Quote:
Originally Posted by wireties
For teams considering taking students less that 15 or before 9th grade I recommend you have policies, procedures and infrastructure in place to shield/protect/shepherd the younger students. The difference in maturity level from 13 to 18 is sometimes huuuge. Throwing 9th and 12th graders together is already difficult and adding middle schoolers to the mix is daunting.
We've had some trouble with such things, regretted it later, and decided no middle schooler can join unless his or her parents will come with them to every meeting.
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In our case it might help that we meet at the local library, completely outside school hours. That means that there's fewer curious onlookers who "just happened to walk by" - if you're there, then you wanted to be there and you probably convinced mom or dad to drive you. After a few meetings, we find that the students that keep coming back are the ones who really want to be involved and are willing and ready to learn. If you give them the opportunity to step up, and give them the benefit of the doubt, I bet at least some of them will surprise you.
But, yes,
absolutely put policies in place to protect students, including rules on when, where, and how they are allowed to work with tools, equipment, etc.