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"Children are driven to schools two blocks away. At some schools, parents drive up with their children’s names displayed on their dashboards, a school official

"Children are driven to schools two blocks away. At some schools, parents drive up with their children’s names displayed on their dashboards, a school official radios to the building, and each child is escorted out." Plus calling the cops because they saw a young kid walking alone? What the hell is wrong with these people? I think this whole fear is a simple case of the media over-reporting child abductions. I'm curious as to the numbers of abductions over the past 30 years. Article states only a couple hundred / year in present day. When we moved to Canada I walked to school alone all the time when I was in Grade 2 and up. My mom was in English classes or at a job so we could survive. I don't see an issue with it to this day and I believe it made me a more independent person in the long run (I'm 24 so I wasn't a child that long ago)

dmix 17y ago
Most telling statistic from the article: "About 115 children are kidnapped by strangers each year, according to federal statistics; 250,000 are injured in auto accidents." Most parents have no time to read well researched articles/books on raising children. Their lives are (generally) very hectic and what they learn usually comes from sensationalist media stories and from other parents sharing horror stories they read about.
- dagw 17y ago
  Most parents have no time to read well researched articles/books on raising children. Most parents probably cannot find well researched articles/books on raising children. As a soon to be parent I've been shocked and dismayed by the total lack of books showing any sign of scientific research or rigor and the incredible amount of unscientific snake oil being pushed on the market If you have any recommendations I'd be most grateful.
- JabavuAdams 17y ago
  Most parents aren't very good at thinking critically, just like the population at large.
silentbicycle 17y ago
> I think this whole fear is a simple case of the media over-reporting child abductions. While I don't have a reference for this off the top of my head, sometime roughly a decade and a half ago the statistics for American child abductions spiked. This wasn't due to any increase in actual abductions, but rather because the rules for counting them changed, and now abductions by relatives or parents without legal custody were counted as abductions by strangers. The news media, naturally, blew it up into a story about a dramatic increase in child abductions by strangers. Most people aren't great at reading between the lines with statistics, particularly threatening ones, and most parents understandably err on the side of caution when it comes to protecting their kids. This paranoia about strangers, coupled with the common alienation from walking developed by decades of living in car-centric suburbs, means that "protecting kids from abduction" typically takes the form of chauffeuring them about rather than letting them walk alone.
joezydeco 17y ago
My son is in a district-run preschool. When he's picked up by car my wife puts a card in the window that matches the ID number on his backpack. A teacher or aide walks him to the car and even loads him in so that my wife doesn't need to exit the car. The reason for this system? He's four years old. It's easier to keep the kids inside the building and seated quietly on benches until the car drives up and is ready to receive the child. No responsible school would turn 200 kids that can barely speak into a parking lot and let them sort it out. It's also more efficient, with 50 cars lined up in a queue they can move kids in and out of these without a traffic jam. I think it's misleading to put the idea of children being escorted into cars into an article without giving a little more context.

dmix 17y ago

Most telling statistic from the article: "About 115 children are kidnapped by strangers each year, according to federal statistics; 250,000 are injured in auto accidents." Most parents have no time to read well researched articles/books on raising children. Their lives are (generally) very hectic and what they learn usually comes from sensationalist media stories and from other parents sharing horror stories they read about.

dagw 17y ago
Most parents have no time to read well researched articles/books on raising children. Most parents probably cannot find well researched articles/books on raising children. As a soon to be parent I've been shocked and dismayed by the total lack of books showing any sign of scientific research or rigor and the incredible amount of unscientific snake oil being pushed on the market If you have any recommendations I'd be most grateful.
JabavuAdams 17y ago
Most parents aren't very good at thinking critically, just like the population at large.

silentbicycle 17y ago

> I think this whole fear is a simple case of the media over-reporting child abductions. While I don't have a reference for this off the top of my head, sometime roughly a decade and a half ago the statistics for American child abductions spiked. This wasn't due to any increase in actual abductions, but rather because the rules for counting them changed, and now abductions by relatives or parents without legal custody were counted as abductions by strangers. The news media, naturally, blew it up into a story about a dramatic increase in child abductions by strangers. Most people aren't great at reading between the lines with statistics, particularly threatening ones, and most parents understandably err on the side of caution when it comes to protecting their kids. This paranoia about strangers, coupled with the common alienation from walking developed by decades of living in car-centric suburbs, means that "protecting kids from abduction" typically takes the form of chauffeuring them about rather than letting them walk alone.

joezydeco 17y ago

My son is in a district-run preschool. When he's picked up by car my wife puts a card in the window that matches the ID number on his backpack. A teacher or aide walks him to the car and even loads him in so that my wife doesn't need to exit the car. The reason for this system? He's four years old. It's easier to keep the kids inside the building and seated quietly on benches until the car drives up and is ready to receive the child. No responsible school would turn 200 kids that can barely speak into a parking lot and let them sort it out. It's also more efficient, with 50 cars lined up in a queue they can move kids in and out of these without a traffic jam. I think it's misleading to put the idea of children being escorted into cars into an article without giving a little more context.