Musing

Two things happened today that got me thinking.  First, I got caught in a traffic jam because I happened to be near an elementary school at closing time.  Apparently, children are all picked up by their parents; they don't walk home from school.  Second, I read an excellent article in this month's The Atlantic, called, "Hey! Parents, Leave Those Kids Alone."  It talked about how parents now supervise every waking moment, never allowing children to roam freely and play alone or with their friends, for fear that they will be hurt or abducted.  The author talked about how this lack of free range play has created children without the ability to think for themselves.

It reminded me of an incident in my childhood:  My family moved to Louisiana when I was in the middle of the third grade.  The school wasn't very far from home, about four long blocks away. On the first day I went to the school, one of my parents, probably Mom, walked me to school, carefully rehearsing me on the route I would take on my way home.  I memorized what I was to do: Walk out the school door.  Turn right.  Walk two long blocks.  Turn left.  Walk two long blocks, and you will be at home.  So at the end of the school day, that is what I did:  Went out the school door, turned right, went two long blocks, turned left, and went two blocks.  Unfortunately, at the end of this, I wasn't at home.  I didn't recognize anything.  I was scared for a while, but mostly perplexed.  How could I have done it all right, but not ended up at home?  So the only thing I could think of to do was to backtrack to the school and figure out what I had done wrong, which is what I did.  When I got there, I realized my mistake.  I had gone out the back door of the school, not the front door.    I wasn't warped or traumatized.  I had learned to think for myself.