Strange start to today, including yoyos and violence

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Many of you have noted how I’ve commented on how rude and disrespectful many youths are, as well as their parents are today. Today went to another level.

So, I broke down and was carrying stuff with me today.

I’m changing a string on my Classic I use for 1A since it had a shorter string on it for a 3A configuration I set it up for at Kendamay. This kid, who was African American, and I’m mentioning this because that’s what he is, demanded I give him my kendama on my bag. I said no. So he gets up in my face and demands one of my yoyos, which I also refused. So he stayed in my face. I simply said “Stand down now” with a harsh look on my face, and the kid saw that despite his height advantage, he lost this fight.

Good. Well, for lack of a better term.

No. It gets worse.

The typical crowd is forming and Mr. Personality is intent I guess on trying to take advantage of the situation. Whatever. A kid comes up with his crappy looper and wants me to examine it, but that’s OK, I get that all the time. It’s fine, but it’s cheap, but otherwise working. The other kid who I am singling out for behavioral problems above, PUSHES and knocks down a much smaller kid to the ground. Sorry, I had to act. I directly confronted him in his face(think Sgt. Hartman in Full Metal Jacket minus the language) and was “WHY DID YOU DO THAT” and the kid’s answer was, “I was just playin’”

Playing doesn’t involve hurting MUCH smaller kids. I told him I’m flat out sick of his blatant disrespect. He said “I didn’t disrespect”. I informed him that he demanded my kendama,(I was just playin’) and then demanded a yoyo(I was just jokin’). I told him he’s disrespectful, he’s attempting to bully others and is hurting other kids. I then told him to leave this area, get in line and never come near me again.

He decided to play his “I was just playin’” routine, and I said “Cram it. That ain’t playing. Now get in your line since you can’t figure out how to behave as a civilized individual”. I simply then stood there, arms crossed and he got the message “show is over, I lost big time”.

When he left, I resumed.

I’m not singling him out because of race. At that school, I’ve had to get involved and break up little skirmishes between kids of all sorts of races, including white, Asian, Latino and more. Most are just kids playing too hard, and I’ve had to stop my son from doing similar things, especially to this black kid who is in his class(they are friends, but the black boy is really small compared to the rest of his class and he could get hurt easier). Very few of these are actual fights, which I’ve only broken up one of simply by skating next to them and they ended up bumping into me, thus distracting them and stopping the fight. I’ve also been made unreasonable demands to “hand over the goods” by nearly all races and ethnic groups represented by the school.

Sorry. I’m just sick of things. Maybe I’m being selfish for wanting those few minutes to myself to throw, or at least share it with others. But, having to deal with someone else hurting another person, that’s flat out unacceptable.

Rant off for now.

I think it’s time to use the camera function on my phone a bit more so I can better report individuals.

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Honestly it hurts to think about how stupid some people in this world are. Like seriously I think of how many idiots and douchecanoes there are in this world and it frustrates me so much. I ask myself why certain people have to exist. It’s so freaking annoying. I can’t stand some people.

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A lot of children aren’t taught manners. It is sad.

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Kids these days… GET OFF MY LAWN!

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Note to self, Studio42 is an absolute badass.

Props for standing your ground.

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Oh my gosh I don’t even know what to say about this, I have a pretty big family (10 kids in total) and I never have to deal with this kind of crap with any of my younger siblings (I’m sorta the family “sheriff” if you will) This is just BS. plain old BS.

Please let me find this little dweeb and make him feel like the piece if crap that he is. This is just ridiculous, what happened to common sense and reason? I mean at least the parent should have some sort of way to tell their children “YOU CAN NOT DO THAT” when they are supposedly parenting them.

Geezuz.

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This is why we decided my wife would retire from teaching and we would homeschool…

The stories I could tell you of parents who expect the teachers to raise their children…

and with that - I will stop before I begin ranting…

Glad you are ok and things did not escalate. Stay safe.

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Studio42 i am extremely interested in what you actually look like, so when i hear these things i can watch it happen in my head.

And kids aren’t taught manners any more, just after school today waiting for the bus (so like 90 minutes ago) i decided to do 5A in front of people for the first time, when i was doing a (i think its called a) butterfly (im horrible at remembering names :p), some 6th grader from the middle school (who i dont even know how he got over to the high school) yelled i wanna try and grabed my die, during the move, and the yoyo came up and smashed into the top of his hand and he started to cry.

WARNING: FROM HERE ON I MORE OF JUST RANT.

