The Commute

Jonathan got a Student Pass for public transit. He can ride any public bus, train, or tram in the entire state of Victoria with his pass, and his student ID card.

There are no yellow school buses here. Children take trams and trains to school. Younger children walk with their parents. Secondary school children go on their own. After two days of riding to and from school with parents, Jonathan asked if he could please try the commute on his own, like the rest of the children in his school.

We had always planned to let Jonathan take the tram to school alone eventually, where eventually was some abstract place in the inconceivable future when he was tall and old. But after just two days?

I had to take some deep breaths, and talk about it with local friends and neighbors over the weekend. The overall response was, "Of course he wants to ride alone." And tales along the lines of, "My oldest has been taking the train alone since year five."

Parents here can hardly understand why anyone would not want an older child to make their own way to school, where "older" apparently means "eleven". After some thought a couple of people sympathized with my position.

"I understand why parents would be afraid to let their child take the tram alone in the US. There are lots of guns in the US."

But we're in Australia. So we let him go.

Tim waits with Jonathan at the tram stop in the mornings. Jonathan takes the tram to school on his own, and catches tram or train home on his own. He has a prepaid phone. He can call if there are problems.

But meanwhile, the child suddenly knows what freedom feels like.

That pass he has, the pass that is good on any public bus, train, or tram in the state of Victoria, has opened up his eyes to options. He mentioned to his dad a few days ago that he could take the train after school to the city centre and buy a snack, then come home. And his dad said yes, he could do that. He had his own pocket money that he could spend. And his mom said, "But call if you are going to be too late!" And the boy and his dad both rolled their eyes and reminded me that I was the last one home, so I would be last to know. But still.

Wednesday, during Jonathan's morning tram ride to school alone, a few train-crossing gates in the city got stuck down, completely blocking traffic -- for 90 minutes. The traffic, I hear, was horrendous. One of those gates was on the road to Jonathan's school, and he got stuck in the tram for almost two hours.

When it was clear he was going to be late for school, Jonathan called Tim, who called the school, who sent out a message saying that they were aware of the train-gate problem, and they wouldn't be handing out any detentions for being late. Tim called Jonathan back to let him know.

Jonathan completely missed his first class, and he reported that he was the last of his classmates to arrive. But everything got sorted out. No worries, as they say here.

Even though some of us do worry.

Sometimes you have to let a child go, when they are responsible and mature. Let them go, be part of the culture in which they have landed.

The trams, Jonathan reports, were running fine, right on time, on Thursday and Friday.