What ELSE is essential?

**Tripitaka of AA** · 24th March 2006, 15:49

Kaiso looked at the people around him and saw something lacking. He formulated a comprehensive package that would prepare the next generation for the difficult journey back from chaos to a more positive future. He thought about spiritual, mental and physical development and put together a package he named Shorinji Kempo.

For an entertainment over the weekend, I’d like to hear people’s suggestions for what other skills, abilities, talents, etc. are recommended to become a fully-rounded individual equipped to deal with the 21st century. I’m not talking about making changes to Shorinji Kempo, but rather the supplemental, or fundamental, attributes that a person might acquire through life, which are beneficial. Some of these ideas spring from my thoughts as a parent, watching my children grow.

Love. The ability to love another person, another creature (pet, wild animal, ET...).

Education in comparative religions. I still recall a few snippets of information I learnt at school about other belief systems like Judaism, Islam, Hindu, Sikh, etc. The older I get, the more I begin to appreciate why it is important to know a bit about other people’s ways.

Sport at school. I pretty much hated it at the time but now appreciate it more…

Maths. Accountancy or Household Economics or just plain old arithmetic. Anything to prevent yourself getting in hot water about money.

Humour

Imagination

First Aid

What do you think the 21st Century Renaissance Man/Woman should study?

**JL.** · 24th March 2006, 16:10

Gassho!

David-san, are You on a mission of opening new threads?!

Regarding the points above:
I don't think humour is something we should strive for. It's gotten me into more trouble than it did good and I really see no use for it. It's just causing misunderstandings. Really. Let's stop it!
Imagination is something similar. Life's so much easier without it, believe me.
And while we're at it, literacy can also be very annoying and time-consuming. We shouldn't give up on it completely, though, because it can be very helpful, too. And since this ability is not only becoming more and more uncommon among the youth (I'm old enough to talk about "the youth", should I say unfortunately?) but also not that wide-spread in many areas of our world this will be my contribution to the list.

Literacy

Kesshu,
______ Jan.

**Tripitaka of AA** · 24th March 2006, 19:56

Literacy, nice one.

Empathy. We should develop the capacity to understand each other and be able to put ourselves in the other's shoes.

Technology-Friendly. I'll be happy when I can program my VCR reliably (messed up again the other day and missed an episode of Power Rangers SPD... for the kids, of course).

Alcohol-tolerant. No bad drinkers, just happy ones. No hang-overs.

Not thread hungry, just trying to keep something going over the weekend.

**jailess** · 25th March 2006, 11:00

Originally Posted by Tripitaka of AA

Love.
Imagination
Humour
Sport at school.
Education in comparative religions.
Maths.
First Aid

The first 2 are essential in human social development; in fact, when they don't develop we say the person is diseased (e.g. psychopathy is essentially a failure to develop empathy).

Humour you can't teach.

Sport @ school: David, do you remember sport at school??!! Cricket, for Christ's sake! Rugby! Not at all: Shorinji Kempo should be taught in EVERY school in the UK. That's of course what you meant to say, isn't it?

Education in comparative religions I think is increasingly essential as the world grows more multicultural. But likewise, I don't think religion should be forced upon children. I went to a protestant school and had to sit through morning assembly singing hymns and listening to stuff about the Christian God every day, and had no option to opt out because I was atheist (compared to people of other religions who could). It should be recognised that the majority of Britain is not religious, and the separation of church and state extended to the schools.

Maths: I could do with a little more of! calculating drug doses, concentrations. etc. doesn't come easy!

As for First Aid, I think this should be extended to advanced first aid and life support for everyone in schools, including the use of defibrillators (which are all becoming automatic anyway) and stuff like the heimlich manoeuvre. But I almost killed a kid yesterday, so what do I know?

My additions to the list:

-Scientific knowledge. I am tired of philosophy students telling me that Darwin was wrong and Lamarckism (Wikipedia it) could be true. LEARN SOME !!!!ING SCIENCE.
-Non-smoking. I don't mind if you drink yourself to death, but I would mind if you poured 15% of your drink down my throat while you were doing it. It's not your inalienable right to expose me to carcinogens, most of which we aren't sure how they really work.
-Tolerance of other sexual preferences. Notably cute bisexuals with liberal blonde friends.

