth and sixth grade...

with a Sam Brown belt, badge, and yellow cap, and everything donated by the Auto club.

[Hekate]

32. LOL. Okay I give up. My memory must be failing! I remember JPOs on patrol...

Maybe the Junior Police Officers handled crossing guard duties as well. I think you guys are right and I just conflated current practice in my current town with practices in one of my two childhood towns.

[Brother Buzz]

63. We were School Saftey Patrol, not JPO's (whatever the Hell that was)

And the only thing we policed was litter, a task our principal added to our duties. Today, I occasionally jaywalk, but I still pick up litter.

[Hekate]

66. Junior Police Officer, as stated in the first line of the text

Can't remember all their duties after more than 50 years, but stopping pushing and shoving in the lunch line had to be right up there.

[Brother Buzz]

68. Mrs. Krowl, fifth grade teacher, did all our policing

I believe her self imposed authority even trumped our principal's. She ran a tight ship in and out of the classroom, and it was common knowledge spitting on the playground was a capitol offense.

I may jaywalk and I do pick up litter, but I DO NOT SPIT.

[F4lconF16]

73. Eh, I don't know if it's your memory.

All the crossing guards I've seen, both where I grew up and now, are adults. Most of the posts talking about young children being guards are referencing the 50s-60s, so maybe times have changed?

[MicaelS]

34. Yes, me too.

Our Sam Browne belt was heavy woven cloth and pure white. We had the badge, but no cap. I thought it was so cool, to swing that pole with the sign on it.

[Brother Buzz]

57. The school in the next town over used hand held paddle stop signs

I was thinking that was dorky before they even invented the word.

During high school, I work two summers at the auto club in Northern California (CSAA) in 'Mail Shipping, and Storage'. I was the keeper of all the Sam Brown belts and badges (no hats by that time), how cool was that?

[Chellee]

14. In 1977...

I was in the 6th grade. At my elementary school the 6th graders served as the crossing guards for the smaller kids. We had to be chosen by the teacher for the job, and we only did the switch between kindergarten classes, (morning kindergarten going home and afternoon kindergarten arriving.) It was considered a big honor. I was very proud of my little yellow sash and belt. I had a stop sign as well. No kindergartener ever got squashed by a car on my watch.

[Egnever]

28. Well...

At the 24:15 minute mark of this Brady bunch episode Cindy beats out Bobby for the school crossing guard slot.

?t=24m15s

[MicaelS]

35. Kids were, back in the 1960s.

Just 6th graders at my Elementary school. It was prestigious role, and you had to be "chosen" for it. A good student, reliable, etc. And you were respected for it, even by adults.

[ND-Dem]

38. they were when i was a kid. it was considered kind of an honor.

and yeah, we walked, I'm guessing, a couple of miles to school. it was more than a mile for sure.

and like some other posters said, we'd be gone for hours on the weekends -- playing in the street, in the woods, riding bikes to the countryside (lakes) and what not.

[KT2000]

39. I was a crossing guard in the mid-60s

when I was 11 and a captain when I was 12 - in Seattle.
Ready-Ready-Walk!

[onyourleft]

56. I was a...

...child crossing guard, age 11. It was 1955 in Kansas City.

[MicaelS]

6. Jezzuz H. on a crutch..

Fuck... when I was a kid, I would tell my mom, "I was going out to play", hop on my bike and be gone for hours. I was within a few miles from home, but still... When I was 12 I would head to the library about 5 miles away, and stay there for hours.

[elias49]

25. Same here.

We kids would go home to eat, or go home when it got dark.
The late 60s.

[MicaelS]

33. Yup, my time too.

Back then, "Mom" didn't want the kids hanging around the house too much. Interfered with their "stories".

[KT2000]

40. No kidding!

Moms had stuff to do and when kids were old enough to go outside on their own they had - freedom! I figured out soon enough that if my mom didn't know what I was up to I could do anything I wanted to do.

Back then they also had playpens for the little ones so the mom could do her thing. I don't think they have those anymore.

[FLPanhandle]

64. Hell, my friends and I would pack camping gear on our bikes and be gone all weekend

Many miles away from home.

[Journeyman]

8. Early '60s, I walked 6 or so blocks to school, and crossed a 4 lane road with no stoplight. . .

to get to and from kindergarten. My older brothers walked to school with me, but I had to make it home by myself as I got out of school earlier than they did.

There were no crossing guards on any of the streets.

From 1st to 5th grade, I lived only 5 blocks from school, with no wide avenues to cross. I made all those trips myself as well.

