From Your Health Journal…..”I found such a great article today online from ‘Wicked Local – Norton’ by Harry Chase, that I had to promote and share it here. I hope all of you visit the Wicked Local web site (link provided below) to read the complete story. Mr. Chase starts the article by discussing a change he has noticed over the years, where children do not walk to school anymore, rather – many are taking the bus or in the family car. Mr. Chase reminisces on how he used to walk miles to school every day, how nobody took a bus. Mr. Chase continues to discuss the amount of homework kids get these days – which reduces the play time outside. He points out how childhood obesity is on the rise, and many children suffer from heart disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes, weak bones, and low self-esteem. This article brought a smile to my face, as I found it very refreshing. I provided a short snip below, but please visit the Wicked Local site to read the complete article.”

From the article…..

The most obvious difference between schoolchildren in the present iPhone age and in the Neanderthal era when I attended classes is that I almost never see today’s kids walking to school.

As early as 6:45 a.m., while I’m doing my daily exercises, I see from my bedroom window the school buses rolling past, accumulating long lines of vehicles behind them as they stop every 200 yards to pick up pupils.

Some parents turn up their noses at buses and add to the traffic by chauffeuring their youngsters to school in the family car.

In my boyhood, when Mansfield had 10 schoolhouses and no buses, every child lived within 11/2-mile walking distance of an elementary school. Multiply that mileage by four, because we came home for dinner (as lunch was called).

Beginning at age 5, when I entered first grade, I hiked 20 miles weekly to and from Roland Green School on Dean Street. By second grade I ran it. I think this exercise has worked in my favor all the rest of my life.

It’s true that many if not most kids today don’t live within walking distance of their schools. And without question, buses are better than the old inefficient one-room one-teacher neighborhood schoolhouses.

Yet does anyone ever think that maybe – just maybe — the rate of childhood obesity, which in the U.S. has more than tripled in the last 30 years, might somehow be related to the fact that children no longer walk (or run) to school?

Another difference between school kids then and now is that these days even small fry await their buses loaded like Grand Canyon pack mules with knapsacks almost as big as themselves. I assume the packs carry homework. We had no homework until seventh grade and that usually consisted of one or two books easily toted in the hand.

To read the full article…..Click here