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Rick and I support the concept of an
independent, international panel elected by permaculture certificate
holders.
The danger of an overseeing body of teachers selecting
teachers is that it is open to conflict of interest, as was evident in South
Australia's model.
It does concern us that many models are being proposed before
negotiation or clarification with the Institute, as it implies that such
clarification is not the first priority.
It might be useful to have a period of reflection time to
digest these proposals before going any further into discussion. The seeds have
been sown, let's give them time to grow!
Enjoy your spring planting,
Naomi and Rick Coleman
[please excuse any cross
postings]
I
feel that the organisation is now too big for separate bodies. We are
now in a global era and after years on the internet, we need these issues
approached globally.
We
need an international body for some special issues such as registering
teachers and issuing certificates. and the current situation is only
going to get more global. Lets take my current situation. I have
students in 20 countries, to whom should they themselves apply in order to
become teachers? To whom should we at permaculture visions apply? we
are based in Australia but have most of our students overseas. Rosemary
Morrow's situation where the teachers in Vietnam should pay $30 (which is a
horrendous amount for them) is intolerable.
I
would much prefer to see an international organisation issue certificates
and registration at a very low price so that people in countries with a weak
dollar can afford them. there should also be a means by which other
teachers can fund teachers for poorer countries. This can
factored into the cost for each country or be a fund that they can
contribute to. It would be easy to set up on the internet (we would
simply pay according to our dollar, otherwise it would cost too much to send
international money anyway.) In fact, apart from the one-off
registration, we could have password protected net-certificates that are
revised and re-issued as required and there would be minimal cost in
downloading it and printing them out. Teachers can post student
graduate names themselves, no administration costs there would be borne by
the central body. I am sure many of you have even more useful input
and ideas.
If we had one organisation purely for
certificates and registration it may be able to avoid some of these
politics, it would be governed by equal representation from many countries
and could be fair and impartial.
If
enough people agree we can easily set up such an organisation on the net and
call for nominations from each country as
representatives,
it
is very possible - we only have to want to do it.
The next step would
simply be to set up a proper discussion list, i just did one for IPC7, so i
can easily do it for this project. We can nut out the requirements,
I do not propose that we write a new curriculum, i am happy with
inclusion of content from guidelines and the manual. I am simply
proposing that we take the global view.
I
am proposing that we establish a fair, democratic, professional and
accessible international teacher register.
April
Permaculture
Visions International.
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Students
and graduates in 20 countries
(Australia,
Canada, NZ, USA, France, Malaysia, Brazil, India, UK,
Jerusalem,
Israel, Ireland, Africa, Thailand, Japan, Portugal, Tonga, Papua
New Guinea, Hong Kong, Mexico.)
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Exclusive Student and Graduate Mailing list
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Commercial and Private Permaculture System
Design
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Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2000 11:21:12
-0600
To: <permed@nor.com.au>
From: Scott Pittman
<pci@permaculture-inst.org>
Subject: Re: Pc
Teachers
Since it is difficult for me to enter this thread
without a background in Australian certification law, I'll take a
shot at presenting what we conceive to be important to the
Permaculture Institute (USA).
We founded the PCI in 1997
after a discussion with Bill about the lack of sufficient networking
capabilities of the PCI in Australia. It seemed that the Aus.
Institute had its hands full with Asia and Africa and that North and
South America could best be served within the continent. Our
goal was to set up a group of standards for teachers and designers
and those who conformed to those standards would be listed by the
Institute as approved. We would provide some continuity by
issuing certificates, and diplomas to those who were on our
list. In order to decide who was on the list we would ask for
documentation of work and clients, or students whom we could contact
to find out their perceptions of a teacher or designer's competence
and effectiveness. In order to review this information we
would need a group of peers to help the Institute evaluate the
results. This peer group would be paid for their time and any
decisions could be appealed to this peer group for further
review. It's obvious that we would need to raise funds in
order to do this without the usual burn out and half assed efforts.
What was the motivation for all of this? It came out
of a concern that the Permaculture Design Certification Course was
slowly becoming eroded as to content. I saw today that Skye is
teaching the course in seven days! How is this possible while
covering the essential material. I also was disturbed that
more and more teachers were using the course as a forum to promote
their own mystical beliefs, ie Devic work, crystal management
of your garden, Feng Shui (sp) patterning, healing the inner ......
