Rethinking Permaculture

To farm, or not to farm?

A family can earn a significant amount of money by sending their young teens to Thailand to work. Because of that, attrition from primary to secondary school is over 50%. Of course, this impacts education development dramatically. I have a small amount of experience in permaculture, mostly as a hobby, and have been asked to come up with a proposal for my current employer.

I just got back from one of my thinking walks where I saw fish ponds, chicken coops, pig pens, small plots of cash crops, essentially all of the techniques agricultural NGO's boast that they bring to rural communities. Well, the techniques are here, the wealth definitely is not.

Maybe it's time to switch the cart and horse. Maybe the question isn't "how can we teach these poor farmers how to do it right?" but instead "Why aren't they doing it already?" I mean, isn't it naive of us to think that a bunch of farmers don't know how to farm? That all they need is a training and a pat on the back before they're on the road to development?

So, I'm shifting gears. Not "What do they need?" but "What barriers do they need removed?"

Perhaps this will finally save the world.

Where are all the teachers?

Today I met with a gentleman who will be working with another education NGO in southern Cambodia. He has some background in language education, but no real experience teaching young learners.

Again, I wonder, where are all the teachers? Why aren't excellent, trained teachers coming to the developing world, rolling up their sleeves, and helping out? Many school districts have programs that allow teachers to take a year (or sometimes more) off without jeopardizing their tenure or benefits, so why aren't more coming over?

Perhaps it's a simple matter of advertising, maybe teachers don't know just how much impact they could have working in the developing world. Maybe NGO's, like many politicians, think teaching is just something that happens if you give a somewhat intelligent person a textbook and put them in front of a room full of kids.

I just find it hard to believe that in a profession where people are here for their passion and not their paychecks that so few of them are willing to come to the developing world.

2011

What an amazing year 2010 was. I moved to Cambodia and began a new job, which looks like it’s shaping up to be a whole new career. I have really enjoyed working with PEPY and it looks like I’ll be doing so for quite a while, albeit with different hats on.

There are so many organizations in the world working to improve education in developing nations, and so few resources at their disposal. Internet searches simply do not turn up curricula, school designs, organizational structures, teaching methodologies, etc. for the developing world. It’s difficult for an organization working with government schools to reconcile the simple fact that an inexpensive and simple lesson in a country like America is cost prohibitive and complicated in a country like Cambodia.

I hope to do as much as I can to change that unfortunate truth in 2011 and beyond.