Broadly graded youth groups: General comments

Generally speaking I do not like broadly graded youth groups. Classes are another matter, but broadly graded does not work as well with a “youth group.” The biggest downside is the obvious one – the developmental differences between 6^th graders and 12^th graders is enormous. “Shooting for the middle” or the average, means that the 6^th graders are clueless and the 12^th graders are bored. There are solutions to this, which I'll present later, but it is not easy. Small numbers of youth are not a reason for broadly graded: If you have even 3 Middle Schoolers and 2-3 High School youth, I recommend splitting the group. However, I'll later give reasons why and when to go Broadly graded in a later post.