permaculture

["scrooge McDuck" <declan@planetmail.net>]

Interesting experience, Rhonda, & thanks for sharing it. I don't feel qualified to teach any Permaculture, but am a trained speaker. I could teach any subject I have a thorough grasp of. Part of our midweek meeting involves free speaker training. I had techniques in an excellent publication and guinea pigs to practise on. It's a slow process, but very fulfilling when you know you have done well. Sticking to a central theme is the thing most often neglected. A lot of disjointed info is not retained. But we had dozens of aspects of speaking & reaching to work through. The techniques are transferable - that's what's good about the system.
--
Declan Moriarty
Sent from my Android tabletwith mail.com Mail. From Dublin, Ireland.

On 21/07/2016, 16:03 Rhonda Baird <rk.baird@yahoo.com> wrote:

Summoning my courage to share :)

Alan,

While a Teacher Training may not be required to teach permaculture, it can be helpful in supporting the work of offering the course.

For my own part, I had the opportunity to apprentice with a teacher (Peter Bane) for 10 courses: moving from apprentice to journey woman to junior teacher—and now (after 11 years) feeling competent to lead courses and work to mentor new teachers. I do not know of anyone else in North America that has had a similar experience or opportunity (though I would love to find others and know of their stories). In the beginning, my offerings were few and fully supported by the lead teacher. I filled several notebooks at each of the early courses—essentially taking the PDC over and over again. In my opinion, four years of just any permaculture work doesn’t prepare someone to teach well. It is an art and a skill to facilitate permaculture design education for a variety of learning styles, ages, and cultures.

Teaching with other teaching teams now is also very, very educational. One of my colleagues remarked that they had never seen so much presented so clearly in a PDC before. That makes me think that we need much more cross-pollination between teaching teams.

Apprenticeship, while not perfect, is a good model for educating teachers and building regional culture. In the beginning, it required me to temper my ego and feelings of urgency. On the other hand, the commitment and long-term nature of the relationship was supportive of my role as mother when my children were younger. I guess I would characterize it as moving toward slow, old growth culture. I think it’s the kind of slow and steady capacity building that leads us forward.

For transparency’s sake, I do volunteer with PINA’s Diploma Committee and do other regional capacity building to support opportunities for other permaculture practitioners that want to pursue a supported permaculture education. I also have been doing layout and editorial work with Permaculture Design Magazine (formerly Permaculture Activist) since 2008. (That has been an entirely different education about course offerings :)

The attitude that training isn’t necessary, I find counter-productive. Why wouldn’t someone that is (presumably) charging for workshops to educate people about permaculture design want to do that with the most integrity and capacity they could? Why would they not want to make that investment of time, learning, and money? I know you weren’t advocating that, necessarily, Alan—and the 4+ years seems almost right when working with an experienced teacher.

Okay, that feels long-winded for a “lurker” like me :)

kindly,

Rhonda Baird
Bloomington, IN






> On Jul 20, 2016, at 4:27 PM, Alan Enzo <ecoenzo@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> - Interesting note from another Permaculture List:
> Member asks: "Does anyone know of any teacher PDCs happening in the next 6
> months"?
>
> I replied, and thought members of this list would appreciate the topic.
>
> Response:
>
> Not sure what you mean by "Teacher PDCs"? The PDC and the Teacher Training
> Courses are two different animals.
>
> The "PDC" is the 72-hour Permaculture Design Certificate Course. After a
> student gets their PDC Certificate, they often seek out advanced training
> opportunities. One of these advanced courses might be a "PDC Teacher
> Training".
>
> So, we have the standard 72-hour PDC format, which Bill Mollison directed
> teachers to follow. Some teachers are tempted to inflate the number of
> hours, or add onto the official 72-hour curriculum (such as adding more
> materials on Teacher Training, more in Horticulture/Botany, more in Natural
> Building), but Mollison and other elders have advised against this because
> of the "TMI" factor (too-much information).
>
> Another reason that most teachers world-wide stick to the standard Mollison
> 72-hours of material is that it allows for "international recognition" of
> your PDC Certificate. If I go to work on a Permaculture farm or Ecovillage
> in Italy, and I tell them I have a PDC - they have a reasonable expectation
> of what I know (good overall 72-hour foundation in Permaculture,
> Permaculture Ethics, etc.). They know they don't have to re-educate you,
> because it is understood what is meant by "PDC".
>
> Ingesting the 72-hours is a lot for most people. This is why Mollison
> directed teachers who were inclined to add-on to the standard PDC to
> instead create Advanced Permaculture Courses.
>
> One such Advanced Permaculture Course that has emerged is the "Permaculture
> Teacher Training" course.
>
> It is important to note that a "PDC Teacher Training Course" is *not*
> required in order to teach Permaculture PDCs. Bill Mollison suggested to
> all that after the PDC, if you do not have at least 4 years of related
> experience, you should co-teach with others for 4+years before calling
> yourself a "PDC Teacher" or "Permaculture Teacher". Same rule applies for
> those going into Permaculture Consulting.
>
> The "Teacher Training" courses were designed originally for those who have
> a PDC, wish to teach, but do not have experience teaching or working with
> groups. Much of the curriculum from the programs I've seen focus on public
> speaking skills, putting together teaching materials and curricula, keeping
> students engaged, and creative teaching methods.
>
> Well, I hope that helps!
>
> Let me know if you have any other questions,
> --
> Alan Enzo
> PermacultureEducation.com
> Nashville Permaculture Guild
> permaculture mailing list
> permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
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