Walking to School

When I was in the first grade, I would walk to school with my sister.  The next year she moved to middle school, and I started walking to school myself.  It was five blocks, and my parents never thought anything about it.  I never considered that it was unsafe or anything to warrant concern.  My son is still a few years from going to school, but when he does he will go to the same grade school I went to.  We live eight blocks away.  One day as we drove by the school, I mentioned to my husband that soon our son would be walking or riding his bike to school.  “No!” he said immediately.  He said it was too far and too dangerous to let him walk to school by himself.   I was surprised by his reaction.  Will my son never know the joy of a leisurely walk back from school, kicking leaves and hopping over cracks in the sidewalk?  Is the world he is growing up in so dangerous that he can’t walk a mere eight blocks alone?  I don’t know that I agree with my husband about this, but I am sad that my son is growing up in a world where we have to have this discussion.  I don’t want him to miss out on the simple pleasures of life because we are too afraid to let him experience it.