Children are not always beginners. You all spoke about children being newer than you. I have said this before like ten times, and
yes I'll do it again: I'm 16 and I train with other teens and some young kids. Those kids are all more advanced than us teens (we are all friends and started together recently). Sensei's daughter is 11 and she's a 2nd kyu (very impresive sight, such a short person with a blue belt), so she's obviously always helping us, as are some older kids and some younger. There's an 8 yo who's very willing to help and I have no problem at all of being taught by him. A dojo is a very special place where age doesn't really matter. Kids are not being treated as inferior, but actually being asked for help by older people. Teens (and I won't include myself here, for one of the things I'm proud about myself is not being like this) tend to ignore or even treat children badly in their daily lives, so I'm sure it's a nice change for kids to enter a dojo.
The only problem is that adults can't be so hard on kids, so training too much with them could affect their training. That's why I think kids should have separate classes, or as we do at my dojo: a kids class with beginner teens, and an adults class with advanced teens.
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It depends if the children are training or just running around wild
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Yeah this happens with
very young kids. We have an early class for 3 kids. They are like 4 or 5 yo and it's just impossible. They look cute though, the youngest daughter of Sensei even has a little hakama.