A use for bike helmets
On 2/18/2019 11:41 AM, Joy Beeson wrote:
Just saw a cartoon in which a kid with a slice off a sphere precariously balanced on his head is speaking to a kid wearing a horned helmet: "Dude, I said let's go *biking* this weekend." Without the plastic hat, how would we have known that the child was dressed for riding his little bike? Which is on a roof rack on a car in the background. I wonder who will drive the two children to their playground? ---------------------------------------------------------------- I'truth, the plastic-hat craze would do no harm were it not that it makes it impossible to promote bike safety. Every time the topic is brought up, "We'll buy everybody a plastic hat!" Check, that's taken care of, next topic. Agreed. I've been through training and certification to teach bike safety to kids. I mentioned this to a friend of mine, principal of a nearby middle school and so he asked about me doing such a program. I said I could do that, but warned him that I would not promote or mandate helmets. He said "Oh, but our parents really believe in helmets." And he apparently decided not to put on that program. The issue has reached the stage where helmets are dogma. Skepticism isn't even tolerated. -- - Frank Krygowski |
A use for bike helmets
On Mon, 18 Feb 2019 13:19:56 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote: On 2/18/2019 11:41 AM, Joy Beeson wrote: Just saw a cartoon in which a kid with a slice off a sphere precariously balanced on his head is speaking to a kid wearing a horned helmet: "Dude, I said let's go *biking* this weekend." Without the plastic hat, how would we have known that the child was dressed for riding his little bike? Which is on a roof rack on a car in the background. I wonder who will drive the two children to their playground? ---------------------------------------------------------------- I'truth, the plastic-hat craze would do no harm were it not that it makes it impossible to promote bike safety. Every time the topic is brought up, "We'll buy everybody a plastic hat!" Check, that's taken care of, next topic. Agreed. I've been through training and certification to teach bike safety to kids. I mentioned this to a friend of mine, principal of a nearby middle school and so he asked about me doing such a program. I said I could do that, but warned him that I would not promote or mandate helmets. He said "Oh, but our parents really believe in helmets." And he apparently decided not to put on that program. The issue has reached the stage where helmets are dogma. Skepticism isn't even tolerated. The most pitiful part is that bicycles have somehow been converted from a common transportation device for children to something that is dangerous enough that special protective devices are necessary just to get on one of the things. When I was a kid practically every kid in town had a bicycle and rode it to the movies, to swimming, and back and forth to the store when their mother sent them for another bottle of milk. We even rode bare footed. Today (apparently) one doesn't dare let the kid out of the driveway without a special hat and even then, "to be safe", one has to ferry the kid and the bicycle to the play grounds in order for them to ride. I am ignoring the fact that a third of the U.S. population is obese https://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/top...itioninfo/risk "More than 35% of U.S. adults are obese, and more than 34% are overweight.2 Obesity affects 17% of all children and adolescents in the United States, which is three times the prevalence from just one generation ago. Nearly 32% of children and adolescents are either overweight or obese." Think of it, from "The Land of the Free and the Brave" to "The Land of the Fat and Obese" in a single generation. -- Cheers, John B. |
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