Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Educating the ignorant

permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: permaculture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Educating the ignorant
  • Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 23:05:19 -0400

Adam Donnison wrote:

I too am disturbed by this thread. There are a number of issues
that really have me worried. There seems to me to be an awful
number of people, and a large concentration of them within the
Permaculture movement, that feel that formal education is the
holy grail and we should all be qualified teachers in order to
educate others. This is patently ridiculous. Formal education
offers something only to those who can afford it and are of
the mindset that can accept that sort of structure. It is this
description of educated vs. ignorant that results from this
thinking. Much like the platitudes of "the poor will always
be with us" and the suggestion that starving people somehow
have chosen to starve, I find this disturbing.

We learn by different methods, at different times, under different
conditions. But mostly we learn by doing, and we learn by observation
and helping others.

Think about this - how did you learn to speak? Was it
by someone "educating" you, or was it more as a process of being
surrounded by words and a desire to be understood? It was probably
the latter, with a little of the former to tidy up the rough edges.

I'm not saying that "education" is a bad thing, what I am saying
is that by saying that we, the "educated", need to take on the
mission of teaching them, the "ignorant" will result in the
same sort of problems that colonialism embodies. It is nothing
more than mere arrogance.

Adam

We can probably learn much from "the ignorant". By listening to and observing what _they_ have to offer, they learn by this process, as we do also, and we all learn how to communicate and share with each other what we each think the other should know.

This is the obvious when thinking of third world indigenous cultures with deep, ancient traditions, acquired skills and indigenous knowledge,
insights and perceptions. These people of the world have so much to offer and should be regarded as world treasures.





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page