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: Toby Hemenway <hemenway@jeffnet.org>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: FW: [permaculture] Who's Qualified to Teach Pc?
  • Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2003 00:18:53 -0700

The situation in the US is essentially this: Just as Russ said, anyone can teach a PDC since there are no legal restrictions on the use of the term. There is an informal process for creating new teachers, and it someday may become formal. Most of the teachers I know (like me) apprenticed with established teachers, co-teaching several courses before attempting to teach on their own, and many of them took a teacher training course first. There is certainly an attitude of skepticism from experienced teachers toward people who haven't apprenticed yet are offering courses. Size of course attendance usually correlates with the teachers' reputations.

In the US, several teams are offering teacher training courses: Jude Hobbs and Tom Ward offer one, Michael Kramer and Christopher Peck offer another, as do Peter Bane and some associates. These are not designed to impart the entire curriculum to a new teacher (you learn that over a long time!), but rather to offer different methods of teaching, to prepare you for what you may encounter in the course, to help with the logistics, and to give experience in presenting.

PDC certificates in the US are not offered by any centralized institute; the US Permaculture Institute, directed by Scott Pittman, is fairly dormant right now and does not currently offer certificates. A number of other centers (different teaching teams or venues) offer certificates; essentially, a teacher just prints one up, so it could be argued that they don't mean much. That's a result, in part, of the break between Mollison and many teachers in the US; for a while Bill was supplying a number of teachers with certificates, but I believe that has stopped. I think some teachers are still photocopying Bill's old certificates, which is clearly not right. I don't know of any US teachers who have applied to be registered by the Australian Institute. The whole system here is in disarray and is very unprofessional, I think, and some of us are trying to change that, and at least get a standardized certificate going along with a list of "authorized" (or whatever) teachers to hand them out. There are a few PDCs being taught in association with universities. But we are a long way from trying to get accreditation as is happening in Oz.

If others in the US have additional information, I'd love to hear it.

Toby
_____________________________________________
For a look at my book on ecological gardening,
Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, visit
http://www.chelseagreen.com/Garden/GaiasGarden.htm


Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page