permaculture

[Pacific Edge Permaculture <pacedge@magna.com.au>]

Interesting email Rick... I've added some comments within the text......

on 1/7/00 6:33 AM, rick valley at bamboogrove@cmug.com wrote:

>>I like the format & agree
> with David Holmgren (like me a grad of an experimental college) that the
> residential aspect is a major advantage. "Getting away" is part of the
> process producing the desired effect.


I have no argument with this.

One effect that I have observed, however, is that people coming out of two
week residentials return to their city all fired up and full on enthusiasm
but often find no outlet for this. The result is that they drift back into
urban life and are more or less lost to permaculture. Sure, some might
implement stuff at home, but given that many are renters, this might not
happen.

One of the reasons behind this is that some PDC teachers do not inform their
students of the permaculture organisation contacts in their cities (it's all
in the Global Directory, usually).


> How many times have I had PDC evaluations mention how much was learned out 
> of
> class time and/or from other participants!

Well, we have been told this too about our weekend courses.


> Not to mention weekend courses, which I have taught, and also have grave
> reservations about as well.


We teach weekend PDC's in Sydney and have had great success doing so. Many
of our students are still active, even years later.

Regarding weekend courses, we have found that-

- students get to know each other well over the 18 to 19 days (mainly
Sundays) of the course and have formed friendships, meeting socially (the
course are longer than the usual 14 days because we have more in them and
because we have found that the 14 day courses are too rushed, allow too
little student interaction and groupwork and do not acquaint students with
critical skills such as group skills and project management concepts)

- participants meet in non-course time, during the week, to work on their
group assignments which are a required part of course assessment

- the outcome appears to be sound in an educational sense.



> I think that correspondence courses do have useful educational functions-

I agree Rick. I think that, with the types of lifestyles people live today
and taking into account social factors such as irregular working hours,
longer hours of work for some, the casualisation of work (27% of the
Australian workforce) weekend work and family and study commitments,
external courses by correspondence or online are a realistic alternative for
a growing number of people. Attending a two week residential or even a
weekend PDC are simply not options for some people.

The question becomes one of the online or external student getting enough
practical work to try out what they learn and of the educational rigour of
the courses. 


For general information:

- our PDCs are 18 days in duration, mainly Sundays, with Saturday's at times
for site visits

- the information is biased towards the urban environment and focuses on
what the individual or family can do and to work in community organisations.

- we include one day on personal goal setting and monitoring progress
towards that and two days, provided by a professional consultancy as their
community contribution, on working with groups - decision making, finding
direction, facilitation and so on; we include this segment because we have
found that it is interpersonal rather than technical problems which limit
the implementation of permaculture projects; some participants have used the
techniques in their workplace

- we use a team of teachers, each of whom have specific expertise

- frequesntly, students include people seeking direction in life (either
young people or middle aged people after a new direction), planners,
architects, IT professionals, occasionally a member of a religious order,
community workers and people planning to work in overseas development aid.

- we invite people from community organisations - not all permaculture - to
address the students so the students get an idea of how they can become
involved at the community level; we also ensure that participants learn
about relevant local government initiatives in which they might cooperate
and which can be used to further their particular focus (eg local government
policies on residential building energy efficiency and waste reduction).

Thanks to all participants in this discussion for your contribution to the
important subject of permaculture education.

...Russ Grayson

 
---------------------
PACIFIC EDGE
Permaculture & Media
Russ Grayson and Fiona Campbell

PO Box 446, Kogarah NSW 2217 AUSTRALIA
Phone/ fax   02-9588 6931   (IDD-61+2+9588 6931)
Email: pacedge@magna.com.au
WWW: http://www.magna.com.au/~pacedge/

PERMACULTURE/ COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT: permaculture education + Community
Gardens Network (NSW contact) + organic gardening training + overseas
development aid project services.
MEDIA: publication design + desktop publishing services  + website design &
content production + journalism/ photojournalism.