permaculture

[Elfpermacl <Elfpermacl@aol.com>]

In a message dated 3/3/98 3:31:48 PM, jackrowe@compuserve.com wrote:

<<Re: different course formats...



In an infinite universe, there are an infinite number of 'best' ways to do

any one thing... handy, eh? 



Patterns, I think, are the very crux of permaculture -- especially in the

beginner's context. The rest is details. I think it is easy, however, to

underestimate the ability of some people to embrace the concepts... we are

beginning to absorb various permutations of the core ideas by osmosis from

many directions, nowadays. 



All said, seems there are two very different main groups we aim courses

at... 



One group is persons unfamiliar with the concepts of permaculture. A

two-week, brain-smashing design course may be hard to beat here. Some are

moved to action, some find themselves in a transformed world with almost no

footing, others I've seen -- even at Mr. Mollison's courses -- are close to

unaffected.



Speaking of details, though... another group of people have taken the

design course or have worked trying to change social or ag structures. I

think these folks need to band together and share tools oriented toward

specific tasks. Any number of days would be suitable to some one or another

level of this sort of sharing.



?



Jack Rowe



Question Reality!>>

Well, when we decide to issue a certificate, the certificate should mean one
thing.  At present, it doesn't mean much at all.  It seems to me that if we
are teaching design, a entry-level competence in permaculture design should be
required for a certificate.  Since most "courses" don't have students
preparing designs, this leaves most of them out.

All our present methods of teaching permaculture are seriously flawed, mainly
for two reasons.  First, we have a hierachical teaching model for a
anarchistic design philosophy.  This internal contradiction is required if we
try to teach things quickly.  It is also required for certification, as the
certifier then has the responsibility to ensure that the certification
requirements are taught.  The second is just a surprisingly large number of
unqualified teachers--people teaching what they were taught with out gaining
solid experience practicing it.  The various teacher certification programs
come too late.  Bill started out with teacher certification and blew it wide
open himself, as with so many institutions that were in the initial
permaculture concept.  Efforts to redress the problem now amount to locking
the barn door after the horse is stolen.  The best we can do is individually
strive for high certification standards and expect that some degree of
reputation can result.  Most people won't gravitate toward quality for the
sake of quality, but those that do are worth the masses who don't and then
some.

In my experience as a teacher, the best results come from working together, if
not living together, with students over a period of a year or more.  This is a
first step toward a sustainable culture (we can throw out the perma) where
people grow up with elders and with a system in a population that embodies the
behaviorial and perceptual patterns required by place.  Most people don't want
to take the time for one-year or longer experiences.  While it is possible for
a wise and experienced person to substitute energy for time in the unfolding
of design, it is not possible to substitute speed for quality and get anything
but unpalatable hash.  This, however, is what our materialistic society
conditions us to attempt.  However there is no substitute for shared
experience.  Often the deep lessons come from the unanticipated, like an
interesting encounter with fire ants or the results of flooding on certain
crops.  From these shared experiences we see the relevance of lessons and they
stick, they strongly affect our design decisions thenceforth.

For Mother Earth, Dan Hemenway, Yankee Permaculture Publications (since 1982),
Elfin Permaculture workshops, lectures, Permaculture Design Courses,
consulting and permaculture designs (since 1981), and now correspondence
courses via email.  One is now underway.  Next live program: Advanced Design
Training in Paraguay, 8/10-22/98. Only 3 openings. Copyright, 1998, Dan &
Cynthia Hemenway, P.O. Box 52, Sparr FL 32192 USA. Internships available.
YankeePerm@aol.com  

We don't have time to rush.

A list by topic of all Yankee Permaculture titles may be found at
http://csf.colorado.edu/perma/ypc_catalog.html