In response to James Sarazin's commentary about his daughter walking to school ("From now on, she walks to school," March 5), I can truthfully say that as an educator and a parent I can see both sides.
When a friend of his from Tanzania recalled the journey he made to school each day, (walking 10 miles to school starting at 4:35 a.m. by himself, in darkness, without appropriate clothing, and among wild animals) Mr. Sarazin felt it was time his daughter walked the 2 miles to school if she missed the bus. Usually his wife would take his daughter if this occurred. Thankfully, our children do not have to experience what the gentleman went through as a child, but our neighborhoods are not without their own set of horrors. One needs only to read or hear the news each day to be reminded of the number of pedophiles roaming around, hard core bullies looking for the vulnerable, and unstable people in possession of guns causing tragedies.
So while his daughter would hopefully learn her lesson after one day of walking the 2 miles to school if she misses the bus, I can imagine how her mother would feel. Many years ago, I heard a psychologist discuss this very same situation. His suggestion, which I thought solved the problem about how to handle the different views held by each parent, was to have the child walk to school by himself but that the parent would follow closely by in his or her car. The child still had to walk the walk, but the parent could rest easy. Though I heard this about 40 years ago, I still think the solution has validity.
Barbara Blumberg, Baltimore