Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Nickbat]

Daughter's Year 4 literacy homework:

"Lots of you walk to school because you know how important it is for the environment. Are your parents so eco friendly? Write a letter to persuade them that they should walk to work every day"

I work from home.

SWMBO works 6 miles away and frequently doesn't finish her shift until midnight.

Teacher drives her Mini Cooper to school each day.

One blank piece of homework about to be handed in, methinks.

[jereboam]

What planet are these people living on?  In 40-odd years of working for a living, involving 20 or so different jobs, I can only remember one occasion on which I had a job within walking distance of my home.

This is the 21st century, not the 19th.

Barmy.

[Varche]

"Lots of you walk to school"  Things must have changed a great deal since I left the grey land. In those days very few kids walked to school, instead they were ferried in a frenzy of 4X4's and Bugbladder beasts of Trall that clogged the local roads up during rush hour. In fact they were the rush hour.

If I had a child my childs letter would start as follows:

Dear Dad, We are learning about the environment at school. Will you start walking the six miles to work each day? As you will have to set off earlier each day and arrive back later, I am learning (in home economics - remember that) how to cook, clean, iron, decorate, change the DIS pack and do the washing and gardening so that you will just be able to put your tired feet up and enjoy a glass of orange juice (no alcohol in front of us children)......... 

[smithpa7]

I decided I would use public transport during my last job. 4 miles across the river Tyne. I had a 25 minute walk to the 'local' Metro station, a 12 minute journey on the Metro and a 10 minute walk at the other end. Total of 1 hour 34 minutes return. Buses would have been worse .
I lasted 4 weeks and decided to drive. 8 to 10 minutes there and the same back.
Unfortunately public transport has a long way to go.
At my son's school only one teacher cycles to work, all the others drive :-/ :-/

[same #same#]

if they want us to walk to work or use a bus, either bring work closer or fix the buses and the price, bloody hurts your back on the bumps, + look at the news and you would not want to walk to work or any were.

[Squidy]

if i had to walk to work, id have to figure out how to carry 2 pairs of 12-15' ladders 10 6' pole sections, a 250 litre water tank and 150m hose reel plus 12v batt, pump, buckets etc  60+miles a day

[Nickbat]

Of course the opening line: "Lots of you walk to school because you know how important it is for the environment..." is utter tosh.

Those who walk to school live within walking distance and Year 4s are generally accompanied by parents/carers. Their mode of travel is dictated by the accompanying adult, not by the eco-desires of 8- or 9-year olds.

Those who do not live within walking distance, don't walk. I appreciate, though, that such a statement may be too advanced for today's eco-teachers. 

[Nickbat]

if i had to walk to work, id have to figure out how to carry 2 pairs of 12-15' ladders 10 6' pole sections, a 250 litre water tank and 150m hose reel plus 12v batt, pump, buckets etc  60+miles a day

You capitalist planet wrecker! How can you become a true greenie with that attitude? Jack the job in and grow some lentils from home. 

[albitz]

Indoctrination of the young and innocent into a political mindset is sick imo, it makes me very angry indeed. If it were my child I would be down the school for a chat with the head.
Hopefully the cuts announced in the commons today will help cut of the supply of funds for this type of nonsense.
On a slightly different note - I was reading today that in the last days of the previous govt. Ed ballls signed off £2.5 biilion in new spending on education projects, despite being told by the treasury that there was no money in the coffers at all to pay for it. He was simply writing cheques that he knew would bounce.
I think there should be some mechanism for criminal proceedings in such circumstances.

[Squidy]

teachers will create more pollution by buying a new mini cooper or whatever every few years than me maintaining and  running old stuff

[Nickbat]

Indoctrination of the young and innocent into a political mindset is sick imo, it makes me very angry indeed. If it were my child I would be down the school for a chat with the head.
Hopefully the cuts announced in the commons today will help cut of the supply of funds for this type of nonsense.
On a slightly different note - I was reading today that in the last days of the previous govt. Ed ballls signed off £2.5 biilion in new spending on education projects, despite being told by the treasury that there was no money in the coffers at all to pay for it. He was simply writing cheques that he knew would bounce.
I think there should be some mechanism for criminal proceedings in such circumstances.

Indeed, Albs. My daughter doesn't know the capital cities of any European countries (bar Paris), yet I saw recently on "Are you smarter than a ten-year old", all the children knew the capital of Brazil; my point being that some kids do get educated properly. Sadly, though, my daughter's school seems to put environmentalism above all else.

Fortunately, her next school is a LOT better.

[Richie London]

10 miles to work, 3 buses. and about 60kgs of tools to carry. i wouldnt walk even if i was in walking distance anyway, and had nothing to carry. 

[CaptainZok]

Wouldn't she be better writing a letter to her lentil munching teachers explaining what hypocrisy means?

[bertiecbx550]

I walk at work does that count? Sometimes it is unpracticable for us to walk to work but then again i`m gonna have to learn where th e bus stops are in wolvo town centre cause they are rebuilding the bus station and have spread em all over the city....

[zvi]

for beter housing we live outside the city. but the jobs are in the city. who's get the time to walk to work