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why do
mention distance learning as frightening?
Do you believe that all people cannot learn without the
physical presence of a teacher?
Most of us learn most of the day without someone else telling
us how and why.
In answer to your models and assessment, there is a lot of
disscussion on these issues
at
conferences and convergences? of course there is always more room for similar
discussions,
at the 6th conference there was a brave couple introducing the
notion of self-governed learning,
and it became quickly apparent that there are different
learning methods for the different cultures,
some
are not ready to break the barriers if the barriers are new and establishing
social co-hesion.
(as
Tshepo, of Africa, pointed out)
How much do you know about permaculture as an ethic and
lifestyle?
You may find there a number of 'threats' to teaching in
itself.
maybe
that would be a good start to your quest.
Did
you study patterns and observations in your PDC?
and as for the thousands of permaculture children out there,
(permaculture has been going since the 70's
so we
are into second generation now) they learn by example above
all.
April
(Written from Tokyo by a American from the
Puget Lowlands)
I have been drifting in occupation, from
landscaper to teacher. I have been eagerly applying my natural history
habits to my new personal wilderness, the modern educational system. I
have some random thoughts and I would like to get some
feedback.
The twin crucibles that forge social and consequently
biological habit appear to be the family (not necessarily nuclear) and the
school. The process of education continues, and self-reevaluation is
continuous, particularly under crisis. But humans tend to seek
environments which support their habitual lifestyle. If you find
nourishment through consumption you are not going to hang around a bunch of
anti-consumerist grubby handed do it yer selfers.
Modern school seems to play heavily into a persons
relationship to authority, information and sources of knowlege, the three
seem quite interlinked. I am using all this vague and eco-psyco
language consciously, because I think that the relationships formed in
school are sychronistic with the relationships persued within our
culture. Modern education is like a mass ritual which enforces a daily
pattern upon millions of emerging minds. It creates a context where
the values of our way of life are transfered not only though teaching by
primarily through experiential pattern recognition.
A midwest corrections commissioner once told me via
national radio that those incarcerated learn primarily that incarceration
and all the attendant abuses of liberty are valid tools of social
power. What are the tools of social and personal power that are
learned not through the curriculum, but through the actual social power
structures of a typical grade school?
In America there are many movements toward influencing the
fundemental power relationships that make schools what they are.
Emergent curriculum, Whole Language Education, and other child centered
approaches are all playing with core patterns. In the international
scene the followers of Frienet are experimenting with education as the
starting point of social/political liberation. Charter schools,
Voucher systems, home schooling and the frightening concept of 'distance
education' are all hewing pieces from the staid (though not always sober)
establishment of the American public school system. Simultaneously
politicians are pointing to norm-referenced standardized testing as a
yardstick in the international educational competition (huh?).
What does permaculture look like in education? Has
anyone seen models? Has anyone seen site analysis? Has anyone
seen designs? I have seen a few examples of salad dressing and
installed one ongoing projects myself. Are their outreach programs for
schools? What about accessing teacher trainings? What about
permaculture club along side the Junior Statesmen of America. What an
amazing microcosm for urban permaculture, a much needed expansion of a
movement which tends to neglect the broad belly of the beast if favor of a
personal rural get away. Direct seeding is frequently more efficient
then transplanting. What pedagogy does permaculture education for
adults reflect? Is this a mature reflection of the permacultural
idealism?
Has permaculture become a comfortable retreat into moral
superiority for those who have difficulty with addressing the transitional
nature of change? What does this reflect in terms of the patterns in
permaculture education?
I sincerely don't know the answer to these
questions. I was just brainstorming, trying to find the tender tissue
that signal opportunities for growth. I want to start a dialog on
these issues. I have worked in landscapes for 10 years, I am an
academically trained natural historian and I have devoured the works of
Alexander, Fukuoka, Mollison, Gursheney, Rodale, Coleman, Yeomans, and many
others both applied and theoretical. Our of respect for the franchise
nature of 'Permaculture', I have never called myself a 'Permaculture
Designer' though I have been teaching what I have learned for years, and
struggling to incorporate what I know into my own life pattern. I
wonder if our little clan of weed wizards has been too busy feeling special,
and not busy enough interacting with the fundemental social patterns that
daily rebuild our societal norms. Perhaps in terms of what I have seen
of the permaculture educational philosophy and sense of individual
acheivement we are well within those norms.
Regards,
Paul Cereghino
vagrant in the largest metroplex on earth
Tokyo, Japan
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