Patterns & Metaphors
Agricultural development
Template:
Like all living organisms, man extracts food from his environment. More food is obtained from a given environment by encouraging useful plant and animal species and discouraging or eliminating others. In this process such species become domesticated and the methods of enhancing their growth become more complex, requiring the organization of a variety of farm production processes (soil cultivation, irrigation, crop growing and harvesting, animal husbandry, and some processing of the resulting products, especially to preserve them. Highly organized farming tends to be preceded by a hunter-gatherer phase, followed by a nomadic stage and by a self-sufficient, small-holding stage.
Metaphor:
Groups and individuals derive necessary stimulus and nourishment from their psycho-social environment. More such resources are obtained from a given environment by encouraging useful behaviour patterns (whether unselfconscious or not) and discouraging or eliminating others. In this process such patterns become controlled and the methods of enhancing their development become more complex, requiring the conscious organization of a variety of supportive processes (cultivating the philosophical ground, counteracting conceptual aridity, initiating new patterns, caring for their development, extracting benefits from them, and preserving the latter for the future). A high degree of such organization tends to be preceded by a stimulus-response phase, followed by a pattern of behaviour shifting in response to the availability of stimuli, and then by a more grounded self-reliant stage in which the necessary patterns are engendered.
[Features] The discipline and skills required at each stage to ensure balanced nourishment under a variety of conditions.
[Contrast] Inspiring parallels are frequently drawn between various aspects of education and the cultivation of plants 'preparing the soil', 'planting the seed'. Occasionally this is extended to groups of plants ('crops' of students). No attention appears to have been given to possible insights from the management of the relationships between different plants or crops under a variety of conditions.
[Keys] Development of new varieties of plants. Herding animals. Crop rotation and monoculture. Soil conditions (acidity, alkalinity, water-logged) and erosion. Organic farming and fertilizers. Hedgerow habitats. Permaculture.<
