YORKTON – You might have heard a somewhat unusual sound Tuesday as many parents in the city breathed a hearty sigh of relief as their children headed back to school.
All right having the kids home for the summer is not typically that bad but it is certainly an indication of the arrival of fall when school starts.
And, that means it’s also time to get back into children on the street early in the morning and again mid afternoon as the trek to and from the various institutions of learning is scattered throughout the city.
While school zones are well marked – the flashing signs a good added touch – to make sure drivers remember to slow down in the zones because many children are crossing streets there, we need to remember they are not the only streets our children will need to cross on their school journeys.
Whether children are walking or bicycling to school they are at times likely to be distracted as youth can be by a wave from a friend, a chattering squirrel, barking dog, or simply thoughts of what they have in their lunch bag, or will play at recess.
So it is up to drivers to simply be a bit more diligent now that school has begun.
Just remember youth can pop out of seemingly nowhere at times, and we need to employ our best driving skills to keep them as safe as possible throughout the school year.
After all we know all to well that today’s youth are tomorrow’s future.
Turn on the television or sift through the ‘Net and we quickly realize we are in a rapidly changing world and our children will need varied skills as they grow into their collective future to thrive and survive.
Of course parents play a huge role in setting their foundation for the future teaching tolerance, understanding and equality for all, the sort of core things we need instilled from a young age.
And then we hand our youth over to the education system where we trust our children will be given the diverse education so they grow up to be good adults.
For that to happen of course education needs to be a varied thing. It is not a one size fits all sort of thing. Not all youth learn at the same rate, or in the same way, and not all thrive within the same set of classes. It’s not an easy thing we expect of our educators, teaching diverse youth in a way that builds on their individual strengths to succeed.
So as we remember to drive more cautiously, we might also want to pause to thank our teachers as they begin another year of helping build the foundation of the Canada of tomorrow – our youth.
