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Old 09-06-2006, 12:44 PM   #24
Mark Gibbons
Location: Seattle, WA
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 177
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Re: Children and adults together

Quote:
Jon Reading wrote:
..... The disparity in size and strength, mental comprehension, and nature of physical contact between adults and children all point to an inappropriate relationship during training, let alone the legal implications of allowing children to train with adults.
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What legal implications?

Quote:
Jon Reading wrote:
Children should not be included in adult training. Chirldren are not adults, the dictionary even has two separate words to identify each. Children don't grow like adults, they don't learn like adults, they don't think like adults, and they don't act like adults. So why would we treat children as adults?
Some have used roughly the same arguments to exclude women. Can everyone in the class be treated as aikido students? Seems possible to me. Different skill levels. Different learning styles. That seems like a normal all adult class to me. Kids that can't train in an adult class without disruption wouldn't fit in the adult classes where I train. But many are mature enough and with a couple years experience well trained enough to fit into an adult class.

Quote:
Jon Reading wrote:
If I taught karate and said to a parent, "your 12 year old son is going to sparr a 32 year old black belt." that parent would be appalled. But I teach aikido, so instead I say, "your 12 year old son is going to train with a 32 year old black belt." Somehow the semantics of the aikido sentence make everything OK. Forget the fact that I am letting an skilled adult martial artist train with a child. Training has danger, that's why we sign a waiver.

A dojo that wishes to entertain teaching children aikido is obligated to extend the same courtesys as they would to an adult. Don't put adults in children classes, and don't put children in adult classes. Devote the same time and effort to tailored class instruction, individual attention, and etiquette.
I'd much rather my 11 year old daughter trained with a black belt than with a non black belt. The black belts are the safest folks to train with. The comparison to sparring in karate seems far fetched..

I don't really see the reasons behind the rest of your objections. Is it just that it's a waste of time to train with someone that is too unskilled? I have known a fair number of 14-17 year olds that could have the same opinion about beginning->mid kyu adults. Is it the danger due to size differences? Many of the adult women where I train are the same size as the kids over 11 yo.

Mark
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