Chances are that as a child, you walked or biked to a school in your neighbourhood.
You probably left with your brother or sister and the other neighbourhood children, throwing backpacks over your shoulders, grabbing lunch pails and pedaling or running toward the school to play with friends before the bell rang.
Only the rural kids had to take a schoolbus, and even though many mothers were at home, no one drove their children to or from school. Even the kindergarteners walked home on their own.
Times have changed. While the majority of today’s parents walked or biked to school when they were children, only 24 per cent of children do so today, according to a 2014 study for Active Healthy Kids Canada.
This huge societal shift is the root of many of our problems. So many parents drive their children to school today that at drop-off and pickup times, the school parking lots are congested with well-meaning parents who may be creating future health problems for their children.
Part of the trouble is that there are no longer schools in every neighbourhood, now that the baby boom is long over and people are choosing to have smaller families – or no families at all. Birth rates in Canada have plummeted in recent decades and many schools have closed. This September, Stawamus Elementary School will become another statistic, as the building remains open only for specialized programs and the other kids will have to go elsewhere.
But even kids who still do have a school within walking distance are not walking. Instead, their parents or babysitters provide a taxi service that is unnecessary, pollutes the environment and makes children unhealthy. Childhood obesity rates in Canada are soaring and leading to health problems such as Type 2 diabetes, as studies show.
The same children being driven to school are also driven everywhere else and never allowed to go to the playgrounds on their own, partly because of the overblown fear that a pedophile is lurking on every corner, ready to abduct them.
The Hub for Active School Travel (HASTe) program is being introduced in three Squamish elementary schools this fall, and three more will initiate it next year. The program will try to get children walking and biking again. It’s sad that spending on a program like this is necessary, but this is a step in the right direction for the health of our children.
– Editor Christine Endicott
