permaculture

[Marsha Hanzi <hanzibra@svn.com.br>]

In Permaculture Courses we are basically working on two fronts at the
same time:

1) Changing Paradigms
2) Giving people  intellectual   and practical tools ( information,
strategies , and techniques) with which they can        actually make concrete
changes in their lives and surroundings.

        With  the combination of these two effects we hope to create a
"multiplying effect" which can  turn the  planetary tendency around.     

        I have participated in some fifteen full courses of the most varied
forms, as a student, co-teaching, and teaching  alone or with Brazilian
colleagues. I have been most concerned with the question of the real
multiplying effects  of these courses and have come to the following
conclusion:

1) The basic curiculum given Bill Mollison style ( the teacher in front,
the student seated, taking notes and passively listening , contributing
little or practically nothing to the course) has had, in my observation,
very little real multiplying effect  UNLESS the student already comes
with baggage-- in which case he/she just takes off and does not stop any
more. This is a hierarchy, where the teacher is considered to "know"and
the student considered "not to know". Brazilians hate to be taught this
way, but other nationalities or temperaments may prefer it . It has high
impact, which makes people see things differently, but I have seen very
few people   actually go out and "do Permaculture" after these courses
unless, as I said, they already were intuitively doing it and the course
just confirmed "what they already know"-- which can often be the case.

2) The participative  approach:  this is a circle, where you mobilize
information of the group, putting it into the context of the new
paradigm.  In this case, you concentrate not so much to "passing on
information"(which is already available in the books anyway), but to
what is going on with each individual student  in his/her particular
context.  The teacher becomes a focalizer and  organizer ( and referee,
because it`s easier to lose control of the direction the course is
taking). This in my experience so far has more concrete effects, but can
also be a bit confusing if strict control of the direction  in terms of
the curriculum is not observed.It is exhausting to teach this way, but
very satisfying,  normally with profound life changes taking place  in
the participants.
Best of all, the group tends to stay together after the course is done.

3) The course taught in stages ( at 3-6 month intervals or at
weekends).  This gives the students more security in what they are doing
because the teacher comes back several times, but can be more
superficial, less "overwhelming"   ( less paradigm changing?).  But it
is often the only option for people who cannot or are not willing to
dedicate two weeks to an immersion course.    

        Each of these options has arguments in favor and against.  The
immersion course is a fantastic "trip" especially when you live together
in remote places ( like a Zen retreat in Hawaii with Max Lindegger and
Lea Harrison!)  But I think we all agree that it is not enough, unless
the participant already has the techniques and information he needs for
his specific situation. What I have seen  is basically superficial
application of some of the Permaculture techniques ( mandala gardens,
herb spirals, etc.) without really knowing what to do with this new
Paradigm. For this I think everyone needs backup and long-term support.

        This has a lot  to do with the question of patterns.  We have not 
begun
to scratch the surface of what this really means-- it has nothing to do
( or very little) with making beds in spiral forms.  It has to do with
non-linear ways of thinking and acting ( and teaching?....), of
understanding   formulas of generation of movement and form which are
regenerative ( a la Viktor Schauberger) and energy-conserving, of
understnding that  time does not exist and space is relative ( as Bill
himself touches in one of his last taped courses). It has to do with
fractals and how they generate weather patterns...In this Bill Mollison
is really at the spearpoint of a very very important paradigm shift in
science, agriculture, and other forms of organization of human
communitites. What is most important in this  regard is our being able
to apply this non-linear systems thinking  ( which is becoming prevalent
in almost  all academic areas) and apply it to practical daily
situations.  
And I think that this may be the most important thing that can happen in
a Permaculture course.