Why Can't Johnny Ride his Bike to School Anymore?

Why can't my kid ride their bike to school anymore?"

Most people when they think on that question would say that the reason why you need to drive up to the school to pickup/drop off your child is because the world is less safe. That between the time when we were children and now the world has gone off the deep end; become immoral, unfair, "Not the world I grew up in".

This is poppycock.

In point of fact, the statistical data from organizations that keep such data indicates that crime has been steadily failing since 1993. I have a theory on that that involves the 'war on drugs', but that would be for another time. Let's stick to the original question about bikes and school.

If it were truly a more dangerous world, would we let our children ride bikes at all? Would we allow them, not during school hours, but after school and on the weekends, the right to go outside and play? If the world were more dangerous would we give our children, on their own time, the right to be outside in the dangerous world? The plain answer, of course, is no. 

We still see children outside on Saturday afternoon. They still hop on skateboards and bicycles and ride to a nearby park to mess around with their friends. They still build jumps and dirt tracks on side lots and abandoned parking lots. Kids are still out there. Still participating in the world, that we have been told is 'so dangerous'.

The truth is worse.

School is mandated by the State. You have zero choice in the matter. If you are wealthy in cash you can put child in a private school. If you are wealthy in time you can teach them yourselves. But most people are neither.

This forced participation is slavery, period. It is slavery for all of us in fact, due to the requirement of paying taxes. But it is clear in the relationship the State has with its children.

The child is not allowed to ride their bike to school because if something were to happen to the child on the way to or from school, it would be the State that would burden the responsibility. Because the State has claimed by force, that the child be some place, doing something, for a certain amount of time: That is the definition of slavery. 

It matters not where the slave injuries himself, be it the fields picking cotton or in the bunkhouse making his dinner. The slave master is responsible for his well being for the entire length of his slavery. The only moment the slave master is no longer responsible is the moment he frees the man from bondage. The slave master absolves himself at that point because the free man can make his own decisions. 

The State understands this and thus, refuses to take responsibility for their required involvement by pretending to protect your child. They say, "We can't be responsible for anything that happens to your child outside of school grounds." 

What they fail to understand is that the act of enslaving the children for a number of hours of the day effectively enslaves the parent. If in the process of being forced to drive my child to school I get a flat, the school is responsible for that flat. If I get in an accident, the school is responsible for that accident. For the same reason they feel the child must be driven to school. Because, if I was not forced to work in the fields the State mandated, I would be free to choose my own direction.

No, it isn't because the world is less safe, that we as people are more dangerous, it is because the State is less safe and less responsible for its actions. The State refuses to take the responsibility it wanted control over. The State, as usual, is the real villain here. Not us.