permaculture

[ChildrensPeaceGuild <childrenspeaceguild@yahoo.com>]

"a Portuguese student named Helder Valente has started a web site called New 
School Permaculture. Helder insisted that their was a new wave of 
permaculturalists who were changing the rules and one of those rule changes 
regarded the PDC."


Helder teaching a 7-day course is ridiculous...as he's over-booking students 
for three days!  
I am tempted to let Valente know that there is a NEW, new wave of 
permaculturists and we are offering a 4-day course. 

On a serious note: While one might have natural reservations about standards, 
certification, and centralization (myself included) I think Scott's 
experience is a fine example of why they are important. I am already 
committed to teach elsewhere during the North American Permaculture 
Convergence in MN otherwise I would be there advocating for all the 
certifying bodies, teaching organizations, and instructors to work toward 
establishing a set of unified standards and practices in order to guard 
against the drive-thru certificates offered by Helder, Vlad, et al.

 -Roman
Children's Permaculture Guild




On Tuesday, January 21, 2014 11:44 AM, Scott Pittman <scott@permaculture.org> 
wrote:
 
Musings III

This final chapter has been postponed over and over as I have made my way to
Costa Rica, taught a teacher training course, and now headed to Finca Amrta
to teach my 7th annual PDC.  Cuba has faded somewhat from my mind over the
past weeks but the subject of my discussion remains clear and the urgency I
felt in Cuba is still with me.

This discussion was titled "Standards and Practices of Permaculture" and it
drew a large audience of participants. 

My stimulus for this subject was an event that just prior to the IPC I saw
two courses advertised on the net that were 7 day PDC's.  I was really
shocked since within the Permaculture Institute we have been discussing
increasing the PDC to 21 days just so we could adequately cover all the
material.  I find it very difficult to present all the materials in the
curriculum and do the design exercises, some hands on, some pattern and
principal exercises and etc in the two week time frame of a standard PDC.  I
talked to the teachers of this course and they insisted that they were going
to go ahead with the 7 day schedule.
]
I met one of the teachers in Cuba who is a Portuguese student named Helder
Valente and he has started a web site called New School Permaculture.
Helder insisted that their was a new wave of permaculturalists who were
changing the rules and one of those rule changes regarded the PDC.

The PDC is everyone's initiation into permaculture and I have always felt
particularly protective of  that portal to permaculture.  It is also the
course that many newcomers to permaculture seem to want to amend.  I have
seen the course length shrink from three weeks to two weeks to 9 days to 7
days over the past 30 years.  Content of the PDC is contained in the course
outline that I received from Bill Mollison when I took the course in 1985.
According to David Holmgrin the curriculum was "officially" established in
1984 at the IPC and at the same Mollison announced the establishment of a
Diploma program.

During the Cuba Workshop I was amazed to hear from a gentlemen in the
audience that he had received his PDC without any of the standard curriculum
but a course just on the "Invisible Structures" (social, financial, and
legal structures).  No agriculture, forests, water, and etc.  He was shocked
when I commented that he didn't receive a PDC but rather a very truncated
specialty course.  Others in the audience were as shocked as I was.
We provide a copy of the Course Outline on our website www.permaculture.org
which most teachers that I respect adhere to in their PDC courses.  The PDC
that we offer also includes a design exercise, hands on work, class
exercises, and a talent show.  All of the elements were offered by Bill
Mollison in the courses he taught in the 90's when I was travelling and
co-teaching with him.  I continue to teach in this format which I think
contains the radical pedagogy that Bill developed over years of teaching
experience.

I think that the idea that one can use "Permaculture - A Designer's Manual"
as the complete curriculum of a PDC is a definite downgrading of the
material originally contained in a PDC.  I know that many of the newer
teachers follow "the book" chapter by chapter as the course outline but in
my mind it is an incomplete curriculum and doesn't do justice to the PDC
course material.  Of course there has been additional material added to the
curriculum of 1984 ie global warming, energy decline, keyline, food forests,
and other critical subjects that have appeared in the intervening years.

I also still offer the course at cost for any certificate holder from
previous PDC's.  This was a tradition followed by Bill Mollison in his
courses and it makes total sense to me that additional training under
different instructors creates better teachers and designers.
There have been challenges to this tradition which I think is a big mistake.
If one has room in the class and if the expenses of meals, and accommodation
are covered by those wanting to audit the course then I see no good reason
to not offer the course to previous graduates without tuition.
  
The Permaculture Institute has developed a Diploma program also available on
our website to further the education and development of permaculture
designers and teachers.  Our criteria for teachers is that they first obtain
their diploma before becoming lead teachers in a PDC.  We also ask that PC
designers obtain a diploma before advertising their design services.  Many
teachers follow Bill's admonition  to immediately go out and teach or design
once completing the PDC; time after time I have seen shoddy courses and
designs from woefully inexperienced teachers and designers.  This may have
been a growth strategy when permaculture was just starting but it only
serves to degrade people's opinion of permaculture when they experience
amateur work.  In spite of this there are still teachers who encourage their
students to fake professionalism after a two week experience.  Bill
Mollison, Geoff Lawton,  Vladislav Davidzon, and Helder Valente are
advocates of encouraging students to go out and teach immediately after
receiving a certificate and with this promise of an "instant" career have
successfully filled their classes.

Vladislav has recently initiated a "free" PDC online which he claims to have
over 70,000 students enrolled.  If you want a certificate from this "free"
course you have to pony up an additional $300+ dollars.  Soon we will be
awash in PDC graduates who are minimally qualified encouraging their
students to go out and teach.  To me this is a serious degradation of
permaculture education and akin to a pyramid sales scheme.

There are several organizations internationally who are trying to develop
and establish permaculture standards and practices and my hope that that
through collaboration we can all develop a unified system that will allow us
to recognize each others programs and certifications.  There is certainly a
lot to do and, in my mind, little time to do it!

"To change something build a new model that makes the existing model
obsolete"  Buckminster Fuller

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Scott,
Thank you for your diligence in documenting your IPC experience (especially
while being incredibly busy). The Musings lll is very well put and
articulated! I completely share your concerns. I feel the PDC can be so
powerful when really done well that it is completely worth guarding. I hope
we can get some of this work accomplished at the North American
Permaculture Convergence. Meanwhile, we'll keep plugging away at PI USA.
Enjoy the jungles,
Jason

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