Children and adults together

Carol Shifflett wrote: Since Lamont has come up, I will mention that I actually took my first classes from him. I was not a young girl, therefore, in theory, safe from the behavior that has given him such an unsavory reputation.

Wow, I never knew anyone who had trained with him... I do have a friend of mine up here in Seattle that actually had a date with Ted Bundy when she was in high school. You can imagine how she felt when the news broks about him!

That's the problem with people, it's often difficult to distinguish the bad ones from the good ones...

As a point of clarification, I see several posts that define children through different ages. I classify children as 12 or younger, 13-19 as teens. Legally, most states classify children as "minors" or individuals of 17 years of age or younger. I certainly see the dangers of children training aikido diminish as they grow older, especially in the teens. Teens are a different story. Teens are bigger, stronger, more intelligent and capable of making informed decisions than children. I feel more comfortable working teens into adult classes on a case by case basis.

Complete agreement there. Teens can often be a vital part of an adult class, and can benefit greatly. IF they have the correct mindset. One of my all time favorite training partners was a teen who took aikido keiko EXTREMELY seriously. He was a Russian imigrant, and his aikido was excellent. Unfortunately, I think finances and family things forced him to stop training, and I've lost touch with him. Hopefully some day he will come back to the mat.

Best,
Ron

All I know is that there are no kids (and no women) that train at my aikido dojo and I am greatful. There are kids at the hapkido dojo that I attended for the past year, and they sure could make things difficult for everybody involved.