Sustainability Institute
Short Duration Courses / Consultancy / Other Goods and Services / Research
Who are we?
The Sustainability Institute is the parent organisation from which the Sustainability journal was conceived. The Institute is committed to the propagation of ideas central to the concept of sustainability, and to providing a forum for appropriate training and instruction.
The Concept
There will always be people who wish to learn something new. As far back as the eighteenth century, there were over forty newspapers in Dublin. The English language classic, ‘the Canterbury Tales’ has never been out of print since the first copies rolled off Thomas Claxton’s printing presses in England in the fifteenth century. Two thousand years ago in Rome, schools and universities flourished.
Even in the most trying and adverse circumstances, educational institutions have thrived. In Ireland in penal times, ‘hedge’ schools sprung up in every parish in the land. Often a hedge school was no more than the name suggests; a sheltered corner of a field where the local youngsters could be taught basic skills in literacy and arithmetic. It is estimated that in 1824, there were 9000 of these schools in Ireland, catering for some four hundred thousand students. They operated completely outside, and often in defiance of, the established order.
Collectively, the hedge schools were viewed by the establishment as a subversive influence which was encouraging the uneducated masses to question their designated place in the overall scheme of things. The teachers themselves faced draconian punishments if convicted of running a hedge school, including transportation to penal colonies in the West Indies and even death in some cases. Similar schools operated in many other European countries and provided a rudimentary education to those the establishment considered unworthy of instruction or enlightenment. More recently we can find examples in Eritrea, Vietnam, East Timor, and Guatemala.
Given the loomiing crises posed by global warming, fossil fuel depletion, water and food scarcity, there has never been a more crucial time for communities to be well informed and versed in the appropriate skills - both soft and hard - for survival.
Shortcomings of Conventional Educational Institutions
As many second and post second level students are all too aware, the resources of conventional educational establishments seem to be focussed on little more than the dispensation of pieces of embrossed paper which allegedly give some indication of the ability of the student in his or her chosen subject. But even within that narrow restrictive framework, so little is achieved. The bit of paper may indicate no more than an ability to pass an exam. Thus the qualified architect may be unable to design a house, the doctor unable to empathise with his (or her) patients, and the graduate of the agricultural school be unfamiliar with the basic principles of growing food.
The timetable adopted by the educational institutions may have been appropriate in agrarian times when most of the population was engaged in toiling on the land, but when examined closely, seems an appalingly inefficient way of utilising resources. A typical third level course may involve no more than two or three hundred hours of instruction per year.
Serving the needs of the institution and its burgeoning bureaucracy often comes foremost, while those of the student come a very poor second. The system seems deliberately designed to weed out individual creativity or originality. At best, it is production-line education.
We believes that education needs to move out of this constricting framework into the real world of work, responsibility and the practical application of ideas.
The approach taken by the Sustainability Institute is that any building or rural site which can be rented or accessed in an arrangement which is beneficial to the students, course providers and the owners of the premises, is perfectly suited to the dissemination of knowledge. This approach allows for the possiblity of hand-picking teaching venues to suit the proposed activities.
Wanted
The Sustainability Institute receives no direct state funding and relies heavily on donations and sponsorship in order to keep going. Most of the personnel involved with the institute are working on a voluntary basis or for little more than a subsistence wage.
At the present time, we are in urgent need of replacement office equipment, especially computers.
If you or your company can help in any way, please click on the 'help' link below:
