Image by dhendrix73 on Flickr.com.

It is the time of year in the United States when children, adolescents, and some adults are headed back to school.  In honor of this ‘back to school’ time of year we are going to take a look at an iconic part of going to school as an American – riding a big yellow school bus.

In America today school buses provide transportation to school for more than half of all American children. In fact, around 28 million children ride school buses everyday.  One of the most amazing things about these buses for me is that children ride for free! Free public schools and free transportation to school is the standard in the United States and big yellow school buses are used to transport most of these children.

Group transportation of children to schools in the United States dates back to the 19th century when horse drawn wagons picked up groups of children and brought them to one-room schoolhouses. Over the years schools have grown bigger and further apart, and school buses have also gotten bigger and they are no longer drawn by horses.

School buses in the United States are easily spotted too. By law, all school buses in the United States have to be “school bus yellow”. This standard paint color dates back to 1939. The reason yellow was chosen for the color of all school buses is because it is considered the easiest color to see at dawn and dusk, when children are often riding buses to and from school. So, this color was selected for safety and visibility reasons and it has never changed.

American children usually wait for the school bus to pick them up at a designated spot, called ‘the bus stop.’ School bus stops are usually informal, and without a built shelter, like public transportation bus stops. When I was a child my bus stop was the corner of the street I lived on. Often children just wait in front of their house for the school bus to pick them up. School buses drive the same route everyday and so children come to learn exactly what time they need to be at their stop, so as not to wait too long or not miss the bus. If a child misses the school bus there isn’t anything they can do, the bus doesn’t wait and it does not come back! So, children have to learn to be on time to catch the bus.

For many children their first ride on a school bus is a very memorable and exciting experience, but not for all. Check out this famous scene from the movie Forest Gump in which you see Forest’s first time on a school bus.

In fact, yellow school buses show up all over American culture, in movies like the one above, in music, and in books. There is a famous children’s book series called The Magic School Bus you may have heard of, too (you can find more about The Magic School Bus at this link: http://www.scholastic.com/magicschoolbus/).

Whether you are on your way back to school this time of year or not, I hope you have enjoyed learning a little more about the iconic big yellow American school bus.