In the United States, formal education begins on the road, often along the city street. Nowadays for the bulk of students away from downtown urban America, it begins aboard the yellow school bus collecting children bound for the first day of kindergarten. Before most children encounter principals and teachers, they meet the driver of the school bus. The driver enforces rules—no hanging out windows, jumping over seats, throwing things. Inside the school bus the sixyearolds find a new sort of teaching perhaps, certainly a new authority very unlike parents.

Website: http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/nattrans/ntuseland/essays/roads.htm