Martial Arts Classes

Here is something I've been pondering as I walk around recently,

In Martial Arts classes, is it viable to teach children if you want to keep your school as pure as possible, with all the discipline you should have in a dojo? Is it more viable if you start the children at a less disciplined place and work up to the "hardcore" discipline? My theory with this is that the discipline in your school should be unbiased. Students of all ages should be taught from the beginning of their classes what your discipline is and it should remain consistent throughout.

The problem with this is that in America today parents try to coddle their children and protect them from all the bad things in the world. If you discipline a child in the same way you discipline all of your other students, you run the risk of the parents pulling their child out of the class, and thusly losing students where you would not have otherwise. However, is it discriminatory to treat the children like children and not like students? Does the discipline you should take vary depending on age or belt rank? I feel students of the same belt should be disciplined the same regardless of age, and furthermore that students of all belts and ages should be disciplined the same. If you spare a child the discipline you would show an old student of the same rank, does that child really deserve the belt they have?

I feel that all students regardless of age, who share the same belt rank, should be treated equally. Age is no guarantee of skill, or lack there of. A thirteen year old black belt could be better than a twenty one year old black belt. So the question of discipline based on age I suppose is one of personal preference and how you run your school. If you want to keep it traditional and produce mature, skilled students, or if you want to be the child's parent as well and hide them from reality.