Permaculture is a systems-based approach to problem-solving based on cycles, processes, and principles observed in nature. In a permaculture garden or landscape, planting, sowing, growing, and the design of the landscape are practiced in ways that mimic processes in nature and reflect an understanding of water flow, wind patterns, earth and soil composition, beneficial plants and insects, zones of growth and many other elements.
In the last few years, permaculture principles have been extended from garden and landscapes to the realm of ‘social permaculture’. If we are also natural creatures, then this makes sense. Social permaculture design is a way to recreate nature’s principles in our own lives, interactions, and social groups. As natural beings, we are of and from nature. Our separation from nature and natural processes is in fact, I believe, both the cause of our poor understanding of and horrific misuse of nature and the cause of many of our own social problems. Reconnecting with nature and with natural processes can help to heal the environment, can heal our social structures, and can heal ourselves. Looby Macnamara’s excellent book, People and Permaculture, is a wonderful introduction to the ways that an understanding of permaculture ethics, principles, and design can be used in our own lives to develop lifestyle design.
As a permaculturist, teacher and curriculum designer, I became interested in the ways permaculture and regenerative design principles can be used within the ‘landscape’ of a classroom, and in developing the larger school curriculum. We have the responsibility, I believe,to bring an understanding of permaculture ethics, principles, and design methodology to schools and to teachers.