Oh, and...
-The ability not to get really mad at someone just because they don't reply to your text within 5 minutes I mean my course is inside hospitals, for Christ's sake! how am I meant to know if you've texted me if my phone's turned off: am I supposed to guess? am I supposed to be psychic? Telepathy's on the 5th Dan, people, how many times do I have to tell you?
What? No, I couldn't go outside to check at lunchtime, not if I'm holding someone's spleen/liver/small badger/lung out of the way! I don't care if you did need to know so you could tell Jenny that you could meet up with her and Kate after all to talk about Sarah and Darren falling out because she and Marian had a big long chat about how she was at a party and saw him chatting to his ex who was all over him cos she's still mad at Sarah for not inviting her to her cousin's best friend's Bat mitzvah!

**luar** · 25th March 2006, 12:14

Art - It speaks for itself.
Nature - The samurais never seperated themselves from nature why should we?

Languages - One of the prescribed methods of being a truly renaissance man/woman.
Relationships - It speaks for itself
Living in the Moment - Ditto
Joi de Vivre - Zest

**Rob Gassin** · 25th March 2006, 14:08

Tolerance - Accepting others' ways of doing things (even writing threads in French

), accepting different points of view, even if they are different from ours.

Honesty - This does not need explaining I hope.

Conscientiousness - Being assiduous in everything we do, avoiding letting others down.

Listening - Most men are not good listeners.Learning to listen can greatly enrich one's life and can prevent conflict and help form lifelong friendships.

**Tripitaka of AA** · 25th March 2006, 19:00

Nice additions people.

That bit about comparative religions is something I've noticed with my increasing years. I like knowing a bit about everything, as I get jealous if I miss out on references and concepts that might otherwise go over my head. For the same reason, I nominate knowledge of ;
History
Science
Literature
Art
Geography
Hey, wait a minute, this is sounding like the subjects I learned at school!!
Hmmmmm, maybe there's a reason for that.

**Robdawson_** · 25th March 2006, 19:08

Gassho

Another useful one for todays society - Courtesy - doesn't take much, but goes a long way!

Kesshu

**luar** · 25th March 2006, 22:17

Not that I would know anything about it but I nominate humility.

**David Dunn** · 26th March 2006, 23:38

Originally Posted by Tripitaka of AA

Love. The ability to love another person, another creature (pet, wild animal, ET...).

If you love anything other than another human being, then I think you need to seek alienation counselling

**Andrew S** · 27th March 2006, 01:35

Ethics - anything to avoid the predominant "I'm a victim", "It's not my fault", and "I exist, therefore I should receive" mentality.

also
Troll spotting - I think this pretty much explains itself.

**Rob Gassin** · 27th March 2006, 04:21

Originally Posted by Andrew S

[B] anything to avoid the predominant "I'm a victim", "It's not my fault", and "I exist, therefore I should receive" mentality.

I thought these were Australian traits. Are you telling me they're universal?

**Ewok** · 27th March 2006, 05:12

I second Humour - it is an excellent way to relax and socialise and should stay on this great list. Without humour you would go through life taking everything seriously. I was watching Billy Connolly - Live in New York yesterday and he mentioned an event that was "probably the single most horrible thing that I've had happen, but absolutly hilarious" - humour helps prevent or reduce post-traumatic stress?

I had a giggle at Lamarckism, evolution for the lazy?

**Andrew S** · 27th March 2006, 07:28

Originally Posted by JL.

Literacy

Absolutely!!
I remember trying to teach a bunch of high school kids who should have been taking ESL as their FIRST language!
Some of them would have had trouble spelling "a"...

**Andrew S** · 27th March 2006, 07:57

Responsibility and Accountability - so that they look after the rights of everyone, not "do whatever I want" and then complain when they feel hard done by. Ideally, if you take care of your responsibilities, your rights will take care of themselves.

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