Now thats not really maners, but more of common sense, but how supid do you have to be to 1. Grab a fastly moving small dense object and 2. Grab that object while its attached to a larger spinning metal object moving just as fast. Its cuz parents think more about self esteem, and pamper their kid which in all makes them think theyre invincible. You know what my parents did? they actually showed me the world, they didnt believe in raising my self esteem by letting me win things, they let me go out and build things, and the most important thing they did was make me earn everything im proud of. I mean in 7th grade i built a fully functioning hovercraft and not one of the one you plug into a wall, but one that has an engine and can go on water. I designed it, did the math, built an engine, cut the wood, built an exhaust system, design a control system, sewed the skirt for it (its the fabric under the craft), the only thing i didnt build on it were the fans and the cages around them because i didnt know how to machine then. Sure it took a long time, and i may have unwantedly fallin in a lake (first like 6 water tests didnt go to well), but i earned a hovercraft. Now im not saying that if you want a hovercraft then build one (seriously i started like February of 7th grade and didnt finish till August and the stuff used for the skirt is hard as heck to sew took me like a month to do just that), but if a kid nowadays wants something all they have to do is whine about it they expect to get it, and because of it they thing if they want something all they need to do is take it and it theirs.

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Mr. Personality decided he could take me after school.

Keep in mind, if he’s 6th grade, what is that, like 12?

I’m 41.

He’s got sneakers. I’m on roller blades.

There’s advantages and disadvantages either way. One clear point is: There’s a high probability that, depending on how things go down, I’m in a lose-lose situation here.

He decides to take a few short steps deliberately into my path, causing me to have to do a spin just to stop my slow speed and avoid running into him(as I would anyone else). The fast stop threw me off balance, which for me is fairly normal when I do such stops. Turning to face the direction I was traveling in before being cut off, he decides he’s gonna take a swing at me. Fortunately, he mis-judged or else I might have taken a shot to the chest. I think some teacher was already heading my way because the little bits of other stuff happened fast. He grabbed my YYE 5-pocket bag, but since I have it sitting on my right side(where he snagged it), it goes across my chest and back, with the strap being on the left side of my neck, so all he did was manage to jerk me around a bit. I almost lost my balance, but I’m on inline skates so that’s not saying much. I lose my balance a lot anyways. Anyhow, he’s saying I took his bag, and a teacher grabbed him and pulled him off me.

Please note: my YYE bag has a Studio42 pin(pictures on my Facebook album Studio42 SWAG) attached with locking backs on both the strap AND the flap as well as a Studio42 button, which oddly enough matches my Studio42 hat and silicone wristband I was wearing. Right, that’s his bag. Gee, nearly all the staff recognizes me as “The YoYo Man” at the school and knows I carry that bag everywhere.

Needless to say, I won. I didn’t really have a defense or “attack” plan. This isn’t the sort of garbage you expect to have to experience at an elementary school. I just figured I’d roll in like any other day, get my kids, head home. Instead, I had one heck of an experience, that I’m sure may be brought up at the meeting I am going to at the school for a completely unrelated issue. There’s some sort of planning meeting for the school’s 10 year anniversary and they want some sort of celebration thing. I’ll see if I’m available and if they need sound for it.

I just don’t understand kids these days. I also don’t understand the lack of parenting. I don’t understand where these values are coming from.

I’ve had enough excitement for one day. Although this is trivial stuff in my regular day to day stuff, especially when I do events.

Clearly, the people who come to be a part of the YoYo community understand mutual respect and how to behave(for the most part). Thank you. Parents: thank you as well.

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If it happens again just do what i do, use your opponents momentum and redirect it, i broke a kids hand that way, but he had it coming. He was a bully and i sometimes have a realy short fuse and i told him to stop picking on a kid, he said no and threw a punch and i folded his arm and smashed his hand into a locker and yeah many more boring details and stuff.

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It’s not always the parents some kids just bully for many reasons usually because no one stands up to them .And not to be nostalgic but in the old days teachers had more power and thus had more respect.I had a Latin teacher who demanded you called him Sir and act respectful towards him and others everyday he read letters from alumni that wrote him how they learned respect for others from him.When he walked down the hall you out of respect moved to the side for him and looked him in the eye and said Good Morning Sir. Or just a hello Mr.--------- .now everyone moved for him all the way to gang members to jocks and everyone in between . I swear he single handedly made respect a force within this highschool .there were still fights and turf wars but when he walked by everyone acted the same to him . He showed us all the power of one person willing to make a stand effected so many In a positive manner. I and many others will never forget this man.

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Teachers can tell you the most maddening stories of frustration and futility trying to help kids. Friends, family, economy, genetics, diet, environment, and many other things play a role. However, any effort made to help kids is effort well spent, even if it isn’t successful.

We all have different experiences; mostly small town life for me, but there was a time that I taught amongst gangs. I lived in the rougher part of town on the border between 3 rival gangs. I saw a lot, I learned a lot, and I was respected because I cared about all of them.

Kids need a champion. Not someone to make excuses for them but someone to support them, to recognize the good they do and help them realize the importance of good decisions, goal setting, and that they have value as well as the potential for greatness!

