Walking

We live a tad over a mile from my older son’s elementary school. He is only in first grade but has been going there for about 3.5 years already b/c he actually went to the preschool there. So, for 3.5 years I’ve noticed this extremely strange attitude towards walking as a means of getting places, which is especially odd b/c it’s a school and kids who live really close by are supposed to walk…no bus service supposedly within a mile’s distance. I say supposedly b/c it seems to have to do more with a certain busy road as the cut-off, not really a full mile. Anyway, whenever I’ve walked to school with the kids either biking or in a stroller type carrier, or even by myself, the staff and faculty react as if I’d just shot myself out of cannonball from our backyard. Seriously, the shocked looks I’ve gotten have made me stop in my tracks. They know where we live too, which as I said is only a bit over a mile away. Are we so far into a busing culture that walking a mile is considered crazy? The first time I noticed it was on the very first day my son went to preschool there. I rode the bus that day and planned on walking home after he was settled in. The bus driver could not get over it! He insisted on defying the rules and driving me home~ I had to say no until it got quite uncomfortable, but I really wanted the little morning walk. I think it may have been drizzling that day, but it isn’t like I was hiking across a tundra or anything! I’d love to see more kids walking/biking/scootering to school~ but if the faculty and staff at my son’s school are any indication, that probably won’t be happening any time soon.