[permaculture] "certified permaculture designers"
Toby Hemenway
toby at patternliteracy.com
Wed Jul 25 20:40:44 EDT 2007
Paul wrote:
> I'm a certified permaculture designer and I'm pretty passionate about
> permaculture principles.
>
> Recently, I saw a terrible thing. Six rational, eco-friendly people,
> including two that are certified permaculture designers,
A note about the use of terms. Taking a 72-hour design course does not
make you a "certified permaculture designer." The original certificates
from Mollison say, in some cases, that the holder "has successfully
completed a permaculture design course" and other certificates from him
say "is a permaculture design trainee." Somehow in later iterations by
other teachers, usually a few generations removed from Bill, people got
the idea that a PDC made you a professional, certified designer.
Seventy-two hours is the equivalent of two college classes but with no
homework, which is not enough to make anyone a designer. Bill has been
very firm about this, and most of the old-school teachers feel the same
way. I believe it's generally thought that getting a diploma from the
Permaculture Institute after two years of study under a mentor is what
is required to call yourself a certified designer (right, Scott or Robyn
or any of you long-time Pc teachers?). It's unfortunate that this
"resume bloat" has led to so many people thinking the PDC makes them a
certified designer, instead of a design trainee.
I'd be happy to hear anyone's thoughts, pro or con, about this.
Toby
http://patternliteracy.com
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