School of the New American Farmstead

As I'm catching up with the material since I engaged slowly at the start, it has become abundantly clear how much careful thought and care Phil and Shaun have put into the course design and content. The videos are highly-relevant, thought-provoking and interesting. Your communication style with course participants is friendly, inviting and engaging. I'm looking forward to continuing to the readings, more videos and the high-quality presentations. Thank you so much!

We hope it will be repeated, not just for myself and my wife but so that this dialogue may spread and engage others in envisioning, learning and preparing for the uncertainties ahead.

This was my first experience of online learning, and being a huge fan of Fleming's ideas, I was delighted to be given the opportunity to participate. I didn't leave with a single disappointment. Shaun and Philip really did Fleming’s ideas an incredible justice. The course curated an extraordinary line-up of thinkers, writers and do-ers, interweaving them all into a compelling 8 weeks journey of deep thought and bonanza of possibility. What a privilege it was to spend 8 weeks with all these great minds, absorbing, and sharing our visions of the future. I am inspired, and in awe, and eternally grateful to all that contributed. I joined, and left this course knowing there are most certainly dark times ahead, but I have never felt so equipped to deal with them. The course was undoubtedly worth every penny. I really appreciated the modest fee, without which I wouldn’t have been able to participate. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this course.

This course has provided me with a really good picture of the human predicament and a valuable network to help support me on my path for survival into the future. The webinars, required readings and other recommended content have been fascinating and educational. This course has also helped to give me focus, support and comfort during this challenging time. It has been an honour to be on this course and I hope to participate in more online courses with this college in the future. Thank you to all the teachers and other participants for this fantastic journey.

I am deeply appreciating the effort and love that Philip and Shaun, along with everyone else at Sterling College, and the class participants, are bringing to this course. The twice-weekly live webinars are crucial for my sense of belonging. My hard copies of Lean Logic and Surviving the Future arrived last week, and I'm getting a great deal out of reading and re-reading, related to the group discussions. The Covid-19 situation, in addition to many other profound potential lurches (feels like we could be living through a *paradigm shift), has deprived me of my daily human neighborhood social contact network. So the timing of this class is working for me on many levels.

Thank you for this class. It was such a pleasure, I'm not sure I can call it a class - more like a book club with really cool people! All the speakers were excellent and dovetailed with Fleming's work perfectly. Even though it delved into a very painful, overdue reckoning of the world, it also provided a beacon of hope and clarity. I hope this class will be held in the future. As we can see from the recent protests, there are many people in the world who are waking up, and would benefit from such profound guidance.

I am very aware that I stand at the centre of my world and what resonates with me in the offerings. I have also taken lots of side roads to other content beyond the symposium while digesting the material offered thus far. Thank you.

Excellent: I have purchased Surviving the Future & Lean Logic, and I am certain to be reading and referring to them going forward.

It is heartening to see these conversations curated by Shaun, Phil and speakers, the 'Lean Logic' dictionary and 'Surviving the Future' book. Good to see how it gets contextualized honestly and with integrity. No easy answers, but the approach is well thought through and open for creative thought and problem solving. It's workable - comprehensive enough to be applied contextually. I have been very grateful and impressed by the maturity and diversity and integration, self reflective and critical, accepting and honest exchanges. I would really like to meet you all in person. It is becoming clear to me that within Fleming's work are the hidden insights which stem/hold back the imbalances of 'protectionist' and xenophobic approaches, whilst making sure that what is protected benefits the whole community and nature, donut economics (in an interconnected 'seed of life' design seems compatible). :) I am finding ways to take this forward, have had a couple of 'interviews' as I review my studies to direct them more into localism, how we make the interconnections which work as we know promotes wellbeing. I have also been impressed that the faculty of the course do pay attention to our contributions and help to make it interactive, using our enquiries as well as challenging them in good humour and to enlightening effect. Significant topics, in the context of rising (negative) populism, nationalism, sharing inter-community resources, multiculturalism and carnival, living within planetary limits, below: 'Culture', used in a broad sense of overarching systems, have been controlled by capitalism, with all its exponential growth, 'myth of progress' (Greer), so it is impressed upon me that the structures (grammar) and vocabulary of this restorative work is applicable anywhere and with diversity in mind. 'Overpopulation' - often observed 'asian and black' people like me blamed for that, China, India... Poverty and the rights of women are important underlying factors in various contexts, and the SDGs (UN) address this. We can make humane and reasoned and respectful options for women, regain the 'feminine' traits of regeneration and cooperation. Slowly overcoming the questions I have had over how truly inclusive this approach is, and at the same time, seeing Fleming put into his work the insights from cultural histories, literature, religion, science and philosophy, that warn us wisely. A warning is not to discourage, but to proceed with open eyes and careful attention. So I can say that this study enables a vision of de-growth that promotes connection to earth people and sharing (permaculture ethics), xenophilia and conviviality. I hope the Fleming Policy Centre will develop the principles of inclusion and transparent accountability for the unfolding in our communities of localised sustainable and regenerative cultures. I wish to pursue this study further and will be very grateful for the future deepening course.

Very thoughtful, full of important ideas and information.