permaculture

[Jason Gerhardt <jasongerhardt@gmail.com>]

I completely agree with Toby and others that the PDC was not intended to
qualify a person as a 'designer', but rather to certify individuals as ‘in
training’.  It is after all what Mollison himself has written.  As far as
I’m concerned we are all ‘in training’ perpetually.  My guess is that Toby
was simply trying to suggest we be careful with our wording, and rightly
so.


To the further dialogue that has mushroomed from Toby's post, I have this to
contribute.  We could just get rid of the word ‘designer’ and call everyone
‘practitioners’; we could use classifications like ‘freshman practitioner’
and ‘junior’ and ‘senior’ and on and on.  I’m sure that would not go over
too well with all the triggering of repressed high school emotions.  The
fact is we all have associations with words, some negative, some positive,
but a duck is a duck so let’s call it such.  Words like 'trainee' and
'designer' inherently break apart reality into little unrealistic pieces,
but hopefully we can use our insufficient semantic system with honestly,
clarity, compassion, and humility.  After my first 2 PDC’s and an advanced
design course I finally realized the challenges with the certification
wording.  6 years later, now that I co-teach such courses I see the same
thing over and over.  To my experience, it all depends on the person, which
leads me to be in full support of a mentorship program for permaculture
design in the US.  Such a program would be best if it functioned as a
person-to-person relationship where trust and openness can be built.  I know
my relationship with my mentors has been and continues to be instrumental to
my development as a competent permaculturist.


I also agree with others that it would be best to avoid a hierarchy and
bureaucracy within the permaculture community.  I think the question is how
do we create a system that supports trainees with follow up education and
mentorships, rather than a qualifying and disqualifying agency?  In so
doing, we move from control to support. As much as I dislike people
highjacking 'permaculture' and taking it in unintended directions, I'm not
sure that can be prevented.  Having attempted to control many things in my
life I think I have enough experience to know that we should give up
permaculture policing right now, but support and competence building is a
completely different animal.  Our goal should be to create opportunities for
those interested in furthering their studies and building their skills.  It
is my hope that we can build relationships instead of putting up walls.  I
can’t wait to see it happen and am fully willing to contribute.


Jason Gerhardt