I've seen this 2015 documentary of some sort from the perspective of Japanese vs Australian kids being able to commute to and from school on their own without parental supervision. The thing is that parents in Japan encourage kids to be independent from a young age without being "babied" too much while apparently in Australia it's common for parents to drop kids at school.

Now: why is it common for American parents to either drop kids off themselves or kids using the stereotypical yellow school buses on commuting to school rather than letting the kid use public transport themselves or walk to school on foot on their own? I've heard that a father got arrested in the US just for letting his son walk to and from school due to accusations of "child endangerment".

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[–] 2 points 6 days ago

Literally no one at my schools walked there. I personally lived 9.5 km from my high school which is the closest high school by a long shot. The school district (and its only high school) served a 440+ square km area, so I wasn’t even on the far end of things. Only the very last bit of getting there would have sidewalks. (A majority of the walk would be along roads like this https://maps.app.goo.gl/MfAsP2SJgVTmnEzu5?g_st=ic ). At least a mile of the walk (which my parents did let me do from 8years on) is unmaintained dirt road.

Oh and at the start of the school year, it’s not unusual that the temp is 31 c.

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