Scootering -- A Favorite Pastime for Student Journalist

This article was written by a 7th grader at Campbell Middle School as part of the journalism apprenticeship sponsored by Citizen Schools, an after-school program at CMS.

SCOOTERING 

by Victoria

In a way, I think that using a scooter can actually be pretty fun. In my opinion, when I'm riding a scooter, I don't have to care about anything else in the world. On the other hand, it's also very dangerous. If someone, such as a beginner, tries to ride a scooter without getting any tips, advice, or help, they will eventually fall off. So even though there are a great number of people who like scootering, there are still a great number in the world who don't. Maybe it's because of the injuries they have had experience with, or the ones they have heard of before, or maybe it’s because they just don’t like it. Everyone has their own, different opinion on scootering.

I’ve heard about many injuries that have happened while riding a scooter. Some injuries aren’t so severe, but others can really hurt you if you were that careless. So if you fell on your head from riding a scooter, you could get a horrible concussion from the fall. If you’re barely learning to ride a scooter, I suggest that you should wear a helmet or some protective gear just to be safe. Other people, if they’re lucky enough, don’t get too hurt when falling. They sometimes just get a simple scrape or cut, but those are just minor injuries that can just happen randomly. So, before starting to ride the scooter, at least get some advice from someone who already knows how to ride scooters.

Now, I want to talk about doing tricks on a scooter. Many kids, especially teenagers, can do tricks while riding scooters. But even though some people use their scooters a lot, they still might not know a lot of really popular tricks on the scooter. It can take years to be able to do really interesting tricks. Or, for other people, they might be able to learn tricks in just a short time. I think it’s amazing how some people can do tricks like the professionals they might hear about a lot.

Now, I want to talk about types of scooters. The first type is the “regular” kind, most people have. The regular type of scooter, those are the two-wheeled scooters, such as the razor scooter, that are seen the most often. The next type of scooter is a three-wheeled scooter. That type of scooter, in my opinion, is a little bit slower than the two-wheeled scooters, they don’t seem to run any faster. Those just have one more wheel, so it’s not really much of a difference. 

Then there’s also the four-wheeled scooters. I think those are more for little kids because they have better balance on those types of scooters that can just stand up by themselves. The last type of scooter is the motorized-scooter. Those scooters are far more popular than the other types of scooters. They have only two wheels, but are very useful. It’s like that because they move by themselves, and you don’t have to pedal for the scooter to move, so you just need to steer it. These are the types of scooters that are the most popular in the U.S. right now.