When you live near a school you have a beautiful view on the diversity of methods by which children, parents and teachers arrive at school in the morning, back home in the evening. The car is a frequently chosen object, the school bus is clearly present as well, by bicycle is already a minority and by foot is only for those who live at a distance of some hundreds of meters.
Now, let's concentrate on those arriving by bicycle and, by extrapolation, to likewise situations in weekends and holidays. The parents do all their efforts to learn their children how to drive, how to indicate we go to left or right, what traffic regulations are all about etc. They support, encourage, show how it all works.
And still ... I always miss something in the way most parents, sometimes even teachers, perform their noble task. I notice it especially thanks to the colorfull scenery, made up of many bright spots on the dark background of the school walls. It's a bizar view in most cases; a colorfull carpet, always situated at childrens height, and here and there one above
Is it a strange twist in parents' mind? We teach, we show, we really want to give 'the good example', but still ...
We teach our children how to survive in modern day trafic and to be safe wherever they go, but still ...
We beg the more revolutionary ones to do what every child should do, but still ...
We protect and care, but still ...
But still ... how can we expect from our children that they follow 'the good example' if ...
At a certain morning I missed someone in the landscape of children, parents and teachers arriving at school. Afterwards, at breakfast, I did read the newspapers ... also the obituary notices ... and I ... and some of those children did know why
I always become very worried when I see a biking parent ... without a helmet on its mind.
Frans Vos
A concerned fellow men