I remember walking to infants school from the age of 5 a few weeks after starting. A little boy called Alan who lived round the corner used to escort me . Walked to primary in the dark at the age of 7 (Fife often doesn't have proper daylight until after 9am in winter). We had reflective armbands on our duffel coats and little Vidor brand torches to make it fun. It was dark again by 3.30pm. That was many moons ago, over 50 years to be precise, and there were weirdos and paedophiles around much the same as today. However, my street and the one next to it had houses that were allocated to 4 police constables and 2 sergeants so it felt very safe.

I live across from a Kindergarten and near to a school in Basel so see kids of different ages passing my flat twice a day, they seem very confident and independent like my generation of kids were back in the 60s and 70s.

My daughter attended a security training Luca & Lea conducted by the former police officer from Bern and organised each year by our local parents club. The home assignment for the second session was to draw the path to the school/kindergarten and to mark safe and dangerous places along the way. During the second session the kids discussed their drawings with the trainer. It was an interesting experience and lots of useful information for kids. I'm going to register my younger kid for the next course. I'm not sure if something similar exists in the non-German speaking parts of the country, but it might be worth searching for it.

For our town it's pretty normal for the kids to go to KiGa alone from K1 already (4/5 years). My both kids started walking alone before they turned 5.

It's not a different world at all, people are simply more aware of what has always existed.

Tom

And I find it great!

Tom

I know that kids do here, as well.

Heidis.

I see you've met my mother.

Counting back I must have started Kindergarten at age 5.5, one year only back then.

I grew up in a single-earner household. Mom was basically always home, on the few occasions she wasn't she'd make arrangements with our neighbors. The area was mostly single-family homes, attached homes, with a few 3-familiy homes (including ours) in between. Everybody knew everybody, literally, including who you'd better avoid for whatever reason. But with dad being a blue-collar worker we always had to do our part, and apparently I was able to fairly young.
It is indeed, crime rates have been halved. Plus what Tom already said, perception vs. reality.

And that increased awareness/knowledge is the difference. So the less savoury elements have had to up their game accordingly.

What is the point you are making? I find the complacency troubling.

That safeguarding isn't applied to where vulnerable people are? Oh Tom.

You know what? I cannot be bothered to argue this with you. I thought I had the energy but... have at it. Just don't venture too far out of that complacent bubble.

To the OP - some people asked about why your child left school. In one of your comments you said that she said she didn’t like all eyes on her - but you didn’t know what she meant. My child is the same. It means they don’t like having to stand up and talk in front of people with “all eyes on them”. Going back to school my child was very stressed about having to say what we did during the holidays...we spent a week or more preparing one or two sentences....

Theater courses are great for this.

More people though. However... If the number of people absolute have doubled, then it's the same number of crimes. Still very low though.

All about perception.

Maybe you misunderstood. We all find it great that kids walk alone or in a group to kindergarten, most of us have started to walk alone to school a bit later. So the accent on independence starts earlier here, that's a good thing.

However, locking the school door would do very little to diminish this autonomy, as I see it it's only to prevent nefarious elements from walking into a kindergarten or school without being seen by the teachers. There was a case I read about a few years ago. Of course the odds that this would happen are very slim (in CH) but they still exist.

My kids were taught to meet up with the neighbour kids and walk to school together. They rarely walked alone.

It is a good combo - the fact that kids can safely walk to and from school alone and the fact that school does not have to be locked. I hope it stays that way for a long time.