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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Why Bother With Permaculture?

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  • From: yarrow@sfo.com
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Why Bother With Permaculture?
  • Date: Wed, 21 May 2008 13:08:54 -0700

Re prices for permaculture classes. Some community colleges offer permaculture classes that, if you're also low income, are almost free (plus the cost of getting there). Merritt College in Oakland, for instance, has been offering permaculture for about 6 years. The regular fee is around $100 a semester, and 2 semesters gets you a "certificate," which is as valuable as the paper it's printed on (which is to say that, as for most things, what you get out is proportional to what you put in). Low-income is about $2.

I think the fees are high for the sleepaway courses for lots of reasons (or choose one, this is all arm waving). They're given by upper and middle class folks who're trying to make a certain hourly rate, or who don't think a thousand is a lot of money. Maybe they've switched careers and don't understand the whole different way of looking at money outside of the 9to5world, where people pay their own seminar and workshop fees. Maybe they're unskilled at budgeting and negotiating, and can't manage to organize the food, lodging, logistics, etc., for a more reasonable rate. Maybe they're trying to be robin hoods, charging richer folk and then offering free/cheaper courses or projects to poorer folk. Or maybe everyone else is doing it, so they do, too. Whatever.

Anyone who wants to learn something can find a book, a person, an internship, an e-list, or some way other than a pricey weekend workshop.




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