Just followed a school bus through town...

Though with the amount of books and work that they pile on at an earlier and earlier age, I'm not too surprised. I wonder how I didn't end up with scoliosis from carrying my books in a shoulder bag from 7th grade on. But when I was in elementary school, we didn't have that kind of workload. Still though, kids are definitely fatter and lazier these days, as we've discussed ad nauseum in COJ. (Not bashing your thread at all, Ryan - I think the point continually needs to be made until someone does something about it)

Our school (elementary) only has one, maybe two busses. Everyone else has to drive or walk/bike. We have to drive because we live about 5 miles away, but I was pleasantly surprised to see how many kids walk or ride to school. The little bike lot is packed every day. Kids ride bikes (lots of those kind that attach to the parents bikes for the littlest kids), scooters, skateboards, ripsticks and walk. The school even has a deal with a church at the end of the street where people can park and then walk their kids the last 1/4 mile. It is so nice for us because it gets us outside and my DD gets to walk with her friends.

I love the dad who rides his bike and tows his kid on a skateboard with a rope around his waist! I know that defeats the purpose of exercise, but it looks fun!

We're hoping to move into the school district in the next two years so we could all walk/ride as well.

edited to add - we live in FL so obviously the weather is better suited for kids walking to school than in most areas 

I admit, most of the time we leave the car running when we have to wait in the car line to pick our DD up from school.  I know it's bad for the environment, bad for gas and all that - but it gets da*n hot in FL sitting in the 92 degree heat with the car turned off.  

Actually, I believe that this generation (ones getting on the school bus) for the first time have a LOWER life expectancy that our generation.

I think that says something right there.

Regarding backpacks with wheels -
My boys are very thin, athletic kids, and they have schoolbags which sling over one shoulder and have a bigger flap/opening, unlike the typical backpack.  They used to have wheeled backpacks for one or two years, but those blasted things got holes and wore out too quickly.  The point of the wheeled backpacks did make a lot of sense for a couple of reasons, and have one cosmetic reason:
1). Not injuring their necks and backs because they haven't fully developed yet, and
2). hauling a lot of "stuff" (books, shoes, jackets, whatever) that gets heavy, and then leads to 1).
3). Cosmetic reason was because they were "cool" and an "in" thing.

Yeah, and that makes sense. But I think the problem here is WHY the heck is a kindergartener getting so much homework that his backpack weighs more than he does? That's another thread, though...

Oh, I'm fully convinced that the fact that my right side of my body doesn't seem as stable/well-balanced/muscular as my left is from years of hauling books on that shoulder - not even kidding. My right leg is not as flexible as my left - I balance better on my left than my right, etc and there is definitely a very slight difference in leg length between the two, which is possibly from the muscles being too tight, from what I've read - as my spine is not crooked.

DP

Okay, then that's his problem then I was reading chapter books in kindergarten as well.

No Child Left Behind

as the OP : as my older son is 5 now, I've started noticing hefty looking kids more and more.  It is interesting to note how the child typically mirrors the parents, if the child is a porker, the parents tend to be hefty also (yes, yes - I know - gross generalization, but this is MY gross generalization based on MY perceptions).

It is sad when the "average" child is overweight.

Then again, take a look at the food served in the school and marketed to kids, along with a parents' lack of attentiveness to the child's caloric intake and it is easy to see where the problem lies. 

This is a great post. I grew up in New Zealand, lived in England for 8 years and Switzerland for a couple of years. In all the countries I have lived in I have never seen such a bunch of fat people as I see in America. It just seems to me every second person is bordering on obesity and every 5th person is morbidly obese including kids.

Why is this? Because fat based food is so much cheaper per calorie than good food. You can go to Macdonalds and get 1500 calories of food at about 60% fat for under $5. For me to get 1500 calories at lunch time of pasta/chicken vegetables costs me about $11. Go figure what are people gonna eat?

The Govt in my opinion should start adding fat taxes to food like they do for cigs and alchole. They can then use the proceeds to reduce costs for bread/milk or add it to funding health insurance for the $50m Americans uninsured.

Rant off!