In Washington D.C. , cycling will now be a part of the elementary schooltime curriculum . This year , all second grader in the city ’s public school are learning how to hinge on a bike in phys ed .
The metropolis already incorporates cycle safety education into its curriculum as part ofSafe Routes to School , a interior nonprofit that encourages biking and walk to school . Instructors from a local cycle advocacy nonprofit fall and instruct the kids introductory prophylactic science to aid them bike to shoal safely — but the instructor began to notice that declamatory groups of tike did n’t just require safety training , they call for more basic instruction on how to ride a bicycle in the first place .
Learning to ride a bike is loosely something you do outdoors of schooltime , with your parent or family unit , so if you do n’t have admission to a bike , a safe spot to ride , and a relative with the meter and inclination to learn you , it ’s easy to grow up never learning .
So the urban center decided to make bike riding a part of D.C. Public Schools ' cornerstone syllabus , implemented across the entire school day district . The D.C. Department of Transportation grease one’s palms 475 sturdy bike that will be reassign between school across the district . The program is designed so that a one-quarter of the district ’s elementary schools will have enough motorcycle and helmets at any one sentence so that each second grader will get his or her own bike during P.E. After a few weeks , the bikes will be rotated to a different schooltime . Another 475 bike are on order , so that eventually half the uncomplicated school in the territory will have them at once .
Since some 2d graders already hump how to turn on , those child will have a chance to do obstacle course or otherwise better their riding skills , while those who have never been on a bike will have more specialized teaching to learn the bedrock . The universal bike educational activity enterprise will also put the city’sexpanding motorcycle share programwithin reaching for more people . The goal is to give more people in D.C. the ability to get around town in a healthy , environmentally friendly , cost - effective way .
[ h / t : CityLab ]
