personally, i prefer to start my students with short sticks (escrima). they're shorter and easier to handle than bo staff, especially for children or those who've never had any weapons experience. I usually then move up to bo staff, but after a few years of stick training, I find that most students will naturally gravitate towards a weapon of choice. In my dojo, weapons are a sort of independent study. I went through katana, nunchaku, throwing stars, whipchain, and tonfa before i discovered that sai were my true calling. so back to your question, there really is no best weapon. any good martial arts should be able to use just about anything to inflict some pretty severe damage, and everyone will have a favorite weapon, depending on their personal style. its good to start off with a general background on some sort of staff, short or long, but then it's pretty much a free for all.
