Families who drive children to school have ‘tremendous sense of entitlement’ – Jonathan Healy
Parents who drive children short distances to school suffer from a “tremendous sense of entitlement”, Jonathan Healy has argued.
Ireland marks Clean Air Week between 17th and 21st November, which is organised by An Taisce’s Green-Schools Ireland.
This year, the organisation is focusing on a theme of ‘No Idling’, urging parents to switch off their car engines while waiting outside school.
On Newstalk Breakfast, presenter Jonathan Healy said far too many children are being driven to school.
“There is a tremendous sense of entitlement out there at the moment,” he said.
“‘I need to drop little Johnny directly to the school door, not down from the school door, not around the corner from the school door, at the school door itself.’
“I don’t know what they think is going to happen to little Johnny if they drop him around the corner or, God forbid, he walks or cycles to school.”
Jonathan added that he “cannot get his head around this”.
“We are creating an entire generation of young people right now, for whom it is normal to be dropped everywhere, that don’t use what God gave them – which is their legs,” he said.
“As a result, what have we stored up for the future if this is how we’re treating the kids now?”
Changing times
Fellow presenter Ciara Kelly said she lives in the same Wicklow town she grew up in and is shocked that so many children get driven to school, when growing up she and her peers would have walked the exact same difference.
“It would have to be bucketing cats and dogs before we would get a lift – if we were lucky,” she recalled.
“It was always walking, it was always cycling.”
When Ciara was young, there weren’t even buses to take them to school.
“Not only did it not do us any harm, it did us good,” she said.
“We were fit; we didn’t have the same issues around obesity, we didn’t have the same issues around sedentary lifestyles.
“We also had a bit of resilience, I think too.
“Now it turns out, the environment is worse as well.”
Main image: Jonathan Healy and a parent near a school. Pictures by: Newstalk and Alamy.com.
