John wrote:
On Sat, 10 Feb 2007 11:21:19 -0600, David Buttery
wrote:

I think it's worth defending some of the education authorities over the
last couple of days, since it seems to me that *some* of the complaints
are from people whose thoughts appear to come from 1977, not 2007...

When I first went to school (in 1980) the *vast* majority of pupils
walked, and most of those walked unaccompanied by their parents. My
family had one car, and my dad used it to go to work, so I got a lift
only very rarely (even in 1981-2!). In larger towns, fewer families had
cars at all, and almost everyone got a bus to school.

Many things have changed in a quarter of a century:

1) More parental choice over where to send their children
2) Many more families with multiple cars
3) The widespread closure of small schools (rural and urban)
4) Poorer public transport provision
5) Worries about the safety of children out alone

Put all those together, and you're left with a nation in which most
eight-year-olds get taken on the "school run" every single day. (Thus
making the roads even more unsafe for walking, but that's another
argument!) Many now live so far from their schools that they *couldn't*
walk there even if they wanted to.

The desirability or otherwise of this isn't really the point. What *is*
the point is that *given current lifestyle patterns* 10cm of snow is
inevitably going to cause *far* more difficulty in travelling to and from
school than it did thirty years ago, simply because it is much, much
harder to get to a snowy school under one's own steam than it was.

I can't help feeling that memory is being somewhat selective for the
various irate people who phoned into my local radio station to whinge
about school closures. I walked alone a mile through fields to school
in the 63 winter but whoever thought that was ever a good idea for a
six year old should be ashamed of themselves. It was unpleasant,
probably dangerous and frequently a waste of time if the teachers
couldn't make it or the school water supply had frozen up.

Yes, the schools didn't use to close at the first hint of a snow
shower but it really wasn't anything to be proud of. My memories of
getting to school in the 60s and 70s during the first day or two of a
snow event (probably about the only thing comparable to the one day
wonders we get darn south now) was that actually reaching the building
was a complete waste of time. Once the roads were clear it was a
different matter, of couse - we all get used to it and managed
(perhaps that's what people remember) but it seems we never reach that
stage now as it all melts by day 2!

The village school was at least walkable but when it came to the
bigger ones further away, half the pupils' buses couldn't get there
and those that did disgorged a trickle of children who found that half
the teachers weren't there either. This was mainly because their
Morris Minors, A35s and other pieces of rusty junk weren't exactly
ideal cold weather vehicles. If you could walk in, the experience was
much the same apart from spending the day with cold wet feet. All we
did was read books under supervision, have a massive snowball fight
and then go home - not exactly an educational achievement of note.

John

One good memory I have of school in early 1979 was the teachers going on
strike for about 3 weeks, it might have been in the February. It also
coincided with some of the best snowy weather of that winter.

Of course early 1979 was the time when it seemed like every few days
there was some union or other calling a strike, leading to the headline
in the Sun of "Crisis, What Crisis" which was of course never actually
uttered by the then Prime Minister...

--
Robbie