permaculture

[Toby Hemenway <toby@patternliteracy.com>]

"Anne Erlandson" <aerlandson1972@hotmail.com> wrote:

> I took a PDC last Dec and it changed my husband's and my lives.

Thanks, Anne, for the great update after your PDC; wonderful that you've
bought land. It was a delight to hang out with you for 2 weeks and it fills
me with joy to hear how much you are doing with the experience.

So let's consider what a Permaculture Design Course is supposed to
accomplish. Since a PDC is only 72 hours, it's considered very basic. The
certificate is sometimes called a Pc Design Trainee Certificate (my old one
from Mollison says that), indicating that it is simply a preliminary step to
introduce the Pc concept and provide resources and incentive for further
study. It's a way of opening a door. Whether you walk in is up to you. No
one suggests that taking a PDC will make you an expert or a designer worth
hiring. It is explicitly meant to be followed by a great deal of study and
practice. Two years is suggested before solo teaching or designing, but the
transition will obviously be gradual (there is also a formal diploma
process, usually with tests). Many choose not to do the follow-up work, just
as many biology majors don't become biologists after investing 4 years; no
fault there. 

Learning Pc can be done any of a number of ways: PDCs, books, study groups,
mentors, internships, etc. I happen to favor the PDC because I honor and
enjoy the tradition established by Bill of teaching Pc in a 2- or 3-week
immersion. I like being in that lineage. Also, I teach it because it is so
damned effective at conveying the concepts, and I love seeing, as Anne
shows, how it transforms people. (If my motive were to make big money doing
workshops, I would be very stupid to be teaching Pc; almost any other kind
of workshop pays much more.) I also offer Pc in a bunch of other ways,
mostly unpaid. 

PDC classes are small and interactive enough so the instructor has a very
good idea of who "gets it" and who doesn't, and the design project makes
that very clear. Just as in school, both "A" and "D" students get their
degree/certificate. (F students don't, as I've said earlier). Seeing an MD
degree on the wall doesn't tell you if your doctor did well in med school.
So when you're hiring a doctor, or a designer, you rely on referrals and the
other checks and balances of our culture to inform you.

When someone has completed the PDC and gotten a certificate, that means that
they have been exposed to the PDC concept under the tutelage of someone more
experienced, and have demonstrated through completing and presenting a
design project that they can use the concept in a rudimentary way. Bottom
line: all a certificate means is that you have taken a PDC, have some
understanding of Pc, and are part of an honorable lineage. The tradition is
that it is not ethical to use the word "permaculture" commercially unless
you have gotten a certificate, but there is no way to enforce that without a
very expensive and to some, repellent legal process, so we rely on people's
conscience and their respect for a brilliant elder's wishes. So far, so
good, mostly. 

It would be wonderful if the certificate meant more, but you can't expect
mastery after only 2 week's training (which is done by teachers who must do
other things beside teaching, like design, to make ends meet. I know of no
teachers whose income comes solely from teaching. That in itself limits how
much time we can spend developing Pc's administrative infrastructure. Any
volunteers?) There are diplomas and internships for those who want more
formal work. The certificate is a tradition we honor, mostly; maybe a rite
of passage, handed down by the master. Someday it may mean more when
dedicated volunteers, grant-writers, or others choose to make it so.

Thus a PDC is one way to take a first step toward mastering Pc. There are
many others. Believe me, there's nothing novel in saying there are flaws in
the PDC process. Some awfully smart and experienced people have thought and
talked long and hard about it. Nothing I've seen in this thread about the
weaknesses of the PDC is new to this list; that's why I only respond to a
few of the questions or misconceptions (check the list archives for much
more). There is no dark secret, no questions nobody wants asked. (I also
won't waste my time answering belligerent, ill-thought-out, or paranoid
fantasy questions that a moment's honest thought would answer.)

The hard evidence, stated by nearly everyone who has taken one, is that the
PDC is utterly transformative, and I know no other way of learning Pc that
is consistently so. If you really want a certificate but are broke, there
are plenty of ways to get one. (To repeat--yet again: work trade,
scholarships, grants, loans, non-residential course, set up your own course,
independent college course, intern for an instructor, cook for a course,
etc. Be creative. Talk to someone. If there's a fence around Pc, it's a very
low fence with many open gates, so standing in front of it and whining just
looks silly.) 

Don't want a certificate? Don¹t take a PDC. Just learn Pc with friends and
do it. There's no monopoly on practicing Pc. Think the certificate is a
waste of time and want to see something better? Then offer a better solution
and write a grant or find some other way to make it possible to institute
the necessary changes. I'd love to see better or cheaper ways to get more
people doing Pc. So make it happen. But please don't be in the minority that
just argues down ludicrous straw men and looks for reasons why it's all so
very, very evil and elitist and badly organized. Permaculture is about
solutions. Find some.

Toby
www.patternliteracy.com