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back to my conributions to the British Permaculture Designers' Teachers' Handbook
PATTERNING IN ZONE 00
Why I would include this subject.
Challenges facing human beings at present are the result of the thoughts and activities of human beings. Unless we address this basic fact, no amount of careful land based design will help.
It should be understood that the presentation of such material can present challenges to some participants. By taking a broad approach, patterning, it is possible to work with minimal threat or upset, if this is what is desired. We can reintroduce objectivity, if required, by considering that thoughts and feelings are themselves patterns (of neuronal excitation, among other things).
I make a clear distinction here between community patterning and the person as an individual. Community patterning is contained within the ethic Peoplecare which I see as concerning people as groups, cultures, societies. Zone 00 I use here specifically to refer to the person as an individual.
In my experience, courses which intend to include practical zone 00 work such as personal development, support group or counseling need to make this very clear in the initial publicity and require additional staff as support people.
Context.
This can be usefully taught after some general introduction to patterning.
Guide to session duration.
Can be varied. This can be presented as a 1 or 2 hour session with swapping time before, during and after, or it can be expanded to a one day session or more. This would depend upon the specific intention of, and thus the advertising of, the course.
How I teach this topic.
I use a combination of presentation and collation. Presentations can be used for the introduction of ideas and tools for thinking and working with this subject. Patterns provide the basis for the sessions which can be assembled with the help of participants.
Swapping time allows for the assimilation and evaluation of the ideas presented. This approach allows the subject to be worked through in a reasonably safe manner. The teacher needs to be observant of the reactions of participants to the information. To a certain extent this applies to a course in a general way; it must be understood that distress may arise in some course participants and the teacher should have a collection of methods or strategies for dealing with distress.
Link to ethics and principles.
Peoplecare.
Maximum effect for minimum effort. Dealing with zone 00 challenges have widespread and far reaching effects in the thinking and behaviour of individuals and thus the groups and environments of which they are an inherent part.
Design exercises/group activities.
Swapping time. This provides a basic introduction to support work in general and specifically to the concepts of giving and receiving attention. It can also form the basis for the development of support group work.
Community Building model. On design courses the community building model can usefully be employed in say one hour sessions to give an idea of the concepts.
Support group, re-evaluation counseling model.
Introduction to support group work. Taking time before a group.
The teacher should be aware that to go much further in a design course (or even this far) carries risks such as the disruption of conventional teaching activities by having to take time to deal with distress. It should also be noted that potentially the working with participants and their distress provides an extremely powerful method of transforming negative attitudes and behaviours and will probably need to be included in courses at some point anyway. Intentions such as these need to be made very explicit to possible participants.
Mind Map summary/flow chart
The pattern is both the lecture notes and the basis of presentations and collations.
Graphics and photos.
I do not use photos or graphics other than mind maps and on the spot graphics to clarify thinking.
Living examples.
I relate information to personal experience where possible and encourage participants to do similar.
Useful organisations and booklist.
[in the end, this was not included in the Teachers' Manual as it ws considered by some to be too challenging. In my own opinion, unless we deal with designing for ourselves as individuals and ensuring our own stability and reilience, everything else we do in the environment and the community will be flawed. Recently, a number of designers have bravely given attention to this area and there is a growing recognition of the importance of dealing with our own zone 00s (and that of others).]
back to my conributions to the British Permaculture Designers' Teachers' Handbook