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Comment by hasenj | Hacker News Reader

When I was a kid in Iraq (1990~) going to school by yourself was very natural. Our school was nearby so we walked every day. Other kids took the bus.

The only thing amusing in the article is how Americans are amused by this.

I remember on my first day to school my mom took me there, but she didn't come to take me home. I was one of the few kids that cried because my mom wasn't there. Later, I felt embarrassed by that.

Our school organized some kind of a school trip about once or twice a year. I was the odd kid whose parents would not let him go on the trip. For everyone else, it was a natural part of school that they looked forward to.

Needless to say, the parents do no join the kids for the trip.

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> When I was a kid in Iraq (1990~) going to school by yourself was very natural. Our school was nearby so we walked every day.

I don't think you understand.

I walked to school also, from age 7 or so.

Japan is different in that many of these children take public transportation in places likes Tokyo and that they do this very very young.

On top of that it's not uncommon for parents to send their children on errands also alone. We're talking large densely populated metropolis.

This is something very peculiar to Japan (I'm not saying unique) and I suppose very different from your experience.

Per the article, only 1.7% of schoolchildren take the bus, the vast majority walk, like many of us did.

Bus usage is negligible in large cities.

They take the trains/subway.

The study includes all public transportation in the 1.7%, citing the number of "walkers" at 98.3%: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3477970/

When you refer to large cities, are you referring exclusively to Japanese cities? In Europe, buses are an integral part of the transport network in many major cities.

Yes, only Japan.

The train usually reigns supreme.

Isn't this just due to population density? If you live in a dense area the schools have to be fairly close together (or absolutely sprawling), so most would be in walking distance for the students.

In the states a great many kids live 5+ miles from school, which is a pretty long walk for a first grader.

How are you sure this is peculiar to Japan. I believe there are many countries, to varying degrees, where children have a lot of freedom of movement and are not overprotected as in the US

I've never seen it to that degree elsewhere but I'm open to new information.

I had that degree of freedom in both Honduras (the capital city of Tegucigalpa) and in Canada in the mid-to-late 1970s and early 1980s so I've got two data points there.

Note: my Honduran side of the family was upper middle class so it was entirely by personal and parental choice, I walked by myself and also with young friends and family all through town

Did you live anywhere outside the US for a long time?

In any case, I grew up in Korea in the late 90s and it was pretty much as described in the article, without the niceties like designated safe building or a warning chime to remind kids to go home.

I walked to and back from school every day, and oftentimes went to Sunday school, library, etc. by myself. I was also given money to purchase school supplies for various school activities everyday. I also knew how to take the subway/bus to get to my grandparents' place on days my mom would be there after school.

Every Saturday all the students helped clean the school and we had rotating duties to collect milk cartons, clean the bathroom, bring lunch from the kitchen in bulk to serve to classmates, etc. Mind you, this was all in 1st and 2nd grade.

When I moved to the States in 3rd grade we had tasks like whiteboard erasing, door holding, etc. but that's about the only similarity I found.

I'm not American (thank God!) but I can understand that in the US you need a car if the school is several miles away and there's no serious public transport option...

It's not just that. In Italy, when I was a kid (mid-80s), it was normal for 8-year-olds around the "paese" (which in my case was a city borough) to just walk to school. We would meet up on the way, and it was pretty fun. Same for going back, although we were expected to have someone at home.

Now people freak out if a child is without adult supervision for 5 minutes, because of pedo-paranoia; nevermind that abuse cases are overwhelmingly done by relatives or close friends, which means the more you ask for an adult to be with kids, the more you're actually putting them at risk. Thanks, fearmongering mass-media and hollywood.

US here. We also walked / biked to school. I lived in suburbs though and can't speak for everyone.

> Now people freak out if a child is without adult supervision for 5 minutes, because of pedo-paranoia

pedo-paranoia was also a think while I was growing up. I totally remember the talk regarding not accepting rides from people nor candy. My parents deny that they ever said such things because those were "idyllic times", but they sure did.

several miles away

You don't need a car to travel several miles, not even in America

My office is "several miles" from home, and I bike to work.

And while I live in a mild climate now so weather is on my side (winter temps rarely go below 50), decades ago when I was in college, I biked to campus even in the winter (which included ice, snow and below freezing temps)

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