Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

permaculture - Re: FW: [permaculture] Who's Qualified to Teach Pc?

permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: permaculture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Russ Grayson <pacedge@magna.com.au>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: FW: [permaculture] Who's Qualified to Teach Pc?
  • Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2003 16:48:24 +1000

Darren sums it up for those who want accreditation with the Permaculture Institute in Australia (see Darren's email below). As he states, the issue has been divisive within the Australian permaculture community and has led to many teachers bypassing the Institute's policy and issuing their own certificates.

There is no requirement in law stipulating that teachers must go through the Institute. The Permaculture Institute's attempt to trademark the terms 'permaculture design' and 'permaculture course', which was discussed on this listserv a couple years ago, have not been proceeded with. A search of the Australian trademarking authority, Intellectual Property Australia, discloses that both terms are listed as "never registered".

My reading of the development of this issue is that, in the early days of the permaculture movement, the notion of intellectual property received little attention as the motive in those days was to spread the system, not lock it up in private ownership and control. There was a naive belief that copyright law protected the idea of permaculture and permitted the Permaculture Institute to stipulate completion of a PDC as the qualification to teach permaculture. It was when the Institute discovered that copyright did not protect the usage and the teaching of permaculture that they attempted to trademark the terms. That, anyhow, is what I have been told by the Institute. How it took an organisation a couple of decades to learn this is something I do not understand - I guess it never became an issue, but it shows the danger of making assumptions rather than finding out the facts.

I believe that, as it stands at present, anyone can teach a PDC regardless of whether they possess a PDC themselves, and anyone can claim to be a permaculture designer and offer their services as such. Whether the rest of the permaculture community will recognise them as teachers or designers is another question. In part, it is for this reason that Permaculture International is proceeding to register an accredited permaculture design course with Australia's national training authority. Anyone can offer a course, but it has to be accredited to be advertised and regarded as vocational training. Thus, if permaculture is to become a tool in the design or other professions in this country, accreditation is critical.

In regard to the Institute's insistence of using Bill's designer's manual - written nearly 15 years ago and not revised in new editions - as a text, the fact that it was not written as a text suitable for use in vocational training has been covered by earlier commentary on this listserv.

Also militating against its use as a straight text is the inclusion of Bill's philosophical and political argument in the chapter 'Strategies for an Alternative Nation', such as his proposal to replace a global body such as the UN with sectional interest groupings such as bioregional and tribal conferences. Understand I am not downgrading the manual as a book - it contains much of value and is a truly innovative volume - I'm just pointing out some limitations on its use as a text book, limitations that have been pointed out to me.

...Russ Grayson


On Monday, July 7, 2003, at 09:35 AM, Darren J. Doherty wrote:
 Hello All,
InAustralia(at least) one need’s to be registered as a teacher with the Permaculture Institute (director’s Lisa Mollison & Janet Millington – Bill Mollison’s no longer a director as he is older than 72 – it is illegal to be a director in Oz over that age). To become registered you need to submit your course curriculum (using the PC Designer’s Manual as the core text) for assessment with a $250 fee. Then you can have your students receive PC Institute certificates. Therefore if students wish to gain the PC Institute Diploma then they need to get the Institute certificate first.

There seems to be some polarity with those who are registered and those who aren’t for reasons outside of this particular string. As you said the basic rule of success continues: …..” bad teachers will weed themselves out”…..

As for the US and elsewhere don’t you have your own institute’s over there – I mean at the end of the day anyone can become an institute and issue certificates etc. – it’s the recognition of those institution’s award’s that creates their credibility……

Cheers,
Yours and Growing,
Darren J. Doherty
w. www.permaculture.biz

 

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf OfKirby Fry
Sent:Monday, July 07, 200312:19 AM
To: permaculture
Subject: [permaculture] Who's Qualified to Teach Pc?


 

Hi All,

 

Some folks have been wondering what qualifies them to tech a Pc design course.

 

As I recall, Bill says that the 72 hour design course is what you need to be able to both call yourself a Pc designer and teacher.  He ads that the bad teachers will weed themselves out which I tend to agree with.

 

Some people have also expressed to me that they do not feel qualified to teach Pc after they've taken a design course and that the design course alone is not a good enough primer for a someone to be "licensed" to teach a course.

 

Their suggested solution is extended courses for potential teachers and a board that authenticates that teachers have successfully completed the extra courses.

 

My feeling is that if someone is not comfortable teaching a course after completing a design course then they simply shouldn't teach a course and to leave it at that.

 

 

Kirby Fry

 

For the real scoop on environmental and social justice issues check out Democracy Now!  http://www.democracynow.org/

 

_______________________________________________
permaculture mailing list
permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture



Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page