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  • From: "Robert Waldrop" <bwaldrop@cox.net>
  • To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>, "Phil Hacker" <iphilgood@gmail.com>, "Open Pc list" <permaculture@openpermaculture.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] teaching a permaculture design course
  • Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2006 17:52:39 -0500

Toby,

Thanks for an interesting discussion on the development of teacher training in permaculture.

Besides several years of teaching experience, I think it is probably helpful for permaculture instructors to have experience in doing designs. Those who would teach design should do design.

Your comment in the last paragraph about the system being "poorly organized" caused me some moments of thought. I agree it appears disorganized, but I am not sure if "poorly organized" is the best choice of words. Another way of describing the situation in permaculture training is that its present form is the result of "spontaneous order" or maybe "spontaneous development". I think it is probably good that there isn't a permaculture pope with authority over the whole movement. A more likely path to "success" (whatever we define permaculture success as) is to let a thousand flowers bloom.

Another traditional way to pass on human knowledge about work is "apprenticeship", with its three-fold division of "Apprentice", "Journeyman", and "Master".

But the one I like the best is biological, and is described by the term "rhizome". I think about that as I work with the Bermuda grass that is so good at spreading via rhizomes.

Maybe I am an optimist, but I think the permaculture movement is doing better than we think. I see a continually growing number of people who have taken formal permaculture training, and an even larger number of people who by personal study and attendance at weekend workshops and participation in online forums are working on becoming "barefoot permaculturists", so they can design their own living situations and make a positive contribution to encouraging permaculture in their local communities.

Consider, for example, the impact of the handful of Australian permaculturists that went to Cuba.

I consider the lack of a national or international permaculture organization to be a sign of wisdom in the movement. Successful transformational movements grow from the ground up, not from the top down. Once upon a time I was very involved with a third party in the US. We had a national committee. We had state committees and chairpersons. But we didn't have any precinct organizations. So we really weren't a political party, we were a political organization trying to organize something from the top down. When the time is right, national and international organizations will come into being, and they will make sense and be productive because they are growing up from very solid roots in fertile soil.

Bob Waldrop
tadpole in training with the Barking Frogs Permaculture/Dan Hemenway permaculture lineage http://www.barkingfrogspermaculture.org



----- Original Message ----- From: "Toby Hemenway" <toby@patternliteracy.com>
I've been mulling over what Keith and Phil wrote about teacher
qualifications, and will, once again, dive into this subject, one that is a
sticking point in permaculture.

Keith can speak competently about the situation in the eastern US; I'm
familiar with the US West. Few that I know have gone through the Mollisonian
procedure of applying to Bill with a curriculum for approval to become a
registered teacher. I've heard from more than a few people that if you just
copy the table of contents from the Designer's Manual and send it, and have
no personal beefs with Bill, you'll get approval. Take that with a grain of
salt, though, since most that I've heard it from are people who _have_ had
beefs with Bill.

The procedure in the US West for becoming a PDC teacher, agreed on by just
about all of the "old guard" instructors, is to take a PDC and then teach
with one or more experienced instructors for at least two years or 5-6
courses. One is not considered a full instructor until one can teach the
whole curriculum. In addition, now that teacher trainings are regularly
available, it is strongly suggested that you take one. I never did, because
they weren't available at the time I apprenticed. But I've taught at a few
teacher trainings, so I suppose in some sense I've taken one. I trained for
five years, not two, before I really felt qualified to lead a course, but
then, I'm a slow learner. I had a fair amount of other teaching experience,
and in theory that should streamline the process. But it took five years
before I felt I had mastered the huge volume of material, plus the
facilitation and community-building skills needed to be a decent teacher.

Most instructors I know have helped one or more people become teachers.
Sometimes logistics can make that difficult. My "break-in" session was a 30
minute talk on graywater that I did at a PDC for free. I gradually worked up
to an hour, then a few modules, and, years later, a whole course co-taught
with others. A little digging will find someone willing to work with you.
You'll probably have to travel--I did. But if you're serious, you'll do it,
just as most grad students do. We particularly need more teachers willing to
branch into new formats, teach at universities, and work with K-12 students.
The 72-hour residential PDC format can't reach as many people as
permaculture needs to and we need new ways of teaching the content.

The lack of a national or functional international Pc organization means
there is no official method of training, and are no real standards for
teachers, but the informal network is good at self-policing. Word gets
around quickly when an unqualified person is teaching, although it's a shame
that a few victims get ripped off before the news spreads. The system
functions much the way tribal systems did, (and how graduate school does, a
bit), where new teachers come from a particular lineage. Who you trained
under reveals quite a bit. When I meet a new teacher, I always ask who they
trained with. You should, too. The value of a certificate is in proportion
to whose name is on it.

Ditto with Keith that no one I know makes their living from PDCs. You'd need
to teach 10 or more a year to do so, and that is too grueling for mere
mortals. And ditto: we, and most others, give discounts on tuition (not food
and lodging) to returning students if there is space in the course. I will
mention that some of the biggest hassles we've had have been from
"auditing" students (that includes non-teacher candidates). Not sure why;
maybe they are stretching their wings, maybe they are using their experience
to manipulate the course, but I always gulp a little when someone wants to
audit.

I'd like to see the whole system become a bit more formalized, so that there
are organized pathways one can take to become a teacher or other advanced
practitioner instead of needing to nose around to find the way in. Some
people think the Pc system is elitist; it's not, it's just poorly organized
so that it sometimes takes a lot of work to find out how to be a part of it.

Toby
http://patternliteracy.com


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