Subject: Pedagogy, Curriculum, Fire and the "Overwhelm"

From: [email-masked] (David de Vries)
Date: Mon, 2 Mar 1998 22:28:51 +1100

Scott Pittman writes:
>I find it alarming that so few people seem to have considered the pedagogy
>of the permaculture design certification course.  I think that the original
>course outline and the presentation of the material to have been brilliant.
>It worries me that so many graduates think that they have a better approach
>and in the process lose the immediacy and fire of the original curriculae.
>"If it isn't broke don't fix it!"

and

>It seems that everyone is coming up with "new and improved" curricula which
>I view with great suspicion - since the old has served us so well for so
>many years.  I acknowledge that new data and technologies are necessary
>upgrades to the information contained in the course.

As far as our course goes, it's the standard curriculum/presentation.  I
love the curriculum.  However, pedagogically, the intensive format is a
very peculiar beast.  I haven't heard of any other course that attempts one
half its amount of information or that attempts to maintain the intensity
for two weeks.

Apart from the fact it works i.e. many satisfied graduates, it is
indefensible from an educational perspective.  People cannot maintain their
attention for more than 3 days of a full blast course.  What we and others
who have developed alternative formats are attempting to do is to find a
mix that both maximally educates and puts a fire in the belly.

What such a non-intensive mix may help do is manage that fire - preventing
teachers and students from getting burnt out.

>I think that the "overwhelm" is part of the learning process and that when
>you hit that wall of not being able to control the radical nature of the new
>infromation coming in, you "surrender" to the inevitability of having to
>change your basic belief structure. In virtually every class that I have
>taught either alone or with Bill there is a critical time, usually day four,
>when there is a very distinct shift in consciousness among the students
>where they stop the furious note taking in a futile attempt to capture data
>and begin to acknowledge and recognize their own intuitive knowing, or
>"common sense".

The "overwhelm" process is a great proselytising tool - it got me.  Maybe
others like Russ with his weekend courses or Dan Hemenway with his email
courses can comment.  But, I guess that you can still get the "overwhelm"
with a more subtle build-up.

David

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From: Avalon Bruce <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 01 Jan 1998 06:27:51 -0800

am new to permaculture list -- do you know of anyone in way EASTERN new
mexico or
the el paso area who could come out here this summer and TEACH a short
course on
permaculture?

i have four GRAND, GLORIOUS, WONDERFUL acres in the northern chihuahuan
desert --

30 miles in 3 directions to small towns, crane, monahans and fto
stockton

we (in imperial) are between I-20 and I-10.  i'd be glad to arrange
publicity,
provide housing (have old, 9 room ranch house), etc.  we have a
sweatlodge here, 
and are only l4 miles from a HUGE inland 'lake', imperial reservoir/lake
-- pretty area
if you like desert, mesquite, cacti, and critters -- even  moutains way
off on horizon

this used to be a big truck farming area, with lots of good, cheap
irrigation water

soil is clayey but will grow anything the wind doesn't beat to a pulp --
but being
desert, we only get 6-l0 inches of rain/annually and need to make the
MOST of what
resources we have!

achitu. avalon
-- 
The Earth is not given to us by our parents.
It is loaned to us by our children.

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From: Avalon Bruce <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 01 Jan 1998 06:27:51 -0800

achitu. avalon