Are you from Japan?
patio11: Yes, it is considered normal for a Japanese child in elementary school to get themselves to and from school.For the first few years they typically travel in gigantic groups with an adult chaperone -- think of it like meeting your schoolbus at the corner, except the bus is a bunch of people walking together.  After that, they'll mostly be biking to school alone or in small groups.Factors which make this more common than the U.S: hyper-secure streets, availability of public transportation (it isn't unusual in my neck of the woods for home and school to be separated by a 30 minute train ride), hyper-secure public transportation, and a good lump of inertia.  (How many institutions like that really change, when you think about it.  The U.S. still has a summer vacation so that kids can help Mom and Dad on the farm, for Pete's sake.)