(fill in the blank), and any number of other new age isms.
While all of this may have a significant role to play in ones
personal life I have always thought that by introducing cultural
mores, metaphysical practices and political belief systems into the
permaculture course one risked alienating those whose culture had
different takes on what is holy and what is profane. This has
been an ongoing debate in both North and South America as well as
the other countries where I have taught. To my mind
the basic
course as developed and taught by Bill was not only a major break
through in the science of design but was a pedagogic work of
brilliance. I have brazenly stolen many of Bill's teaching
methodologies as well as his curriculum to great effect, while at
the same time I have cleaned up some of his "factual
statements", and added my own anecdotes, and subjects that I
thought were crucial based on new scientific research ie the
estrogen analog debate.
I have been put into the category of
a "conservative permaculture teacher" and, I suppose, I
wear that label with some pride. I have stuck to the essential
order and content of the course outline I received in my first
course in 1985. As I have written to Robyn it is my belief
that not only is information transmitted during a permaculture
course but a paradigm shift takes place among the participants that
somehow transforms and directs them in a total new direction.
I see hope replace fear and action replacing apathy. I'm not
sure why this happens but I am certain that it does happen and that
it is core to the learning process that takes place during the
course. As a result of this I have been very careful not to
tinker too much with the curriculum. I still do the talent show, I
still teach ethics and pattern, I still cover island ecologies, and
meteorology. I am shocked when I see five day and seven day
certification courses that must, by limitation of time, leave out
major portions of the course. I have students who are taking
the course from me for the second time who didn't get patterning in
their first course! This is shocking to me, it's like teaching
anatomy and leaving out the heart.
A second concern was that
while self policing had worked within permaculture when we were a
small organization and most of us knew each other at some level we
were now too dispersed and big for self policing to work
effectively. The entrepreneurial snakes of the world had
discovered the commercial possibilities of permaculture and, not
having the ethical concerns of many, were using the word
"permaculture" to self promote and promote dubious
products. The only way to really control this behavior seemed
to be to have an organization that had the resources to challenge
these practices through a professional organization which had the
power through its bylaws to expel people from the
organization. This is a common practice here among architects,
doctors, engineers, and other professionals. If indeed
permaculture is the property of the graduates then they have the
right and responsibility to guard the integrity of that
property. It is certainly legally possible in U.S.
jurisprudence.
The institute also intends to certify and
promote good internship programs, again in response to the many
internship programs which are really thinly disguised free labor
camps, where little to no learning takes place. Since we
receive requests weekly from excited and open hearted young people
who want to learn and experience true earth care we should have a
place to send them that is ethical and full of integrity.
Finally we are in the process of establishing a grant
pool. Too often small projects around the world die from lack
of funds. These projects are often times the most exciting and
most critical agents of change in a region but the participants
don't have a clue of where to go for funding or, if they did, how to
write a grant. Since most of us who travel and teach know
about these projects it behooves us to find funding sources for
them. The foundation world is also very much into helping with
large pools of funds toward a particular outcome, ie sustainability,
and letting a single organization track many projects rather than
the foundation having to deal with each small grant and then
tracking it. Who better to track permaculture projects than
the permaculture institutes?
I realize this is a big bite but
I know it is doable, the problem, is it perceived as needed by the
pc community? I'm getting mixed messages from those I have
contacted and often times I think it has something to do with the
"franchise mentality" of many pc practitioners, that is,
"this is my territory and how dare you trespass".
This attitude is often held by those who are doing absolutely
nothing in the territory but just want a lock on the door to keep
anyone else from doing anything.
I have just completed
a rough month with Bill M. in which I have had to defend my
integrity to an old friend. After spending over six years
teaching with Bill this was a sad and bitter experience which, while
trying my friendship, didn't lessen my respect and admiration of the
work Bill has accomplished. I came away from this experience
with the understanding that Bill has changed, either through his
long illness, his new marital situation or both. I have
realized that Bill is not permaculture but it's primary advocate and
that if we are to continue the work we have to do it
ourselves. Bill has indeed retired and our job is to continue
the work in the same spirit which Bill once inspired. It is no
longer appropriate to defer to Bill if we feel that his decisions
are not in the best interest of the movement. If we are to get
our house in order it is imperative that we communicate and
cooperate to develop an international network that protects our work
and encourages its growth.
Scott Pittman
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