I’m not saying the kid in studio’s op was in the right, he was obviously wrong, but I will say this, I believe kids are special and good. The challenges presented to kids today are real and intense. Kids often have to survive without a champion.

I’ve had many champions in my life. Some people don’t even have one. We can all be someone’s champion if we take the time to care.

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  1. Studio not trying to be a hater but I think its time to only bring 1 Yoyo with you to school and 1 kendma that will probably solve a few problems with kids demanding to play with it. Even if it’s hard to pick and chose it’s probably will help a little bit.
  2. Man these kids are mean where are the guidance people when you need them more or less the principal!
  3. What do the parents do in teaching discipline in this because it sounds a lot like anything goes in those households.
  4. Studio it may not seem like it but that 11 year old (I’m guessing) us bullying you the thing is if you confront him it makes him think twice. However if you stand your ground it just says I am older and bigger than you don’t tick me off.
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I think a lot of the time, it’s not even a case of poor parenting but just having poor parental role models. Kids see the way their parents interact with others out in the real world and more often than not, parrot this behaviour. As a teacher, I’ve had to deal with all sorts of parents and a lot of the time you meet the parents of the ratbag kids and go “oh, so THAT’S where you get it from”. And in this day and age, it’s all about building children’s self esteem. Fair enough to give the kid a pat on the back and tell him “good job” when he’s actually done a good job, but these days kids get certificates just for turning up and I think this is the other big thing creating this sense of entitlement amongst kids. If we keep rewarding them for doing nothing, that’s how they’re going to expect things to be all the time.

I’m just ranting now. Best quit before this post turns into an essay.

Yuki

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I love kids. My kids.
Not too much about other people’s kids. More kids are having kids. I will always blame the parents. They are the role models, first person they should see when they wake up and the last person they should see when they sleep.

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I’m not skilled in martial arts. I also have the following disadvantages:

I’m on inline skates, which increases the chances of unintentional injury to the aggressor, as well as myself.

I’m older, which by default, will make me in the wrong unless I just take it. Right or wrong is irrelevant. Who threw first is irrelevant. So, it’s best for me to not attempt a non-skilled counter for the purposes of avoiding an assault charge.

Your advice has merit.
1: I agree, but I do will often find the need to change for a variety of reasons. The Kendama is off though, as are the off-strings.
2: The faculty can only do so much. The school has 1600 enrolled, and 1200 are in school at a time as this is a year-round on a track system. Schools are over-crowded. My elementary I think had less than 400 total students in it. My high school graduating class I am told had over 400 in it.
3: Not to play the “economic situation game”, but the school buses in a lot of kids from apparently “poor” areas. This is actually because of a lack of schools, more than anything else. It’s just annoying that this lack of proper child-rearing appears to come from low-income areas. That’s not the case, in my opinion. It’s always the bad ones who stand out. It seems if they are poor, they blame society, the parents, teachers, TV, whatever. If it’s a “rich kid”, they are just “spoiled.”

Trust me, when and if my kids pull that kind of garbage, they’ve been informed they are gonna be punished severely for that.

4: The kid(s) are trying to use bullying tactics on me. I am NOT a big dude. I’m just 5-foot 6-inches, and some of these elementary school kids are BIGGER than me, even with whatever height I get off of the inline skates I’m wearing. They are trying to use their physical size as an intimidation tactic(aka a form a bullying). I will stand my ground. However, I am going to step up my tactics when some other kid is being picked on or hurt.

On a side note, the principal informed me that the kid in question was suspended(turns out he was equally lovely to others and had been escalating quite a bit recently). She’s also sending out some notices regarding the recent upswing in the incidences of undesired behaviors as apparently the school has had a general rise in kids acting up/out and otherwise not behaving within expectations.

Too many kids. As per usual, a small number is causing problems for the masses. Not enough faculty to adequately catch the bad behaviors. That doesn’t mean there aren’t solutions, just i must be creative.

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Djangoooo

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Well, here’s my two cents, and take it as you will. Although yes, what this kid did was wrong, I think you need to understand where he is coming from. This kid might live in an abusive home, or in a poor household in which both parents work leaving him all alone, or even living with a single parent. Another thing, this kid is still in elementary school, and he is in the budding stage of his life, he is in the toughest part of his schooling career. In 6th to 9th grade most kids are constantly undergoing a change due to puberty, there’s this undying need to be macho with most boys around this time. His personality is still forming, and you need to take that into consideration.
Now, I do not condone what he did, violence and attempts of stealing are not okay in any means. You made the right decision by showing authority, which I praise you for, keeping your anger from getting the best of you.
Now, my advice, you can try to give this kid a yoyo, he’s obviously trying to reach out, and trust me throwing is a great hobby. Try to be kind, and understanding Studio42, everyone has their problems.

Anyway, I commend you on your actions!

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Douchecanoe is my new favorite word.