There was a street that bisected the school, dividing the 1st to 3rd grades from the 4th & 5th. A student crossing guard was stationed on that street only.

(On edit: This was in Southern California, a Los Angeles suburb.)

My mother was divorced and worked three jobs to raise 4 children. We'd have all been in prison were the climate the same then as it is today.

[Luminous Animal]

15. I was a crossing guard when I was 11 years old in Portage, OH. I loved it.

Those were the days when adults did not assume children were idiots.

[Mariana]

20. They were more realistic about the dangers, too.

Yes, children get snatched by strangers, but very, very rarely. It happened then, too - that's why we were all told to avoid strangers.

[JI7]

21. don't most cases of missing kids involve a parent or some other family that took them ?

[Mariana]

29. I think most cases of missing kids

by which I mean "kids that get reported missing to the police" are kids who fell asleep behing the sofa, or who got on the wrong bus after school, or went "missing" for other reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with kidnapping or abduction.

My own kid was reported missing when she was three. She decided to go out for a walk while visiting her aunt and uncle, and didn't bother to tell anyone. When someone says, "800,000 children are reported missing every year!!!" we have to remember that situations like my kid's little adventure are included in that number.

[Mbrow]

17. I used to ride the bus

an hour and a half both ways, only one Jr. high and High school in the county. The other school I went to had the 1st, 2nd, 3rd grade in one room and the 4th, 5th, 6th, in the other, still a long bus ride, that school was about 12-15 miles away.

My cousin had 17 kids in his high school, all grades.

I guess it is a matter of where you grow up, I had my first rifle at 10, drove tractors and hunted at 12.

Different then the Big City, but it has it's drawback as well.

[Jamaal510]

18. I was at two elementary schools.

I went to Burckhalter elementary in East Oakland when I was in the 1st and 2nd grades (between '96 and '97), and they had crossing guards. But when I went to Elizabeth Sherman elementary (now the Melrose Academy), I don't recall there being any. When I was at Burckhalter, my dad used to give me rides, but as I got older and moved to ES, I started walking almost a mile to and from there when he was away from home. In my neighborhood, I was always scared to walk around because there would occasionally be loose dogs. Aside from that (and one time when there was a car chase and I nearly got ran over at a bus stop), it was fairly safe.

[Cali_Democrat]

19. I feel sorry for kids now days

It's like they have no freedom.

Our media has scared the parents shitless even though crime has gone way down.

[Mariana]

24. People really do believe that hundreds of thousands of kids

are being snatched up off the sidewalks by strangers every year, never to be seen again.

[glasshouses]

22. I was a rebel

As a small child of the 60's I rode my pedal bike to school with NO! Helmet

[3catwoman3]

23. The school buses in our neighborhood...

...seem to make a stop about every 20 yards (as in 60 feet - not yard in front of your house).

[glasshouses]

26. When I wanted to ride the bus my neighborhood had

a centralized location the school bus picked all us kids up and dropped us off
We then all walked home. Some of us were close but some kids still walked 600 or 700 yards or so to get home.

Now the bus will stop in front of every home in the same neighborhood

[3catwoman3]

30. My bus stop, from 6th grade thru...

...high school was at the beginning of my street, and our house was at the end - probably at least 10 houses away, and not even visible from the my end. I remember many a freezing cold Rochester NY winter morning waiting for the damn bus with the wind whistling up my skirt back when girls were not allowed to wear pants to school. The mid- to late 1960s.

[elleng]

27. Yes, there are crossing guards,

DC and MD anyway.

[pnwmom]

36. The school district in Silver Springs still expects first graders to walk a mile to school.

They're not eligible for a bus unless they're more than a mile from school. And they don't have crossing guards at every corner. So how are parents supposed to know that it would be wrong to let a 10 year old walk his 6 year old sister home from a park that's a mile away?

And the law as written (requiring supervision for under 8 year olds by people 13 and older) only applies to confining children in locked indoor spaces -- not parks. I can't figure out why this case didn't get tossed out immediately.

[elleng]

37. Silver Spring is in Montgomery County, MD,

is 9.4 sq miles, and has LOTS of schools (and subdivisions.) Silver Spring is an unincorporated area and census-designated place.

Are you referring to a county 'law?'

[pnwmom]

42. This is the policy of the Montgomery County schools. No buses for elementary kids who live within a mile

unless there are particular hazardous situations.

http://montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/transportation/rules/riding.aspx#q1

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) provides bus service for:

Elementary school students living more than 1 mile of walking distance from school.

