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Organizing, Nationally, Bioregionally, as Design Course Teachers, etc.
In a message dated 10/8/97 1:22:41 PM, loren@wombat.net wrote:
>If this is true, it doesn't sound entirely consistent with principles of
>local/bioregional control and grassroots organization...which while not
>necessarily "100% Permaculture", are to me at least consonant with
>ecological principles. This may not have occurred to the organizers...yet.
Well you have got me thinking on this one, Loren. There are various concepts
at work. One is a permaculture ethic to which all graduates of a design
course are SUPPOSED to accept as a condition for certification. (If this has
changed, no one passed the word.) A pamount ethic is that we do not compete
with one another. This is not the most honored ethic in permaculture. In my
1981 course, Bill declared that people were to set up "territories," and
other teachers were to come in only by permission. Like the bogus copyright
on the word "permaculture", this proved very counterproductive. Later he
abolished the territories principle. This was while the permaculture
movement in the US was still sort of young. OK, now we have had teachers
associations come and go and for practical reasons these need to be larger
than bioregions. How many teachers can a bioregion support? (None in most
cases, but that is another issue.) A couple attempts have been made at a
global teaching association, guild (in the correct useage here), whatever.
These too have dwindled away.
Permaculture teachers associations have important functions--to try to
encourage some sort of standards, to maybe set up some sort of certification
program for new teachers so that they have at least minimal qualifications,
to work on ways to develop the potential to teach permaculture. The concern
of the Activist letter writers is that when the market is clear cut, a long
dry spell ensues and good people drop out of teaching--people from this North
American soil who live with the issues of the region. This makes us
dependent on outside resources. This is not good bioregionalism. It is not
good permaculture. My objection was to the approach in stating the problem.
This is a professional matter and we should develop a profession