A story of a child who discovers the joy of walking to school after his teleporter breaks

Question

As the title suggests, it is a story where a child discovers the joy of walking to school.

This is a dystopic novel.

At their age, they use teleportation for their travel. They are very germophobic.

No one goes out of their houses physically.

One day, the child goes off to school (or returns, I don't remember) on foot, because the teleportation thing was not working. Then he enjoys it and goes to school and returns back physically. Everyone is shocked (and disgusted, I guess?).

Well, that's the story. I have no idea when or where I read it.

Answer 1

This is It's Such a Beautiful Day by Isaac Asimov. First published in 1955 in Star Science Fiction Stories No. 3, it's available to read online thanks to the Internet Archive.

Summary per Wikipedia:

Set in the year 2117, the story presents District A-3, a newly built suburb of San Francisco, and the world's first community to be built entirely using Doors, a method of travel via teleportation.

When the Door that transfers him from home to school fails, Richard "Dickie" Hanshaw takes a dislike to the method and starts to wander outside in the unfamiliar open, exposed to the elements. When he catches a cold, Mrs. Hanshaw is horrified and takes him to see Dr. Sloane, a psychiatrist, afraid that her son's wanderings are signs of a mental abnormality.

Despite his own misgivings, Dr. Sloane invites Dickie to go for a walk with him in the open, and Sloane learns to understand and appreciate the boy's dislike of moving around by matter transference and his newly acquired interest in the open air. Dr. Sloane advises Mrs. Hanshaw not to disapprove of Dickie's odd hobby so heavily, to treat it as if it is no big deal. This will remove its tantalizing aura of forbiddenness, and soon Dickie will lose interest in it and turn his attention to more "normal" interests.

At the conclusion of his consultation with Dickie and Mrs. Hanshaw, Dr. Sloane succumbs to Dickie's viewpoint and says, "You know, it's such a beautiful day that I think I'll walk."