I'm very glad that my school allows kendama, because I hear stories all the time of them being banned. I bring mine every day!
I'm a Vice Principal at a middle school in the Sacramento area. I brought a back pack full of Kendama's to school one day for my students a few years ago and they went nuts. We had a good group of kids that played, but it has died down a bit over the past year. We still stock our student store with them and kids are always stoked to pick one up! I absolutely allow them on campus and encourage kids to play all the time. Kendama's is a great way to pass time and an excellent social activity, which you all already know. My son is 12 and has been playing for 4 years now. When he started, the scene is Sacramento was CRAZY!! Everywhere you went, kids were playing. All of his friends played whenever they had a second of free time at school. That lasted for a good year until summer break. When he went back after break, no one was playing so he stopped bringing his to school. Fast forward to about 3 months ago. A few teachers heard that he played so he brought one to school one day. Now he has a solid group of about 10-15 he plays with during the day and after school with his band club. He just got a couple of texts from his buddies with pics of their new Dama's they got for Christmas. He's stoked and so are we as parents.
2 years ago(when I started playing) Kendama was a big trend in middle schools and everyone had them. That's how I got into kendama. Like most trends, it faded away and the students stopped playing. But I kept going. But at my school, my principle hates it. He thinks I'll hit people by swinging it around but honestly I know I won't because I hardly do string tricks. Last year he approved but I think started to not like it because my friend was walking around swinging it like crazy. Maybe next year(9th grade) I'll try to bring kendama back in high school.
@sethtosta i don't have kids (yet) but I can imagine that the discipline and focus that kendama teaches is a major upgrade from the ADD causing video game culture that kids are subjected to from WAY too early. glad you allow in your school!
Im the only person at my school who plays... but a bunch of kids are interested in it... im the only one who has one also
I wished i picked up and kept playing that kendama i saw during the school trip, ten or so years back. Life would have been totally different for me. I keep one permanently at the workplace, and one permanently on my bag. No matter where i'm at, gotta be ready to show people some tricks and teach them some too!
Which UofA are you talking about? I starting playing while at my local community college take classes and was featured on their student life website for a while. It has since been taken down but no one ever said I couldn't play. I'm guessing that is different for grade schools though.