Learning the Way to School

#220, August 29, 2007

You can learn a lot outdoors, like how to slow down (see my prior column), or where not to “go” (next column), or the best way to get to and from school. True, you can also learn about the outdoors from indoors… like from that “watering hole” video I saw on the web last week.

In the film, the humans are watching the lions who are watching a herd of water buffalo approach the drink. The lions make their move, and snatch a juvenile buffalo from the ranks of panicky elders. Little Buffy puts up a good fight, even when stretched between the lions and a pair of gators who crashed the dinner party. Still, you think, “I know how this ends. Law of the jungle.”

I wonder if the Petaluma School District is taking policy lessons from this video. For years, the District administration has resisted any attempt to allow their schools from formally participating in the bike and walk to school programs. Sure, they can’t stop the kids from walking or bicycle on the Walk and Roll to School days, but official policy forbids schools in the District from formally participating. That means if a principal, faculty, and Site Council of a school all want to co-sponsor the event, or send flyers home with students, or offer incentives, or any of the activities that will boost participation… they can’t.

Here we are in Petaluma, a few years ago the recipient of an award for the Most Improved Bicycling Community in the Bay Area, a City pledged to major reductions in its greenhouse gas emissions, a City that prides itself on support for families and healthy lifestyles. Odd, isn’t it, that the Petaluma institution with the most power to shape the habits of our children is not only *not* leading the movement to move kids away from cars, but is stubbornly standing in its way. And the Petaluma School District is unique among North Bay school districts, including other Petaluma districts, in holding to this policy.

What we hear from District officials is that it’s not safe for kids to walk or ride to school. Some of this thinking may be residue from the Polly Klass kidnapping, which, traumatic and tragic as it was, did not involve daytime or sidewalks, and happened fourteen years ago. Some of it comes from the fear of traffic congestion, which has grown worse over the years as fearful parents, feeding a vicious cycle (no pun intended) drive their kids to school.

These sentiments are understandable, but sad, because our kids are losing so much when they don’t walk or bike to school. If you hold to Gandhi’s maxim that “you must become the change you wish to see in the world,” then the car-shuttled kids are condemning the world to the terrors of abrupt climate change. At the more personal level there are the debilitating and sometimes fatal symptoms of inadequate exercise, like obesity and diabetes. From a personal growth perspective, car-bound kids are missing out on the socialization that occurs while walking with friends. The most immediately rewarding aspect of *my* bicycle commute is the interaction I have with people along the route-- my ride is a continuous learning experience. If our kids become dependent on the isolation of the car, these opportunities for lifelong learning are diminished; they are condemned to what bluesman John Mayall called their “prisons on the road.”

This needn’t be. The Petaluma School District should study the final minute of the video. The buffalo didn’t give up on little Buffy. Sure, they could avoid predators by avoiding watering holes altogether, the equivalent of humans driving their kids to school: safer in the short term, but unsustainable. No, Buffy’s grow-ups *organized*, and *as a group* confronted the lions, driving them off. Simple as that – safety in numbers, in creative supervision.

The Petaluma School District needs to give the individual schools the freedom of choice to join these auto-alternative programs, let them take advantage of their proven techniques for ensuring the safety of their auto-free students. Contact District Superintendent Greta Viguie, at 778-4604 (gviguie@pet.k12.ca.us), and ask for a public hearing. Let the herd be heard!