permaculture

[Robyn Francis <erda@nor.com.au>]

PDC has always stood for Permaculture Design Course.
The paper issued at the end of a PDC is effectively a Certification of
Completion.
The original PDC certificates (note small c not Capital C certificate)
issued by the the Permaculture Institute stated  "This certifies that
....... has successfully completed a Permaculture Design Course"
(I don't know why people try to artificially beef up the certification thing
- its false advertising and hence unethical. BTW in Australia a Certificate
as a qualification has a legal definition tied to national accreditation
criteria and registration)

The PDC is a minimum 72 hour course. A PDC can be longer, but not shorter.
The topics that comprise a full PDC are described by the chapters of The
Designers Manual which was based on the the original PDC outline issued by
the Institute in 1986.

If a course doesnt cover the full curriculum it shouldn't be called a PDC
but something else: Permaculture for Beginners, Intro to pc, Permaculture
Practices, Pc homesteading, or Pc anything else but if its not a PDC its not
a PDC. It's fine and important to offer a diversity of pc courses and
training but the PDC is an international standard and the only one we've
got, so its vital the integrity of this course is maintained by those who
teach.

Seems there's been a lot of watering down and short courses making
mudbricks, cob ovens, compost teas and mulching calling themselves PDC but
obviously not covering what should constitute a PDC.

I taught a PDC in France recently and one of the translators, a PDC graduate
from a European trainer, was struggling with concepts like zones and sector
planning saying they were too technical. Told me the PDC she did was more
hands on, I asked in what way, she then informed me that the forest section
of the course they didn't talk any technical stuff about forests cos you can
always read about that later so they went into the forest to get the feeling
of the forest and absorb its wisdom directly through osmosis.... ??? IMO
this is a valid exercise to complement the theory but not to totally replace
it.

The example below looks like there's self-directed research etc to make up
for the lack of class time and if it covers the full PDC then I think its an
interesting hybrid of home learning and class learning that would work for a
lot of folk who don't have time and/or cash for a 2 week residential. There
are also full correspondence PDCs out there.

I encourage diversity in permaculture education but I'm a stickler for a PDC
to maintain its place and integrity in the movement.

Ciao
Robyn

On 28/10/10 9:18 AM, "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>
wrote:

> 
> These folks seem to think it is the former:
> 
> http://www.midwestpermaculture.com/MidwestPermacultureCourses.php?gclid=CLftn-
> 2H9KQCFcNe7AodkQfmiw
> 
>   8 Days of On-Site Permaculture Certification Training Plus
>          - Foundations of Permaculture Pre-Course Work (full details)
>                - 14-hours of Recorded Instruction from Actual PDC Course
>                - Pre-Course Self-Study Questions
>                - Over 24 Pre-Course Handouts & Textbook
>          - And Actual On-Site Design Work
> 
> What Subjects are Covered in a
> Permaculture Design Certification (PDC) Course?
> There is a lot of ground to cover in a PDC. Permaculture is about
> looking at ways to integrate many different elements into sustainable
> ways of living, so even though we might not go into minute details, we
> look into many subjects and continually look for ways to integrate these
> different elements into our permaculture designs. Some of the subject
> areas covered are:
> 
> <><><><><>
> 
> So, you can get "certified" in 8 days, as a designer? a permaculturist?
> that you attended a permaculture design course?
> 
> Should be the last two.
> 
> 
> 
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