Subject: [permaculture] From Mexico - Thoughts on PDCs
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 2009 07:19:56 -0600
This discussion on the PCDs is as old as the PCD, I think
at least it´s around since I made my PCD, some thirteen years ago-
al allways, there are those who think that the PCD is the ONLY way of
teaching and learning Permaculture
sometimes wishing even to "centralize" the issuing, having only
acredited teachers from some central institution, at best copyrighting
the word and having everything "under control".... forgetting about some
basic system principles, that also apply to the so-called "permaculture
movement"-
as an old rebel from academia, I do not really know, what a piece of
paper "certificates" .... somewhat, I hold a design certificate and
even a diploma (but here I allready will get in trouble with some of the
centralizers and "purists", since my diploma was part of a somewhat
self-issued version, that was created once and never again in 1999, for
the first generation of mexican PC activists, to celebrate ouselves and
our projects, credited by the now extinct PC drylands institute,
Earthcare education, and the now extinct mexican PC institute...)
the only time when I used those papers, was to get a working permit as a
PC designer and teacher from the mexican migration offices .... I prefer
not to weave around with them too much....
maybe we should apply PC principles on the permaculture teaching isuue
(well, then we maybe have a problem, that now there are quite a few
different sets of principles around,....personally I stick on Holmgrens
set, which, in my case, proved to be an incredible help as a thinking
tool...)
whats happening with the principle Nr 10 "Use and value diversity...."?
personally I tend to accept this, in this context I remember a comment
made by darren Doherty a few weeks ago:
Otherwise the clear option is to make your own institutes, your own certificates and deliver the course (s) that the
people in your markets need. Sure the imprimatur of giving a TPI PDC certificate is great but it is not the be all and
end all....
Here in mexico, I found the traditional PCD-sceme rather limiting. First
of all, you need people having time and money to pay for it. Then, the
TPI curriculum discourages explicitly bioregional expressions. Then,
quite easy, it seems that you just copy the content of the designers
manual and call it curriculum, send it to australia, pay 2.50 dollars
for each "original" certificate, prove your own certification, and THATS
IT.... ????
How somebody from Australia can certificate what I´m doing here ??? How
can they charge for that ???
We do not need necesarily more Design certificate holders, *we need more
Permaculture Activists. *Its your action that certificates you. Master
designers like Darren or Geoff Lawton dont need to walk around showing
their certificates and diplomas. For them, as for me and many other
PC-teachers/ practitioners, the PCD was the STARTING PIONT for serious
learnig and action. And this I hope to communicate in our courses and
workshops
Since i facilitated my first two week course, seven years ago, we found
out that its easier to stay marginal to this PCD sceme, allthough those
first courses were problably closest to the original DesignCertificate
sceme we did, since the Designers Manual was by then nearly the only
textbook we used- luckily, my bibliografy as well as the content and
scope of the courses, widened a lot since then-
For many years, we were lucky that there was no discussion on this topic
here in mexico, but now there are quite a few people who travelled all
the way to australia, took courses there, and come back claiming to be
the only REAL permaculturists, credited legally and internationally to
be the only authorized PC teachers here, by the way ignoring all the
work done by the pioneers during more than twenty years. Possibly, this
is a sign, that the mexican permaculture scene gets finally "mature",
but in my case its making me consider, if I should drop the word
permaculture once again from my activities.
saludos
Holger Hieronimi
[permaculture] From Mexico - Thoughts on PDCs,
Holger Hieronimi, 12/12/2009