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> You don't. School is in walkable distance and kids can cycle themselves since the age of 8 or around. You also don't really live in a city center with kids.

> You don't. School is in walkable distance and kids can cycle themselves since the age of 8 or around. You also don't really live in a city center with kids. At first glance this seems contradictory – did you mean that there are schools within walkable distance, even though you're not living in the city center?

GekkePrutser 5y ago
Yes exactly. Schools are everywhere. Primary schools in particular, and for secondary the kids will know how to ride a bike
- jacquesm 5y ago
  Even for primary school age kids cycling is pretty normal. Mine have been doing it since they were about 6, and before then the bakfiets. When the weather is really evil we'll break out the carkey, but that only happens a couple of times per year, and since it isn't possible to reach all the way to the school that still isn't a real solution. But it saves them from being soaked and that's worth it. But 97% of the days it's bikes.
  - GekkePrutser 5y ago
    I know, when I was young we didn't even have a car so bike was the way to go (or bus but bleh) But I lived in a quiet area, I could imagine kids in central Amsterdam wouldn't be trusted to cycle to school at that age. Though there schools are everywhere too.
    - jacquesm 5y ago
      I cycled Jan Haringstraat to Frederiks plein where my school was at age 10, and at 11 we had moved to North but the school stayed the same so that was the ferry every morning (from the far end of Nieuwendammerdijk). It was quite doable. One vivid memory from those days: the fire in Hotel Polen, all the ambulances and firetrucks and having to detour because of that, huge column of smoke and then later reading about it in the newspaper. Pretty heavy day. I think I had just turned 12, that was one of the last trips through the center to go to school.
  - erwincoumans 5y ago
    That's much nicer than having to drive the kids to school by car. We don't dare to let our kids cycle to school, even in Foster City, since the traffic/cars are not prepared for cyclists.
    - jacquesm 5y ago
      That sucks. The boys here are now fine to return by themselves but on most days we still take them there in the morning because of traffic density, there are three critical points, a roundabout and two major crossings. But in the afternoon when they return it is so quiet they can easily do it by themselves. I spent a ton of time getting them to be safe and predictable in traffic, and that certainly paid off.
Muromec 5y ago
Yes, I live 10 kilometers from city center, literally on the edge of Amsterdam and nearest public school is exactly 300 meters away from my door, which is pretty normal. You can see it on a map: https://scholenopdekaart.nl/zoeken/basisscholen?zoektermen=Amsterdam&weergave=Kaart https://scholenopdekaart.nl/zoeken/basisscholen?zoektermen=A... The problem of school being too far away is created by low-density developments, where car is a problem not solution. Add: middlebare schools are not that spread out, but older children (from 12yo) are also independent enough to either cycle for half an hour or take public transport unsuperwised, with choice left to them.
- yread 5y ago
  What's less than idyllic in the Netherlands (and Amsterdam especially) is that your performance in the basis school basically determines whether you will go to a university and basis schools are ridiculously varied in quality (in some 10% of kids go to VWO, national average is ~40% and there are some where 90% of kids go to VWO. VWO is the highschool that prepares you for university). So, even though in Amsterdam outside the ring you can have a school 300m away, it's not necessarily the school you want to send your kids to. see for example https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2021/06/dutch-education-system-is-increasing-inequality-ser-says/ https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2021/06/dutch-education-system... EDIT: not to mention the housing prices. Apparently, even the teachers are priced out of living and raising a family in Amsterdam which is one of the reasons for the current teacher shortage.
  - teekert 5y ago
    Schools here are expects to "produce" kids going to follow up education with the same statistics as the parents of those kids (if this makes sense, a bit of a hard sentence). So I guess it has to do a lot with the educational level of the population of people living around a school. Our kids go to a school further away though because the nearest one was a "vrije school" (free school, different system), the nearest one may also be (not) religious or different religion than you seek. And yes, this is a bit of a shock to Americans, we have schools for religions. Never really extreme though. Although I really disliked my christian education when I was young. In winter we often do go by car, it's about 10 min, by bike it's the same time (shorter distance, nicer ride through a park). What I hate about the car is that me and a lot of other cars really produce poor air around the school.

