Dear Editor:
Re: Herbert's 100: If these halls could talk, The Record, May 9.
I must take strong exception to Niki Hope's gratuitous remark that Herbert Spencer principal Tracy Fulton's childhood reminiscences were from a time when children could walk to the park by themselves.
Children today are just as capable of walking by themselves as those of yesteryear.
Ms. Hope is improperly holding children responsible for the absurd overprotectiveness of too many parents today - who have probably watched far too many U.S. television news reports of child abductions. (Incidentally, this climate of fear isn't helped by the flyers sent to parents by the school district every time a child walking to school encounters someone behaving unusually, which gravely warn that kids should walk in groups as "there is safety in numbers" - as if our community were a war zone.)
A British statistician recently calculated that if you wanted your child to be abducted, you would have to leave him or her outdoors unattended for, on average, 600,000 years.
I'm sure the numbers would be similar in Canada, yet too many of us allow our irrational fears to deprive our children of the joy and valuable life experience gained through independent outdoor play. Then we wonder why we have an obesity epidemic on our hands.
Greg DePaco, New Westminster
