Strengthening Our Students’ Sense of Control Over Their Lives: Bicycling to School and Self-Reliance
My son bicycling to the first day of high school
As the Y Wednesday I was chatting with a friend; we both have kids at the same school, and we were discussing it being the first day of school. I mentioned that my son, now a 9th grader, was bicycle commuting to school, and that I love the pride and joy he takes in managing his own commute: ”It suffuses him with a sense of self-reliance, of self-actualization. It is great.” My friend responded that he wished his own kids could get themselves to school, and expressed appreciation for the value of that spirit; he said “if could bottle that kind of self-reliance, I’d give it to my kids daily.”Seeing my son ride off to school powerfully stimulated my nostalgia: I biked to school daily in elementary school, and then again in high school, and then again for nearly a decade of teaching high school in Berkeley,