permaculture

[Dick Pierce <dickpiercedesigns@gmail.com>]

Rock on, Jenny - Go girl!

The boys back home in Austin

On Sun, Oct 24, 2010 at 3:53 PM, jenny Nazak <jnazak@yahoo.com> wrote:

> I agree with Toby's comment that "...Permaculture is largely regarded as
> too hippie and flakey to be worth paying attention to. The vast majority of
> people, the ones doing the real damage, are repulsed--or worse, amused--by
> those attitudes and will never take permaculture seriously until we stop our
> self-righteous insistence that everyone have our radical, minority politics
> before we work with them. If we want to keep permaculture limited to our
> little elite, then let's not offer diplomas and let's only do cheap courses
> in an old barn. To talk to more people, you have to speak in their language,
> not force them to speak yours."
>
> Yes! The more professionally we present ourselves, the wider and more
> "mainstream" the audience we are attracting. I've been working for some
> years as a publicist and registrar for various permaculture courses, and
> I've watched this happen. And like Toby, I have had more success filling the
> courses that charged reasonable tuition, than I have had filling the courses
> where we were willing to let people take the course for super cheap or free
> just to fill the class. Furthermore, in my experience, classes where we've
> charged full tuition seem to attract more students who attend all days,
> finish their designs, and go on to incorporate permaculture into their
> profession in some way. (I personally feel that it would be a good thing for
> the world if all of us permie grads, even those of us who don't work as
> permaculture teachers or designers per se, keep on finding new ways to
> "permaculture" our jobs.)
>
> By the way, the Austin Permaculture Guild, Austin, Texas, USA, is among
> those that offer a Permaculture Design Certificate (as distinguished from a
> "certification") course. Our next course starts in January, and is a
> commuter course offered on weekends. This format taps into a large segment
> of the local population: people who work during the week at office jobs, or
> at their own businesses. A very desirable audience in terms of promoting the
> spread of permaculture.
>
> I do think the diploma and certification process is an excellent addition.
> Post-gradute work, as it were. I feel that many PDC grads are hungry for
> this, and that it would serve the planet well.
>
> Jenny Nazak
> (Living on the Atlantic Coast of Florida now, but still helping out my dear
> friends in the Austin Permaculture Guild!)
>
>
>
>
>
>
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-- 
DickPierceDesigns@gmail.com
SE-NE (summer) & Austin, TX (winter)
Cell-512-992-8858 (all-season)
www.DickPierceDesigns.com <http://www.dickpiercedesigns.com/>

Just Completed: 4 Courses of citizen Gardener-Basic. Next Course starts on
Jan 15 - http://citizengardener.grouply.com/.

And, just started: Fall 2010 Permaculture Decign - through Dec 11. Local
Food Grad Potluck & Celebration - Sun Dec 12 (TBA)

Next PDC starts on Jan. 24th; great Christmas present.

Dick's PC-Bio. on www.austinperm.com/
You Tube Dick Pierce for video clips