Middle school students living more than 1.5 miles of walking distance from school.

High school students living more than 2.0 miles of walking distance from school.

Students who face hazardous walking conditions regardless of distance from school (multilane highways, construction areas, etc.) as determined by the MCPS Department of Transportation.

http://montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/

The county's 202 schools serve more than 154,000 students. More than 12,000 teachers instruct students from 157 countries.

[elleng]

43. As of the 2010 census, the population was 971,777,

and a 2013 estimate put the population at 1,016,677. It is the most populous county in Maryland. Wikipedia
Area: 507 sq miles (1,313 km²)

Parents investigated for neglect after letting kids walk home alone.

It was a one-mile walk home from a Silver Spring park on Georgia Avenue on a Saturday afternoon. But what the parents saw as a moment of independence for their 10-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter, they say authorities viewed much differently.

Danielle and Alexander Meitiv say they are being investigated for neglect for the Dec. 20 trek — in a case they say reflects a clash of ideas about how safe the world is and whether parents are free to make their own choices about raising their children.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/maryland-couple-want-free-range-kids-but-not-all-do/2015/01/14/d406c0be-9c0f-11e4-bcfb-059ec7a93ddc_story.html

about Montgomery County schools: http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/sharedaccountability/glance/

[pnwmom]

44. So what? The kids weren't trekking across the whole county. They were walking for a mile

between their own home and the park near their home.

The Seattle school district has a similar policy (not busing elementary kids unless they live more than 1.25 miles), and so do most school districts, large and small.

[elleng]

55. According to the article,

they were picked up 'near the Discovery building.' This is the intersection at the Discovery building.

It's a large and very busy intersection. I'm glad the police picked them up and brought them home. I don't like the parents' attitude, but I appreciate that of the children.

Incidentally, I live a good part of my time in Silver Spring.

[pnwmom]

72. You don't think the Seattle school district has places like that?

Or the many other districts that expect kids to walk to school? If there are stop lights at those busy corners, they're not more dangerous than other corners (that usually don't have stoplights.)

[pnwmom]

74. Here's a link to an interview with the kids and their parents, who are both scientists

and approached the risk/benefit calculation scientifically, unlike their detractors.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/why-are-we-criminalizing-childhood-independence/2015/01/15/bf9da446-9ccb-11e4-a7ee-526210d665b4_story.html

[Contrary1]

41. If my older brother and I missed the bus, we walked.

Mid to late 50's, and it was about a mile and a half. We would have been 6 and 8 years old. Mom would put our little brother in the stroller, and walk us up to the "busy street" (Old US 40), to make sure we got across safely. We had a mile to go after that.

I'm sure she worried about us, but never showed it. We didn't mind a bit. Sometimes, we would miss the bus back home on purpose, and have to walk.

The motel on US 40 had an awesome playground for the time. Coincidently, we almost always needed a break from our long walk at precisely the time we passed it...and my mother knew it too.

[Warren DeMontague]

45. You went to kindergarten in the early 80s?

You're not a codger, you're a child, dammit.

When I was in Kindergarten we had pictures of Nixon on the wall.

[Recursion]

46. I can no longer plausibly call myself "mid-thirties"

Nope, it's straight up "late-thirties". Sigh.

[Warren DeMontague]

51. Oh cry me a river.

Wait until you've got 50 bearing down on you. That's a number that doesn't fuck around.

[Contrary1]

49. You went to kindergarten in the early 70s?

You're not a codger, you're a child, dammit.

When I was in **Kindergarten we had pictures of Eisenhower on the wall.



**I didn't actually go to kindergarten, so I'm counting 1st grade.

[Warren DeMontague]

50. I know.

That's why I like to hang out here. It's one of the few places where folks still tell me to get off their lawn.

[Warren DeMontague]

53. Oh yeah? "When I was in Kindergarten, we had William Howard Taft on the wall!"

Not a picture, mind you, the actual guy. It was impressive, the elaborate system of pulleys and trusses which were required, to suspend him there.



...see, that's Gen X for you. Always going for the cheap Taft laugh.

[Arugula Latte]

62. "Now children, turn to face the Taft."

[Maeve]

58. I was in kindergarten when Kennedy was elected

We actually had a vote in the class (Kennedy won and I remember because I was first in line and got to help count the votes!)

Here in Central Ohio, the 4th grade kids act as crossing guards for the elementary schools, with a couple grown-ups watching out for them. It's considered an honor and they get hot cocoa when it's really cold out. However, a lot of parents drive their kids--traffic is a real pain at school opening and closing.

