A Matter Of Attitude

In addition to issues in the neighborhood that have a negative impact at LaFollette Park, there are attitudes that also present challenges to running the boxing program. 

The program is free for those between the ages of eight and seventeen (a few of the gyms will take youths as young as six years old). There are beginning and end dates for each session, but parents and guardians in the area tend to sign up their kids whenever.  Free doesn't mean the class has unlimited spots open.  In order to give proper attention to everyone, there can only be so many participants.  Yet most parents and guardians believe I should make room for youths who often don't show up until halfway through the session.  Youths who sign up later throw off the balance in the room especially when there's a groove that has already been established with those who were there from day one.

Many youths and some of the adults are in the class for the wrong reasons.  I need to talk to people, especially parents and guardians, before anyone registers for the program.  It says so online and on the class fliers.  Most parents and guardians ignore that rule, and it's easy for them to do since everyone can sign up online.  It also says on the fliers that boxing is not a self-defense class, but parents and guardians expect me to teach youths to handle bullying situations. I'm aware that schools have zero-tolerance policies for violence.  I keep wondering why most parents and guardians around LaFollette don't seem to know that or are willing to ignore those policies. 

I'm also curious as to why some parents and guardians don't feel an obligation to let me know if their youths have physical and/or mental conditions. If the staff doesn't have that information beforehand, an incident can turn tragic very quickly.  I've observed that some of the parents and guardians think their youths' health situations aren't that serious.  Some don't seem to have ever taken the time to analyze whether an activity will be appropriate for their youths in light of that.  They just want their kids in -- and I suspect information about health situations gets deliberately withheld.

I've long been tired of parents and guardians who think boxing is going toughen up kids who they believe need it.  I've never forgotten a dad who grumbled that his son's mom (whom the dad was no longer with) was raising their son "soft".  The kid didn't want to be in the class, but dad refused to accept that.  Another parent was angry when they learned their child had no interest in sports at all.  Boxing was the umpteenth sport that they had forced the kid into with no success.  "Ask them what they really want to do, then put them in activities that speak to that interest," I told the parent.  That should have been common sense.

There are the youths in the class whom the parents put in purely for babysitting purposes.  A lot of kids at the field house, regardless of what activity they are in, are not there because their parents care about them having positive experiences.  Parents and guardians who operate on that level do not support the program nor encourage their kids to be more active participants. 

Parents and guardians don't pay attention to what time the class begins.  Time management doesn't exist, and personal responsibility doesn't seem to be taught much.  But I'm expected to work miracles with youths who are twenty or thirty (or more) minutes late to class every day.  I can't enter participants who don't train properly into the City-Wide Boxing Tournament, the Chicago Golden Gloves, nor the park district boxing shows. 

There are youths who have numerous discipline problems, but when I point that out to some parents and guardians, I get no response as to what they are going to do to put a stop to the behavior.  Even more troubling are the ones who tell me, "I can't do anything with her (or him)."  Why do they think that I should keep putting up with it?  Trust me, I won 't.

As for the adults who take boxing, time management is often an issue with them, too.  People forget about the other obligations they have like changing work shifts, dealing with their kids, going to college at night, etc.  Some adults confuse the park district boxing program with the professional boxing classes that are run out of private gyms.  Due to the issues in the neighborhood, many don't sign up because they don't want to be around when the bullets start flying across the park -- and I can't blame them.