The Wheels On The School Bus Don't Go Round and Round

I can’t start my day without my Dunkin’ Donuts iced coffee. It’s as critical as taking my Adderall in the morning. For the record, Dunkin’ is not a sponsor of GotMeThinking.org—but if they’d like to be, send me an email.

I always order through the Dunkin’ app. I know exactly when to press the button. There’s a fire station about three minutes from my local Dunkin’, and if I time it right, the employee is setting my cup of liquid heaven on the counter just as I’m walking through the door.

Earlier this week, I left the house a little earlier than usual so I could sip my coffee in the park while listening to podcasts. As I passed the fire station, I hit “order” and started daydreaming about that first magical sip—until my car’s emergency braking system snapped me back to reality.

Brake lights. Stopped traffic. What?

This wasn’t supposed to happen. Morning traffic at this stretch is usually non-existent—backups only happen later in the afternoon near the intersection past Dunkin’. Then I craned my neck and saw it.

A school bus.

Uber??

When I was a kid, I walked to school until fourth grade. Yes—even kindergarten. My mom probably walked me the first couple of weeks, but after that I walked the half mile myself. If parents tried that today, DCYF would probably be knocking on their door.

And when I finally did get to ride the bus? The bus didn't stop at the end of my driveway and wait for me to come out. The bus stop was two blocks away. If I got to the end of my street and I saw the bus already picking up kids, I sprinted. The grumpy old driver never waited. If I wasn't at the door when he arrived, he was leaving.

There was a newspaper box located at my bus stop that required you to put a quarter in to open the door to get a paper. My favorite days were when someone didn't close the door right and I got a free newspaper so I could read the sports section for free.

Now, I am really trying to not be cliche and say "when I was a kid I used to have to walk miles through blizzard conditions to get to school." But I did.

Today? Kids are waiting at almost every corner. Sometimes groups of just two or three. Sometimes buses stop at individual houses. Unless a child has special needs, why can’t these kids walk a block or two to a bigger stop like we all did back then?

When did school buses become Uber?

Baby, It's Cold Outside

I mention about buses sometimes stopping at individual kid's homes. That's bad enough in and of itself. But sometimes I see these kids wait inside their homes. The buses honk when they get to the house.

What?? You've got to be kidding me!

I’ve watched parents walk their kids out of the house, give them a hug, and then—because why not—the parent will have a conversation with the bus driver while traffic piles up behind.

Here's something that happened a lot in the cold, snowy winters here in New England when I was on my way to work in the morning. I would ride behind a school bus and see it flash its lights and begin to slow down. I would peak ahead on the right and I wouldn't see any kids waiting.

Then I'd notice cars parked all along the side of the road. I presumed the cars were empty. All the passenger doors would start opening and one by one I'd see kids emerge from the cars and wander, slowly, towards the bus.

What Are We Monitoring?

And then you have this job called bus monitors. As you could guess, there were no bus monitors back in my day. While everyone fought for the back seats on the school bus, I enjoyed sitting in the front seat. Now? A bus monitor sits there.

What is the job of these bus monitors? They hop out at every stop, help kids cross the street, then crouch down and perform an exaggerated ritual of checking under every wheel well. One wheel. The second wheel. The third one. Then the last one. Every. Single. Stop.

Why?

I looked it up and there are usually a handful of accidents every year involving school children getting off buses. While that is tragic, are bus monitors really that necessary? Maybe kids should be taught to be more careful. Maybe they should be taught to take their headphones off when getting off the bus.

Is it really necessary to pay someone $15/hour to hold kids hands as they cross the street? Is it really worth stalling traffic an extra minute at every stop for the bus monitors to put on a comical act of struggling to bend down to see under the bus?

Is This Concert Traffic or Something?

Honestly, I am surprised I can still complain about school buses. I am surprised there are enough kids to take buses nowadays.

I’ll never forget the first time I got stuck near a local elementary school at dismissal. A police officer was directing traffic as a line of thirty cars snaked into the street.

It took me a minute to figure out this was a line of cars of parents waiting to pick up their kids from school.

My parents never picked me up from school in a car. The thought never even occurred to me during my school years. As I type this, it makes me laugh to even think of my dad showing up at the entrance of one of my schools back then to pick me up.

I got to experience being in the pickup line a few months later when a friend of mine asked if I wanted to go play basketball. He told me he had to pick up his daughter from school first and I could tag along, then we could go straight to the basketball courts. Sure. Why not?

I figured we would just pull into the school's parking lot and wait a couple of minutes for her to come out. Nope.

As we got about a block away from the school, I saw the traffic stopped. I turned to my friend and asked, incredulously, "Don't even tell me this is the line to pick up kids from the high school?"

He shrugged and said, "Meh, this actually isn't too bad today."

The line creeped along slowly, like people picking up loved ones from an airport. At one point, we passed an individual directing traffic in the school parking lot. He looked pretty official looking.

I asked my friend, "Who is that? Is that an undercover cop?"

My friend chuckled and said, "No. That's the principal. Sometimes he comes out here and helps direct traffic."

My friend leaned out the window and waved. The principal waved back like it was perfectly normal for one of the principal's duties to be a traffic cop.

So What's My Point?

It’s not just school buses – and how it inconveniences me – that got me thinking of writing this article. It’s a cultural thing.

Schools no longer give out grades like A, B, C, or F. Games I loved like Dodgeball are banned for being "too dangerous." Participation trophies are a thing. We don't want to hurt anyone's feelings.

Kids are being pampered. They aren't being toughened up. They rely too much on their parents. They don't learn self-reliance.

They sit in the warmth and dryness of their parents' cars during inclement weather. In a few instances, they don't even leave the coziness of their homes to wait for the bus.

School gets cancelled if the forecast calls for more than a dusting of snow... or even heavy rain or "extreme" cold. In my day, school wouldn't get canceled until the last second and only if there was over six or eight inches of snow already on the ground.

Kids are not taught to fend for themselves. They are not taught how to socialize with others at bus stops. Kids are not taught to not complain. They are not taught how to trudge forward when the going gets tough. They are not taught that their parents won't always be there.

It's just the opposite. They are being taught to complain if they are not comfortable or if things aren't perfect. They are taught to run to their parents if they are not happy. They are taught that someone will always pick them up.

Don't get me wrong – I consider myself "soft." I felt like I was protected my whole life, and I didn't have it nearly as good as kids have it today. Being “too sheltered” isn’t healthy. I'm a testament to that.

Adversity builds resilience. School is an educational experience not just for what is learned in school, but for what is learned on your way to and from school. It is about learning to get out of bed on time, to get to your destination on time, and for figuring out how to get home at the end of the day.

And most importantly – don't get between me and my Dunkin' Donuts' iced coffee.

And a reminder that advertising opportunities are available at gotmethinking.org! 😁