What age do you think students should start at, and why? The following comment came out of 5 year old black belts? - but my response turned more into a teaching philosophy than a discussion of very young black belts, so I started this thread instead.
If that works for you, then do it that way. My class is a mixed-age class, and I currently have ages 8 - grandmother (actually, the 8 year-old is her grandson; I haven't asked her age, so I don't know - but I'd guess late 40s or early 50s). I've never had problems with the kids in the class, and only once had a problem with a parent dropping the younger sibling "to try the class" when he needed a babysitter; it happened twice, and the parents were told that if it happened again, the child who was actually a member would not be allowed back - and it never happened again. That's once in 14 years of being an instructor.
Part of it is how you structure your class; part of it is the make up of the class. For various reasons, largely related to class being 90 minutes long, I won't take students who aren't at least 7 or 8, and if they can't last through a 90 minute class, it's not the right class for them.
On the other hand, I have a colleague who teaches a kids' class that is aimed more at preparing students to be in the older kids' class; they learn gross motor skills, how to follow directions, basic commands and exercises, basic kicks, and how to work alone, in pairs, and in larger groups. The rank system is separate, involving multiple stripes on a white belt; by the time kids are old enough for the older kids' class, they are ready for 9th or 8th gup, and pick up from there. Even in the older kids' class, kids up to about 12 progress more slowly than other students, and black belts at younger ages just doesn't come up - and his retention of students who start at 6 or younger is much higher than his retention of students who start at 10 or older, because they have already made TKD part of their lives, and don't drop it for whatever sport is in season - they pick up other activities in addition to, rather than instead of. There's also the option of junior ranks, such as the poom ranks used by the WTF.
There's lots of research that shows that the earlier a child becomes active, the more likely that activity level is to last throughout the child's life - just because I don't agree with 5 year-old black belts, doesn't mean I won't teach kids; my first student to reach black belt started in my class at 11, and earned her I Dan at 18. I currently have a student who is 13, started at 10, and is testing for 1st gup this evening; she could potentially test for her I Dan in November, by which time she'll be 14... and she's outlasted, and out-performed, every teenager, and quite a few adults, who have started in the several years. And I know that I've made a difference in the lives of the kids I've taught - quite a few have come back and told me so.
I also teach a couple of students that I know many instructors wouldn't teach - they are both developmentally delayed, and one has Down's Syndrome, while the other has cerebral palsy. Intellectually, they are both children, so from that perspective I will include them in this discussion. They have both taught me and my other students an incredible amount about perseverance - after 6 years for 1, and 3 for the other, they have each reached the rank of 8th gup, working on 7th gup - which could take another year. They watch students who start after them move past them, and yet they continue to come, to train, to improve as much as they can. So what if they'll never be great martial artists physically? They have much to teach, and we have much to learn.
If that works for you, then do it that way. My class is a mixed-age class, and I currently have ages 8 - grandmother (actually, the 8 year-old is her grandson; I haven't asked her age, so I don't know - but I'd guess late 40s or early 50s). I've never had problems with the kids in the class, and only once had a problem with a parent dropping the younger sibling "to try the class" when he needed a babysitter; it happened twice, and the parents were told that if it happened again, the child who was actually a member would not be allowed back - and it never happened again. That's once in 14 years of being an instructor.
Part of it is how you structure your class; part of it is the make up of the class. For various reasons, largely related to class being 90 minutes long, I won't take students who aren't at least 7 or 8, and if they can't last through a 90 minute class, it's not the right class for them.
On the other hand, I have a colleague who teaches a kids' class that is aimed more at preparing students to be in the older kids' class; they learn gross motor skills, how to follow directions, basic commands and exercises, basic kicks, and how to work alone, in pairs, and in larger groups. The rank system is separate, involving multiple stripes on a white belt; by the time kids are old enough for the older kids' class, they are ready for 9th or 8th gup, and pick up from there. Even in the older kids' class, kids up to about 12 progress more slowly than other students, and black belts at younger ages just doesn't come up - and his retention of students who start at 6 or younger is much higher than his retention of students who start at 10 or older, because they have already made TKD part of their lives, and don't drop it for whatever sport is in season - they pick up other activities in addition to, rather than instead of. There's also the option of junior ranks, such as the poom ranks used by the WTF.
There's lots of research that shows that the earlier a child becomes active, the more likely that activity level is to last throughout the child's life - just because I don't agree with 5 year-old black belts, doesn't mean I won't teach kids; my first student to reach black belt started in my class at 11, and earned her I Dan at 18. I currently have a student who is 13, started at 10, and is testing for 1st gup this evening; she could potentially test for her I Dan in November, by which time she'll be 14... and she's outlasted, and out-performed, every teenager, and quite a few adults, who have started in the several years. And I know that I've made a difference in the lives of the kids I've taught - quite a few have come back and told me so.
I also teach a couple of students that I know many instructors wouldn't teach - they are both developmentally delayed, and one has Down's Syndrome, while the other has cerebral palsy. Intellectually, they are both children, so from that perspective I will include them in this discussion. They have both taught me and my other students an incredible amount about perseverance - after 6 years for 1, and 3 for the other, they have each reached the rank of 8th gup, working on 7th gup - which could take another year. They watch students who start after them move past them, and yet they continue to come, to train, to improve as much as they can. So what if they'll never be great martial artists physically? They have much to teach, and we have much to learn.
