…because you treat them like students and not professionals.
One summer I was lamenting to my friends Dan Bukvich and P.K. the finish of a high school student who worked in my lab as part of the Army’s REAP program. The summer had been fine, just fine. I knew we were capable of much more. Here’s the dialogue:
Me: “How much can you expect from a high school student?”
Dan: “Did you treat them like a high school student?”
Me: “Damn.”
(Mental note: they are soon to be professional engineers and can begin whenever they choose to. Don’t treat them like students. Definitely don’t ever call them “kids”.)