[pipi_k]

65. No kidding!

both my kids were born in the early 70s.

Codgers? Hah! I'll show them codgers!


Anyway, when I was in Kindergarten, we took a field trip to the Slate Rock and Gravel Company, where we got a grand tour from Mr Slate himself.

[Kablooie]

47. My town has crossing guards all over the place.

and they even yell at you if you blow through their sign as I did once when I wasn't paying attention.

[Sherman A1]

48. I walked as well

but, that was a time when Dinosaurs roamed the earth and we had to dodge T-Rex coming and going to school.

[merrily]

52. Codger

codg·er
ˈkäjər/
noun
derogatory
noun: codger; plural noun: codgers

an elderly man, especially one who is old-fashioned or eccentric.

[Warren DeMontague]

54. We used to ride our bikes a couple miles to the Woolworth's and buy candy, and we were probably 7.

This was a Woolworths with a lunch counter, the kind that desegregation battles were fought around.

I think about it now and its like a different planet.

[Prism]

59. I just finished cursing out parents

Well, in my head at least.

There is only street parking near my work that I rely on every morning. There is also an elementary school a block over.

Every. Single. Morning. I struggle to find parking because Johnny and Mary cannot simply be dropped off at the drop off zone. No, the helicopters must park and personally walk their preciouses to the front door, because God knows what could happen in the ten feet between curb and school!

It is . . . maddening. I enter work with a 10% blood pressure spike everyday because of these ridiculous people.

[SheilaT]

60. The public school my kids went to in the mid-90's

had 6th graders as crossing guards, although I think they were simply helpers to the adult there.

Every public school I went to, or they went to, didn't provide a bus for kids within either a mile or a mile and a half of the school. When my oldest son was in kindergarten and third grade, that meant I shared carpool duties with the mom of the same-age kid next door. We were in Boulder, CO, it was a completely uphill journey to school, and there were no older kids on the same block, or at all nearby to walk with them. In the spring we encouraged them to walk home, which they did the last few months of the year.

I suppose they could have walked to school, but the other mom and I were at a total loss as to how much time to give them, and there were frequent enough snows during the winter to have made their walk a bit tricky. If I recall correctly, our specific neighborhood school boundary in Boulder was such that no child lived outside the mandatory walk distance.

[NCTraveler]

61. Most of the parents I am friends with do let their children roam free in the neighborhood.

When I was growing up I was not confined to the neighborhood. My parents sent me out to play. I almost always did stay in the neighborhood. Of the parents I know, their concern is traffic, not abductors. Our road system in Pinellas County is very similar to the way it was in the eighties, even with the increase in population. It has left us with streets that are overused and angry drivers. Most parents no longer want their children around these roads. A crossing guard at an intersection I often crossed as a child was run over and killed a couple of months ago. The street itself is the same as it was in the 80's but one would never recognize that as the traffic has doubled. It is a nightmare. It was no problem crossing when I was growing up. Now most parents wouldn't even think about letting their kid go near the road, even with the crossing guard in place.

Note that this is a general assumption about the area I live. Some sections are cared for better than others. But the main concern of parents I know is the traffic.

[HappyMe]

67. My parents as well as just about every parent in the neighborhood

would have been investigated.

I am glad I grew up when I did.

I guess my ex and I, and several of my sons friend's parents should have been investigated. We all let them ride bikes, go to the park etc.

I hope the pendulum swings back too. Given the mild paranoia and helicoptering I don't know that it will.

[hunter]

69. In the 'sixties we walked about a mile to school in fluid mobs of neighborhood children.

We had to cross one very busy Los Angeles street but there was an adult crossing guard there.

I frequently walked with a third grader I admired who introduced me to firecrackers. (I was in the first grade.)

We had a neighbor whose front fence was chains welded to 3/4" galvanized pipe. The tops of the pipes were open.

One morning we were dropping lit firecrackers into the pipes and then we'd quickly drop in a small handful of dirt and small rock chips that we'd swept off the street. It made a nice shotgun effect and was great fun. We could hear the little rock chips raining down on parked cars and the sidewalk.

Then a firecracker didn't go off for a few seconds and the kid inexplicably put his face over the pipe to look.

BAM!

Fortunately they were small firecrackers so his injuries were not permanent. Nobody ever mentioned the true cause of the accident to any adult.

Boys are stupid.

[KamaAina]

70. In the snow?