Author: Stephan Wiehler

A new chapter of life is beginning for many children during these weeks – the beginning of school – an important stage on the way to becoming independent which most of the children take on with happy expectations. School promises big progress. The hope of finally learning what adults know strengthens the children’s feeling of being able to go their own way and promotes their self-confidence.

An important precondition for this positive development is that children learn how to move freely. The child’s radius of action expands with the start of the school time. The child has to orientate itself and move out of the familiar home environment all by itself: on the way to school, when visiting friends, during play and sports. Gaining freedom of movement is linked with new challenges. Children grow with them while overcoming them and thus acquire experiences which over time enable them to participate in public life self-confidently and assuredly.

The way to school as a learning route

Parents can actively support this development to independence. The daily way to school offers a good opportunity – particularly in the city. Children must learn to overcome the various challenges in the streets so that traffic does not impede their development towards more independence. The Parents‘ Supplementary Letter “Children on the move“ of the “Neue Erziehung e. V. (ANE)” provides tips and suggestions how you can make your child fit for road traffic – and not only on the way to school. Also daily trips to town on foot or with the bicycle offer opportunities to exercise with your child the right behaviour in traffic in concrete situations and thereby sharpen its attentiveness and reactions.

Joint trips using public transport train the orientation and expand the possibilities of locomotion. Thus your child gradually learns to move in the city independently and assuredly.

Alternatives to the parent-taxi

Parents should accompany their children on the way to school in particular at the very beginning. This does not only give the child more security. When the child gradually starts moving independently and responsibly in traffic, the parents also become more assured of the fact that it knows how to overcome the challenges linked with traffic. Therefore parents have to be ready to let go in good time and to trust the skills of their children.

Many children learn about the big city from the backseat perspective. There are various reasons why parents drive their children through town. They are afraid of traffic accidents or violent assaults. It is often convenient to take the child along in the car because the school is located on the way to work. However, there are certain disadvantages in making the parent-taxi become a habit: Actually every third child involved in a road traffic accident is an occupant of a car involved in an accident. And every car ride increases the risk of accidents – also for children who are walking on foot especially on the way to school. Children who are constantly driven in a car lack physical exercise. This can be harmful to their health and robs them of a possibility to explore their surroundings themselves. Last but not the least, the negative impacts of driving on the environment and climate should be considered, the consequences of which the children will have to bare longer than us adults.

Children in particular should learn at an early stage that there are alternative possibilities of locomotion. This also prepares them for the traffic behaviour of the future which will surely change due to the shortage of energy. It is thus worthwhile to think about whether car rides could be avoided. The European Mobility Week from 16^th to 22^nd September 2009 in Berlin under the motto “For a better climate in the city“offers with numerous activities the opportunity to critically scrutinise your own mobility behaviour, and if possible change to environmentally friendly means of transport more often than as previously. Parents also have to serve as examples in this regard. If there is no other possibility of locomotion apart from the car, it is even more important to offer the children other occasions in which the child can exercise independently as a balance.

The city provides many possibilities for this. The Supplementary Letter “Children on the move“ offers many practical tips on how you can encourage the mobility of your child: with explorations on foot in your own quarters, with orientation games, with bicycle tours or exercises on how to deal with local public transport

Movement increases cleverness

Movement is an essential precondition which enables children to develop healthily. To walk, to dance, to play ball or just romp around is not only fun but also provides energy and trains the coordination and sense of balance. Exercise helps children to build a healthy relationship with their body. It is important for the mental development and promotes verifiable concentration and learning aptitude. Somebody who regularly walks to school alone and constantly has to create spatial relationships in so doing, can deduce mathematical relationships better than someone who is brought by car. During plays in the neighbourhood, in the quarter or at the playground not only do friendships develop, but arguments and rivalries are also settled here. While “moving along” with others, children learn the rules of how to get along together and develop their social intelligence.

Parents who can trust in the fact that their children can move in the city independently and safely, have to be less worried and have more time for themselves. Children who self-confidently and carefully go their own way are less dependent on adults. Movement is a basic need for children as well as for adults. We all have the responsibility to ensure that children’s rights are well taken care of.

Would you like to ask questions or make suggestions to the theme: Mobility of children in the city? Then please participate in the discussions of our forum or contact a4k or the “Arbeitskreis für Neue Erziehung e. V. (ANE)”.

Here you can order the parents‘ letter “Children on the move”:

Telephone: (030) 25 90 06 41

Online: ANE-Bestellservice