{"id":106,"date":"2006-08-14T05:55:00","date_gmt":"2006-08-14T09:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/?p=106"},"modified":"2006-10-27T07:41:42","modified_gmt":"2006-10-27T11:41:42","slug":"more-about-buses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/?p=106","title":{"rendered":"More About Buses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mrs. Eaves<\/a> has a thoughtful post over at AtomicTumor this morning, and she’s right — some of the discomfort over the change in bus service is not about household crisis, but about inconvenience. There are some parents who need to shoulder a bit more responsibility for their kids (although this isn’t new).<\/p>\n

But only some. There are definitely families that do all the right things, taking time with their kids for study and behavior training, but for whom transportation will be a real problem, as she correctly notes.<\/p>\n

One suggestion I mentioned to Dr. Bailey to pass along to the principals for consideration was to see if we could create a “fast lane” drop-off for people carpooling with three or more kids — sort of an incentive to encourage carpooling, and a reward for those who are helping out by getting them through the line faster.<\/p>\n

Another suggestion is one I received from Anotherthing2<\/a> is an effort that could be coordinated through the PTO\/PTA: some sort of “safe place” sign to put on selected houses within the 1-mile zone, where a child walking home can go at any time if they feel afraid or need help. Obviously, someone would have to take charge of making sure that the homeowner with a “safe place” sign really was okay, but still, I do like the concept.<\/p>\n

In this city, there are a number of people who walk for exercise, or walk their dogs, every morning. Many no longer have young children at home; might they volunteer to help out a neighbor in a bind with no bus service, by walking with young students to school? <\/p>\n

Do we as individuals have the will to address the problem in ways that would strengthen our neighborhoods and the community as a whole? Clearly, reducing bus service was an unpleasant choice. Reducing any service that our students and parents rely on is painful. <\/p>\n

At the same time, I do see the possibility of some good coming out of this adversity… of parents and neighbors getting to know each other better, and helping each other in a way that used to be the norm rather than the exception. Perhaps a greater number of students riding bicycles to school could make it more fun, and the combined walking\/biking efforts could lead to better health for our children who often don’t get enouch exercise, fresh air, and sunshine.<\/p>\n

Maybe it’s too 1950’s to work… but even in the 70’s, it was a special treat for me to ride my bike to school, because it gave me a little “unwind time.”<\/p>\n

What might you do to make something good happen from this bad situation?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mrs. Eaves has a thoughtful post over at AtomicTumor this morning, and she’s right — some of the discomfort over the change in bus service is not about household crisis, but about inconvenience. There are some parents who need to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.citizennetmom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}