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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] [Permaculture International] work book for primary school age children

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  • From: Paul Cereghino <paul.cereghino@comcast.net>
  • To: grahamburnett@blueyonder.co.uk, permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] [Permaculture International] work book for primary school age children
  • Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2006 11:08:36 -0800

When I've worked on school based landscape management projects in the NW US (my experience IS unique to this system... and may not apply elsewhere), the primary factor has been staff time rather than ideas:

It is a rare teacher that also has the land skills to creatively mentor.
Land use projects are difficult with a 30:1 ratio -- teachers need supplemental staff
landscapes that fail tend to spoil the idea of landuse in the community.
schools have a rough time being land stewards as they have a hard time retaining staff.
US teachers get paid for 35 hours and already work 50 just maintaining basic self esteem.
Schools are out during most of the harvest season.

Opportunities I have found:

Develop curriculum with a teacher advisory group to match local standards and needs!!
Engage the existing grounds maintenance staff.. sometimes there are jewels, and they tend to stick around, and then they won't undermine your design, and they have the flow resources necessary for site repair.
Identify parents in kindergarten and get them trained up early (PDC crash course for elementary school parents).
Develop a mentorship system where older kids teach younger kids, and experienced parents teach new parents.
Use highschool horticulture programs and build a relationship between HS and primary schools.
Supplement class work with parent/student/community volunteer work parties to get systems up and running, so that the children can be light handed caretakers and also witness a model of community making places and nurturing the earth
Focus garden on propagation of perennial food plants for sale to the general community... the woody plant propagation cycle better fits the school calendar than actual food production, and can generate revenue.
Montessori or Waldorf programs have more flexibility and often existing gardening programs, but don't serve the broader community.

I have not found any really strong resources (other than $$) that align with my above experiences...

Paul, Olympia, WA

Graham wrote:

Sounds v.interesting, are there any samples online that one can check
out??? Partly because Naturewise,the London based permaculture group I
work with, have been thinking about doing something similar, ie,
producing a book about forest gardening/permaculture for children. It
would be good to see what already exists in order to avoid re-inventing
the wheel and at the same time gaining some inspiration from others'
work!

On Tue, 2006-12-19 at 09:14 -0400, permafrog@riseup.net wrote:

I have a copy of the Childrens Food Forest, it is a great resoucre.

Bob









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