Rarely Taught Planning Skills.

Fundamental Skills for Planners.

For the planning profession to survive and prosper, its practitioners need to find a position of strength in a broad range of topics. Typically, planners are taught items 1-6 below plus specialties like historic preservation, pedestrianism and affordable housing; each important but not part of a “core” education program.

Items 7-12 are rarely taught even though knowledge of these topics is critical to planners, especially as they rise through the ranks to senior positions. Even a cursory understanding of this wide range of issues will create an awareness of their importance and a mental note of the principles involved. The discussion below presents information about sources of information to facilitate self-learning. A lack of knowledge in a breadth of disciplines makes it increasingly easy for usurpers to intrude into the planning profession: the attorneys, architects, landscape architects, engineers, accountants and scientists.