[coldtea]

In actual parts of Europe, kids DID walk 10 (or close) km to school, often uphill, both ways, and not that far back ago. That's not some BS folklore.

Here's a fifties school to get an idea: http://aromalefkadas.gr/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/68.jpg

This is from around the fifties. The kids aren't doing yoga or something -- they really don't have shoes -- they usually had just an incredibly warn-out pair at most, which they wore as part of their "good outfit" (for going to important events, church, etc).

No school buses -- actually no highways between lots of rural villages until late 60s, and a single school (in the central/bigger village) catering also for 3-4 nearby villages in what could be a 10-20 km radius.

And yes, they also did that with snow.

[semi-extrinsic]

Yes, you don't need to go more than 60 years back before even the socialist democracy utopia Norway was radically different from today. My grandfather grew up in the 40's and 50's, having eight siblings. At thirteen, his father died, so the three oldest boys (aged 11, 13 and 15) had to stop going to school and start working on fishing boats to provide for the family. He lost four of his cousins when they were trying to salvage scrap iron from a naval mine left after the war and it exploded.

The stories of our grandparents are stories that we would associate with a war-torn country in the third world if they happened today.

[raarts]

My father walked one and a half hour to school and back (big city in the netherlands). I walked for 20 mins until I went to high school where I used the bike. I think these days most kids bike to school my estimate is at least 80%. Don't know about other European countries but dropping your kids off is not the norm after the age of 8.

[joesmo]

My parents and aunts/uncles did indeed do this to get to school in the 50's in Eastern Europe. The school was in a different town so they had no choice.