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One of the interesting programs the Peace Corps had
uh... in the sixties and early seventies
was a large Peace Corps program, a teaching program
in Ethiopia
There were so many volunteers teaching in the
Ethiopian high schools
that they made up one half of all the teachers in Ethiopia
who had a college degree
The Ethiopian teachers tended to do
physical education
and the Ethiopian languages
but the Peace Corps concentrated on English and math
and social sciences and so on.
and the uh... you reached the point
where you can't imagine a
Ethiopian coming out of the school system without being teached -
being taught by at least one Peace Corps volunteer
and probably eight or nine.
The rebellion against the emperor in those days, Emperor Haile Selassie,
was a rebellion led by students. The students were the only
uh... only group of people in Ethiopia who could organize.
There were no unions, no political parties in in Ethiopia.
There was only one government newspaper no other newspaper
uh... and so
uh... the rebellion basically was
led by Ethiopian students
who had been taught by Peace Corps volunteers.
Now I don't mean the Peace Corps volunteers taught them to rebel
but they did teach them . . . they were against rote learning
... you mustn't just memorize ...
you must think.
uh... you know you can't just accept... and so on
and in the uh... empire like that of Haile Selassie those were subversive
thoughts and so there was a role played by the Peace Corps
in throwing out the emperor.
My name is Stanley Meisler
I'm the author of When the World Calls
The Inside Story of the Peace Corps
and Its First Fifty Years