3 ms·

This showcases other problems with American society. With poor social support structures and urban design, kids can't simply walk to and from school, take publi

by bmitc 4y ago

This showcases other problems with American society. With poor social support structures and urban design, kids can't simply walk to and from school, take public transportation, or ride school provided transportation to remove parents being chauffeurs.

sologoub 4y ago
That would not fix the coordination problem - if the family includes one of each (elementary, middle and high school kids) you still have to make breakfast for them, get everyone ready and head out. Let’s say they all don’t have to leave at the same time, but most other activities have to be coordinated and the sheer noise in the household will wake people up, not to mention it’s a bit easier to feed all 3 kids together.
- bmitc 4y ago
  That again relates to social support structures. In fact, many kids' parents can't afford breakfast or even lunch. It seems there are programs that exist already to help feed kids breakfast and lunch at schools. https://www.fns.usda.gov/programs https://www.fns.usda.gov/programs https://www.projectbread.org/ https://www.projectbread.org/
  - rcme 4y ago
    > That again relates to social support structures. In fact, many kids' parents can't afford breakfast or even lunch. That's not what the GP is talking about. They're saying that there is an overhead to people leaving at different times.
- kyeb 4y ago
  It would have solved it completely for my family - we just ate cereal or a bagel in the morning for breakfast, no coordination necessary.
- _whiteCaps_ 4y ago
  Most high schoolers are capable of feeding themselves breakfast and getting out the door. And in my experience, aren't going to let themselves be woken up early by the younger ones getting ready for school.
- ginko 4y ago
  >if the family includes one of each (elementary, middle and high school kids) you still have to make breakfast for them, get everyone ready and head out. Surely high school aged kids can make their own breakfast.
  - shagie 4y ago
    Surely the high school aged kids can make sure to not oversleep and be responsible enough to ensure that their parents won't get a call at 9:15 when they've failed to show up on time.
    - humanizersequel 4y ago
      The vast majority of them are... to the detriment of their health and learning. Did you read the article?
      - shagie 4y ago
        I am recalling some of my coworkers at a previous job where they (the parents) started early in the day and would get a call mid morning either from the school or the child ("oops, I missed the bus"). As that workplace wasn't extremely flexible with time, this involved rescheduling any meetings coming up, leaving, driving home (30 min), getting kid to school (15 min), getting back to work (45 min) if everything was good. Taking an hour and a half to two hours out of a person's work day can be very disruptive. The issue isn't 9:00 rather than 8:00 or 8:30 but rather a refutation of "are teenagers responsible enough to get to school on their own without any parental coaxing." Consider the chain of comments: > > > if the family includes one of each (elementary, middle and high school kids) you still have to make breakfast for them, get everyone ready and head out. > > Surely high school aged kids can make their own breakfast. > Surely the high school aged kids can make sure to not oversleep and be responsible enough to ensure that their parents won't get a call at 9:15 when they've failed to show up on time. --- If you're getting all the kids up and ready to go to school at 8:00 am, you've missed the advantage of having a teenager sleep in and get to school at 9:00 am. If you (the parent) aren't making sure that the teenager is getting to school at 9:00 because you're at work, and aren't getting them up at 8:00 am (with the rest of the kids), then you're going to deal with "teenager slept through all the alarms."
- peoplearepeople 4y ago
  > you still have to make breakfast for them, get everyone ready Past a certain age they can do this themselves. A 12 year old is very capable of doing everything besides driving a car
weberer 4y ago
Got any citations to back that up? I remember everyone in high school in Philadelphia commuting via public transit. And what do you meant can't walk to school? The whole city is a grid, completely covered with sidewalks. Go pull up an online map if you've never seen it before. The only thing impeding people from walking everywhere is the fear of getting mugged or worse in certain neighborhoods.
- dfxm12 4y ago
  You probably know this, but Philadelphia is a particularly large & dense city - which is not really representative of the country at large. There was an article about 15 minute cities on HN a few days ago. Philly is a lot closer to a 15 minute city (especially if you include public trans to walking and biking in the defnition) than most other places in the country. That's a great thing, and I wish more places in the US were like Philly.

