Permaculture education in Schools???

[ChrispyT]

Hi there -
I'm a school teacher and I was thinking that
* permaculture should be introduced into agricultural high schools.
also
* can tertiary institutions like TAFE start doing permaculture courses?
* are there any local councils involved with permaculture - courses, council gardening/landscaping (I tire of seeing council workers with poison wands on spraying the countryside with wanton abandon)

*** My big idea is creating a wholistic permaculture school, where students from yr 7 to 10 learn system/pattern recognition & awareness, math, physics, chemistry - the elements and how they are used by life forms, design tech (metal, wood - carpentry, welding, mechanical studies for direct needs of the perma-farm school) + creative thinking + problem finding, biology-botany zoology, astronomy+biodynamics/astrobiology, economics & history+history of food, agriculture+economic systems (feudalism, fealty, freedom - differences across cultures and agricultures such as North American Indian compared to peons on castle grounds in the UK) - The central point is that knowledge cannot be put into a 45 minute timeslots accessed once a week. Everything is connected. So class time should be on the field, doing things and learning things that are directly applicable, not just examples on a paper that have some abstract meaning which may never be applied.

What do ya reckon, eh?

PEACE

[labradel]

a permaculture component the schools curriculum is such a fantastic idea i hope (prey) that you can get it happening very best of luck

[jeremy]

brilliant, if you make a school like this I would go to it

[ecodharmamark]

G'day CrispyT

Welcome to the PRI Forum.

Concerning permaculture being taught in high schools: If you are teaching in Australia (?), then you are welcome to provide input into the ongoing development of the Australian Curriculum, and hopefully have some influence this way.

Concerning the (Australian?) TAFE (vocational education and training) system: There are many examples of where permaculture is already being taught: NSW, VIC, etc.

Concerning local government involvement with permaculture: There are many (Australian) examples of where this is happening, too: VIC, NSW, SA, etc.

Cheerio, Markos.