Old Enough: the Japanese TV show that abandons toddlers on public transport
theguardian.com
theguardian.com
I'd personally put it straight into the "reality show" category.
Otherwise, children independence is a real thing. They'll walk by themselves to school as soon as they become first graders, often assisted by the other kids following the same path. And the city itself will be part of the effort: paths to schools will be visibly marked as such, they'll be checked for safety, residents will watch for kids that seem lost or adult people that could potentially be dangerous, cops will bike these course more often etc. It's not all rosy, but it is one of the best sides of the community thinking in Japan IMO.
The school teachers will do rotations on patrolling the walking paths. Moms volunteer at crosswalks. Local elderly conveniently do their morning gardening at this time. Older kids are expected to help the younger ones not get lost. A kid who habitually walks to school alone will be subjected to much concern by faculty.
I have witnessed personally phone calls coming into the office from local retirees saying a certain kid went off the predefined walking path in the morning. Which set off a HUGE commotion.
The result is that students as young as 6 walk to school on their own. It’s a masterclass in fostering independence and urban navigation—important traits for a nation that has some of the densest urban areas on the planet.
By the age of 10 I was taking an intercity train about 70 miles to visit my grandmother by myself. A part of getting to my grandmother's place was to change trains for a local suburban one at an 8-platform interchange station and when I alighted from that suburban train I had to walk several miles to my grandmother's place, this meant crossing a main interstate highway.
I think we grossly underestimat%e what kids can actually do. It horrifies me to see the way kids are overprotected these days - driven to and from school etc.
Tragically, we've already bred and are still breeding generations of kids who are so timid that they're even frightened of their own shadows.
BTW, I wasn't unique, it was the norm for most kids back then. Moreover, my mother was overprotective of us kids by the then standard of other mothers. This annoyed me when in primary school as I'd get teased about it by other kids.
Nevertheless, the busiest time for traffic is school start and finish times when mothers clog the streets for many blocks around local schools. There's a school at the far end of my street and about a quarter hour before the end of the school day the street is blocked with cars.
It's madness, I feel really sorry for those kids and I think myself very lucky for the freedom I had as a kid in that I could roam anywhere and do anything I wanted without helicopter parents hovering over me everywhere I went.