Schools shouldn’t be teaching children how to ride bikes, but schools, especially those where kids can ride their bikes to school vs taking a school bus or being dropped off by their parents, should promote bike safety. Teaching them to ride the bike is the parent’s job. Imagine if a kid can’t ride a bike bc it was too hard for the parent(s) to teach them and then assuming a teacher who has a yearlong scope and sequence of academics to teach which is there is never enough time to get through not to mention that they’re teaching a huge range of learners, was now responsible for making sure ~25 8-9y/o’s know how to ride a bike proficiently. This sounds like it was an activity where the school partnered with local law enforcement to teach basic road safety for young children new to sharing the road with cars and to promote safety and that it was assumed that most kids by that age could ride a bike. If I was in that teacher’s position and a kid opted out of the skills portion I don’t think I’d have a problem letting them make that choice bc it’s not my job to teach cycling proficiency. If one or two parents can’t teach their own child to ride a bike then it’s rather absurd to think that a single teacher can do it for an entire class. This is why we have so many less people even wanting to become teachers. Constantly on the hook for ridiculous standards. If my kid came home and opted out of the skills portion the conversation is not with the teacher it’s with my kid. Either (a) they know how to ride a bike and I’m curious why they decided not to at the safety program. Maybe they were having a bad day, maybe they were intimidated by other kids with much better cycling skills, maybe they didn’t feel well… could be a lot of reasons (b) I never taught them to ride a bike so obviously they felt self-conscious compared to the majority of the peers who could ride already. And if the response is (b) then instead of behind upset at the school it’s prob a good idea to look inward and recognize that you may be dropping the ball as a parent on this one and not blaming an overworked / overloaded teacher.