rob_liberti

I basically agree with the intend of this statement. However, I think giving people respect is *almost* polar opposite with "awe". I think it would be more respectful to not demonstrate your "awe" as much as just appreciate their abilities and hopefully their abilities to transmit to others without being abusive of their power differential. But I do agree strongly believe that if they don't have it, or can't help you with it, or are abusive I say don't promote them past a certain point.

For instance, if they don't have it but are VERY loyal, then promote them up to nidan and never again. It's done in Japan all the time. (not everywhere of course).

If they have it but either don't have the ability to transmit or still display a tendency to abuse the power differential then promote them to sandan and never again. They never need to reach any teaching rank. If loyalty is going to be rewarded, be loyal to the art which therefor MEANS be loyal to protecting the junior students.

The question is how to best evaluate if they abuse the power differential. Most abusers are very sweet to their seniors. I would like to see some online opinion polls of student's dojo behaviors. Set it up so that only the teaching staff and heads of the organizations can access such information. For that matter. I'd like to see incidence reports that follow dojo accidents tied to all involved. If someone has been involved in 10 accidents where they threw someone into someone else (or had some sexual abuse claims), but moved to 3 different dojos and that information would have gotten a bit lost, maybe it wouldn't be so bad if that information followed them around, keyed by their honbu identification number or whatever organizations use to go along with rank.

We have enough people in aikido now. We can take advantage of modern times and start filtering a bit so that we end up with even MORE people in aikido that we WANT in aikido.

Rob