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If it's one area where I am authoritative it's reminding my kids about crossing the road. I'm not sure they have to look left again as long as they have given a good look. I think the most dangerous thing our kids will ever experience is driving a car, being a passenger of one or crossing the street. As an adult I think we can all attest to an experience where we almost hit someone because they were not looking.
You can never look too many times.
When I was teaching my granddaughter how to drive she always looked both ways several times before she would proceed. Sometimes we would sit a an intersection for much longer than I liked but I never said anything or told her when to go. I just told her to look both ways and then repeat it before she pulled in to the traffic. That was 5 years ago when she was 14.
Today she is 19, never had a ticket or an accident. Her friends tell her she drives like and old man. Best damn compliment I ever had...
I've done research and found that in the US according to Safe Kids USA, we use look left, right, then left again. I wrote a book for kids ages 3-8 Look Left, Look Right, Look Left Again becauseI got hit by a car as a young child . I've realized that many children don't follow look left again and yes, some children don't look at all.
But lately, I've also learned that in big cities such as New York City, they have many one-way streets and because of this they use Look Both Ways, then Check Again. Mayor de Blasio is following Vision Zero, first started in Sweden, I believe, which is a program to get the numbers down to zero of those hurt by a vehicle, etc. NYC is using a lot of resources to make this program successful. It's worked in other cities.
A librarian has told me that parents and teachers want books that have an educational value to them
but the big publishers shy away from them. I was told by an editor at our writer's Conference that her company wouldn't accept my story because it was somewhat message driven. I knew that before I paid for my critique with her. I just wanted to make my story as best as it could be. She did offer a suggetion which I followed and then I was able to get it published by a smaller publisher. I took the chance and wrote what I thought was right and not what big publishers wanted. My book is doing very well. I hope it saves kids from being hurt.
I tutored a girl who was hit by a bus, and she wasn't as lucky as I was. I don't think she'll ever be the same...
Please, parents, tell publishers that you want more educational message driven stories and maybe the big publishers will start listening to you.
I see adults walking into a crosswalk all the time without looking first. They somehow assume that once their foot enters a crosswalk that all vehicles will see them and have time to stop for them. The police in my community monitor the school bus stops nearly everyday -- they ticket every vehicle that doesn't stop when those school bus stop flags are out. Usually after the first couple of weeks after school starts for the year the drivers have learned the hard way to STOP! The school buses in my area continue to park with those stop flags out until after the children have crossed the street -- although that isn't doing anything to reinforce to children that they need to look both ways, it at least helps keep them safe.
Our preschool did 'urban hiking'. The whole point was walking safely -- how to wait on the inside of the sidewalk (not outside), how to 'look both ways, then look again', and how to 'peek out' when walking between cars in a parking lot.
Unfortunately kids need to practice that a million times....and still need parents watching out, as it only takes one careless mistake.
When my children were small, I saw a dead and flattened chipmunk in the road in front of our house. It was a great opportunity to show my children what happens when you play in the road or don't look where you are going when you cross the street.
They are older now, and STILL remember that incident.
When my children were small, I saw a dead and flattened chipmunk in the road in front of our house. It was a great opportunity to show my children what happens when you play in the road or don't look where you are going when you cross the street.
They are older now, and STILL remember that incident.
I had this conversation with an adult a few years ago. He had been taught, and spread to others, specifically NOT to look. He told me that if you look and the driver sees you look, and especially if you make eye contact, then the driver knows you've seen them and will wait for the car to pass. So if you DON"T look, then the driver has to stop because you haven't seen them and you are now in the crosswalk. Nothing I said would convince him that the crosswalk was not a magical deflector shield that would stop a car that he or his kids walked in front of.
Yes, it's really bad here. They teach the kids in schools that pedestrians always have the right-of-way, which is about the stupidest thing to tell kids. Drivers need to be told that pedestrians have the right-of-way but the pedestrians need to be told that a human body is no match for a car or truck.
So many kids have ear plugs and their iPhones so can hear nothing but the music and are uncapable of paying attention to anything besides text messages or a you tube video. High school kids here are worse than the little kids, not only has it been drilled into their little minds that as pedestrians, they have all the rights, they have a defiant, in-your-face attitude about it, they'll step right in front of vehicles almost daring them to hit them.
That's what pisses me off so much. Sometimes, I just want to hit people like that while driving, lol. Maybe then they'll start to look both ways while walking.
As a driver, I feel like most people don't even bother looking left and right, but that they expect you not to hit them. My Mother drilled this into me from about as long as I can remember.
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Teach Our Children Well...