GekkePrutser 5y ago

Yes exactly. Schools are everywhere. Primary schools in particular, and for secondary the kids will know how to ride a bike

jacquesm 5y ago
Even for primary school age kids cycling is pretty normal. Mine have been doing it since they were about 6, and before then the bakfiets. When the weather is really evil we'll break out the carkey, but that only happens a couple of times per year, and since it isn't possible to reach all the way to the school that still isn't a real solution. But it saves them from being soaked and that's worth it. But 97% of the days it's bikes.
- GekkePrutser 5y ago
  I know, when I was young we didn't even have a car so bike was the way to go (or bus but bleh) But I lived in a quiet area, I could imagine kids in central Amsterdam wouldn't be trusted to cycle to school at that age. Though there schools are everywhere too.
  - jacquesm 5y ago
    I cycled Jan Haringstraat to Frederiks plein where my school was at age 10, and at 11 we had moved to North but the school stayed the same so that was the ferry every morning (from the far end of Nieuwendammerdijk). It was quite doable. One vivid memory from those days: the fire in Hotel Polen, all the ambulances and firetrucks and having to detour because of that, huge column of smoke and then later reading about it in the newspaper. Pretty heavy day. I think I had just turned 12, that was one of the last trips through the center to go to school.
- erwincoumans 5y ago
  That's much nicer than having to drive the kids to school by car. We don't dare to let our kids cycle to school, even in Foster City, since the traffic/cars are not prepared for cyclists.
  - jacquesm 5y ago
    That sucks. The boys here are now fine to return by themselves but on most days we still take them there in the morning because of traffic density, there are three critical points, a roundabout and two major crossings. But in the afternoon when they return it is so quiet they can easily do it by themselves. I spent a ton of time getting them to be safe and predictable in traffic, and that certainly paid off.

Muromec 5y ago

Yes, I live 10 kilometers from city center, literally on the edge of Amsterdam and nearest public school is exactly 300 meters away from my door, which is pretty normal. You can see it on a map: https://scholenopdekaart.nl/zoeken/basisscholen?zoektermen=Amsterdam&weergave=Kaart https://scholenopdekaart.nl/zoeken/basisscholen?zoektermen=A... The problem of school being too far away is created by low-density developments, where car is a problem not solution. Add: middlebare schools are not that spread out, but older children (from 12yo) are also independent enough to either cycle for half an hour or take public transport unsuperwised, with choice left to them.

yread 5y ago
What's less than idyllic in the Netherlands (and Amsterdam especially) is that your performance in the basis school basically determines whether you will go to a university and basis schools are ridiculously varied in quality (in some 10% of kids go to VWO, national average is ~40% and there are some where 90% of kids go to VWO. VWO is the highschool that prepares you for university). So, even though in Amsterdam outside the ring you can have a school 300m away, it's not necessarily the school you want to send your kids to. see for example https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2021/06/dutch-education-system-is-increasing-inequality-ser-says/ https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2021/06/dutch-education-system... EDIT: not to mention the housing prices. Apparently, even the teachers are priced out of living and raising a family in Amsterdam which is one of the reasons for the current teacher shortage.
- teekert 5y ago
  Schools here are expects to "produce" kids going to follow up education with the same statistics as the parents of those kids (if this makes sense, a bit of a hard sentence). So I guess it has to do a lot with the educational level of the population of people living around a school. Our kids go to a school further away though because the nearest one was a "vrije school" (free school, different system), the nearest one may also be (not) religious or different religion than you seek. And yes, this is a bit of a shock to Americans, we have schools for religions. Never really extreme though. Although I really disliked my christian education when I was young. In winter we often do go by car, it's about 10 min, by bike it's the same time (shorter distance, nicer ride through a park). What I hate about the car is that me and a lot of other cars really produce poor air around the school.