by bmitc 4y ago

sologoub 4y ago

That would not fix the coordination problem - if the family includes one of each (elementary, middle and high school kids) you still have to make breakfast for them, get everyone ready and head out. Let’s say they all don’t have to leave at the same time, but most other activities have to be coordinated and the sheer noise in the household will wake people up, not to mention it’s a bit easier to feed all 3 kids together.

bmitc 4y ago
That again relates to social support structures. In fact, many kids' parents can't afford breakfast or even lunch. It seems there are programs that exist already to help feed kids breakfast and lunch at schools. https://www.fns.usda.gov/programs https://www.fns.usda.gov/programs https://www.projectbread.org/ https://www.projectbread.org/
- rcme 4y ago
  > That again relates to social support structures. In fact, many kids' parents can't afford breakfast or even lunch. That's not what the GP is talking about. They're saying that there is an overhead to people leaving at different times.
kyeb 4y ago
It would have solved it completely for my family - we just ate cereal or a bagel in the morning for breakfast, no coordination necessary.
_whiteCaps_ 4y ago
Most high schoolers are capable of feeding themselves breakfast and getting out the door. And in my experience, aren't going to let themselves be woken up early by the younger ones getting ready for school.
ginko 4y ago
>if the family includes one of each (elementary, middle and high school kids) you still have to make breakfast for them, get everyone ready and head out. Surely high school aged kids can make their own breakfast.
- shagie 4y ago
  Surely the high school aged kids can make sure to not oversleep and be responsible enough to ensure that their parents won't get a call at 9:15 when they've failed to show up on time.
  - humanizersequel 4y ago
    The vast majority of them are... to the detriment of their health and learning. Did you read the article?
    - shagie 4y ago
      I am recalling some of my coworkers at a previous job where they (the parents) started early in the day and would get a call mid morning either from the school or the child ("oops, I missed the bus"). As that workplace wasn't extremely flexible with time, this involved rescheduling any meetings coming up, leaving, driving home (30 min), getting kid to school (15 min), getting back to work (45 min) if everything was good. Taking an hour and a half to two hours out of a person's work day can be very disruptive. The issue isn't 9:00 rather than 8:00 or 8:30 but rather a refutation of "are teenagers responsible enough to get to school on their own without any parental coaxing." Consider the chain of comments: > > > if the family includes one of each (elementary, middle and high school kids) you still have to make breakfast for them, get everyone ready and head out. > > Surely high school aged kids can make their own breakfast. > Surely the high school aged kids can make sure to not oversleep and be responsible enough to ensure that their parents won't get a call at 9:15 when they've failed to show up on time. --- If you're getting all the kids up and ready to go to school at 8:00 am, you've missed the advantage of having a teenager sleep in and get to school at 9:00 am. If you (the parent) aren't making sure that the teenager is getting to school at 9:00 because you're at work, and aren't getting them up at 8:00 am (with the rest of the kids), then you're going to deal with "teenager slept through all the alarms."
peoplearepeople 4y ago
> you still have to make breakfast for them, get everyone ready Past a certain age they can do this themselves. A 12 year old is very capable of doing everything besides driving a car

weberer 4y ago

Got any citations to back that up? I remember everyone in high school in Philadelphia commuting via public transit. And what do you meant can't walk to school? The whole city is a grid, completely covered with sidewalks. Go pull up an online map if you've never seen it before. The only thing impeding people from walking everywhere is the fear of getting mugged or worse in certain neighborhoods.

dfxm12 4y ago
You probably know this, but Philadelphia is a particularly large & dense city - which is not really representative of the country at large. There was an article about 15 minute cities on HN a few days ago. Philly is a lot closer to a 15 minute city (especially if you include public trans to walking and biking in the defnition) than most other places in the country. That's a great thing, and I wish more places in the US were like Philly.