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  • From: Kelly Simmons <kelly@bouldersustainability.org>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] official certification
  • Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2010 08:18:44 -0700

Hi Jason - Thanks for the response. Perhaps we should have coffee or tea some time and talk in more depth about our local scene here. This forum doesn't seem like the appropriate place. I like your vision a lot, especially bringing in the community organizing part of it, and I agree about the need for more functioning, active permaculture sites. Are you familiar with Starhawk's Earth Activist Training that combines earth activism with a PDC? I've met a few folks who've taken it and they speak highly. Would love to host you at my site and get your feedback. It's coming along but still needs work.

I have set aside a dream of making a living by doing permaculture, whether teaching or designing. It is still my avocation, but the pressure to make a living at it was taking the delight out of the practice for me. I have been fortunate enough to be able to still be making a living in the arena of sustainability, and I bring permaculture in to conversations whenever I can. I did spend a year in Bali recently teaching permaculture and that was a real treat. Got to work with John Barrie Button and I Made Chakra, two amazing tropical permaculturists. John works a lot in India. Chakra is doing incredible stuff with appropriate tech - manure digesters and biogas accumulators and such. I've been lecturing some at the University and other places since I got back, and there is a greater interest, it seems, in the more mainstream circles than perhaps was taking place in years past. That is encouraging to me.

I've heard many good things about your teaching and would love to have an opportunity to teach with you some time. I'm not ready to lead a PDC yet by any means. Still have a few more "assistant co-teacher" gigs to get under my belt before I would feel comfortable leading. I've been teaching with Peter Bane and that is a joy. I highly recommend him.

Thanks for your thoughtful words.

Kelly



On Nov 6, 2010, at 10:01 PM, Jason Gerhardt wrote:

Kelly,
I couldn't agree more with what you wrote in your post! I see some local
frustration in your writing and resonate with that as well. Personal note:
Having been part of a Teacher Training course in early 2008 that 95%
consisted of very recent PDC grads I was dismayed and disappointed initially
feeling like all the years previous that I put in with multiple PDC's,
Advanced Design Course, internships, mentorships, design projects, etc, was
not required of all participants. It felt odd to follow the traditional
recommendations and see others get by without putting in the time. However,
it became apparent that those without the practice time and experience would
not excel at teaching a subject they had only been introduced to through a
PDC. Since then I have observed most of those trainees taking the time to
put the experience under their feet as they have realized on their own that
they were not prepared to teach. The observations from that experience
prove to me that there is inherent value in being strict about a structured
course of action for Permaculture training. My preferred sequence would be
for students to start with a PDC, practice for 2+ years, take advanced
design course, more practice for a couple years prior to taking the Teacher
Training, then apprenticing for many, many years before going out on ones
own. Of course, as you say, there needs to be a way of valuing the previous
experience of students in other fields like restoration ecology, landscape
design, alternative education, etc.

Alternatively, it is part of my vision to have Teacher Trainings focus more
on community organizing than occupational permaculture teaching. More than
ever we need to teach people how to work in their communities and institute
design projects. Such a course would focus on working with
neighbors/HOAs/Governments/NGOs/schools, etc. Perhaps a more fruitful
setting for permaculture teachers is along fence lines, in alleyways, and
across streets instead of in classrooms, with the goal of actually putting
permaculture systems on the ground. I believe we have a dire lack of active
well-developed permaculture sites across the country, and I'll continue to
believe this until we have multiple sites in every neighborhood. Therefore,
it is my goal to contribute as much as I can to that end. From this
perspective teaching becomes a focus on supporting the development of very
competent Permaculture Designers who can effectively speak about
permaculture and create openings for the demonstration of the principles and
concepts and go on to guide the implementation of such projects.

Thanks for sharing and listening,
Jason
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