Today Is International Walk To School Day

Today is International Walk To School Day!

I'm thrilled that there's an event that celebrates and encourages the simple act of walking to school, but dismayed that we even need such a thing. I wish we were still in the days in which walking to school was an unremarkable act.

Unfortunately, we are currently in an age of media-stoked paranoia, and even in towns with crime rates as low as Granada Hills', we still have parents who believe that it is "too dangerous" to allow their children to walk anywhere. People, it's not like we live in Kuwait.

Of course, this belief creates a self-fulfilling prophecy; because more people believe walking is dangerous, they drive their children to school, creating greater traffic around schools, making conditions more dangerous.

Here's hoping the next generation will embrace walking; it's healthy, it's green, it fosters independence, and children who've had some moderate exercise in the morning come to school wide awake and ready to learn -- it's a fact!

Happy walking.





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