permaculture

[Jason Gerhardt <jasongerhardt@gmail.com>]

Rhonda's comment is so excellent! Thanks for sharing your journey. I think
it's important that permaculture professionals share their stories of how
they got the skill, knowledge, and courage they have to do their work. Many
of us are working to build capacity for continuing education post-PDC to
support people in doing just that. Rhonda's journey is really exemplary of
taking the time needed to gain competence.

I also wanted to comment that the teacher training is valuable when a lot
of time is given to understanding the order, flow, and intention of the PDC
curriculum. I've taken two full teacher trainings and have sat in on a
couple others. While all of these were very valuable to me, the one that
had the greatest impact was with Scott Pittman and Larry Santoyo breaking
down in detail the purpose of the PDC and how to deliver the curriculum
effectively. A lot of teacher trainings I hear about focus on teaching
skill without covering what is being taught and what outcomes are being
aimed for.

In short, I think it's really important that young teachers take the time
(and often expense) to work with mentors who demonstrate excellence in
their work, so that excellence can be passed on from generation to
generation. I think permaculture is stronger when we have such guild
building and lineage valuing. That to me is how we avoid problems in
permaculture teaching going forward, not by creating rules and policy, but
by actively and carefully nurturing the next generations, and sharing
exemplary stories like Rhonda's.

Jason




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