OCR Text |
Show After the Peace Corps: A New Self-Knowled- ge By STEVEN V. ROBERTS of the Harvard Crimson Reticence is not a trait particularly characteristic of most Peace Corps Volunteers. Words are hardly ever a scarce commodity, even when a Volunteer is 500 miles of dirt road away from the nearest supply of cement or textbooks. One evening Georgianna Shine, a Volunteer teaching English in Ghana, was talking to the watchman at her school compound. They discussed their families, their villages (His village is Ougadou-goUpper Volta; my village is New Britain, Conn., with 85,000 people.), their work, their education. Mumooney, the watchman, said to the American girl who had recently taught him English, This be best way to knowing how world.be. You travel, you see other mans way, other tribes, see white mans way, see other people and how they live. Then you go think what the best way for you and your people. You go back your village, talk to the children, you tell them other mans way. Then they know how world be, then they be better people. u, Educational Adventure These words, simple as they are, come close to describing what happens to a Volunteer during his term of service. The Peace Corps is a profound educational adventure, an extension of the individuals sphere of experience in ways hardly possible at home. Having seen other mans way for two years, 700 Peace Corps Volunteers will return by the end of December. They will come back to their villages, and talk to the What these Volunteers have children. learned, and what others will learn from them, could, as their numbers grow, have a significant effect on how Americans view the world and themselves. After talking to several of these returning Volunteers it is clear few fail4o learn from their Peace Corps experience, or avoid being changed by it. Many of the changes are obvious. Georgianna Shine wanted to study English in graduate school, and will now most likely undertake African studies. George Kroon, a community developer in Colombia, will study that subject in London next year although he majored in business administration. Eugene Schreiber received an engineering degree from Purdue; now, after teaching surveying and English in Tanganyika, he will enter the foreign service. Other engineers and geologists returning from Tanganyika will enter law schools, African studies programs, and graduate schools of philosophy. And as one would expect, most Volunteers learned a great deal about the country and the people with whom they worked. The Volunteers were instructed to stay out of local politics, but sometimes they could not help getting involved, as when a local chief attempted to thwart a building project in Colombia. But just in the normal course of existence the opportunities were limitless for gaining insights into the social, political, and religious attitudes of the people.' The value to the Volunteers of living in another country was not limited to a deep understanding of that society. In their separation from the United States, and in their immersion in a different-culture- , they gained a new perspective on their own country and a new sense of objectivity. George Kroon said We dont want to fall back, in the same rut, and Ralph Thomas expressed the hope that I wont join the ulcer brigade. Returning Corps- - Page 3 , men manifest a critical understanding of both domestic political affairs and such programs as foreign aid. It is not surprising that many will enter government service immediately or after further study. If the Volunteers are able to make more reasoned and objective judgments, many have also returned with a renewed appreciation of the United States and its policies. Perhaps this is because many of their basic precepts about American life for the first time withstood severe scrutiny. Kroon added that one Vis more sensitive to the things that can harm America, and trends within the society that arent very healthy. Dr. Joe Colmen, Peace Corps research director, said that returning Corpsmen tend to be more tolerant of opposing ideas, and this. too was corroborated by the Volunteers. Georgianna Shine said You learn to accept things without taking them on yourself, although sometimes thats not so easy. The most significant element in the education of a Volunteer, however, is the changes wrought in his own personality. Simply, the Volunteer learns to do things for himself. Most Corpsmen were placed ' in a position where there was little or no structure to their operations. You had to carve out your own niche George Kroon remarked. And there was hardly any expert advice or supervision. No one told me what to do or how to do it. In addition, Volunteers were often given tremendous responsibilities from the beginning, since they were often the most educated people in the area. A 'teacher in Nigeria was made headmaster of his school. Gene Schreiber said a surhimself veyor in Tanganyika could-finin charge of 200 men. We were completely on our own, with responsibility . we would not have for another seven or ten years, if we were in the States. EUGENE SCHREIBER, a graduate of Purdue, and a Volunteer a student in proper surveying techniques. more severe challenges than he had faced in college, or that a person of his age would meet in the United States. The result of all this is that the average Volunteer grows up very quickly, develops a poise and seldom found in people of his age. But it is a quiet that does not manifest itself in bravado. Many Volunteers are actually embarrassed by press coverage which makes them out to be a collection of geniuses or supermen. Sometimes I feel like a phony when I read stories about us, Georgianna Shine said. Their attitude is best described as tempered by a humility built up after two years of almost unremitting frustration. The challenges of their job were so severe, that after two years many feel they, can handle just about anything that comes along. But they also understand, as Ralph Thomas points out, that everything cannot be done at once, or ever, and that one has to learn to settle for the possible. Everyone has grand visions when they set out, but for most, like Miss Shine, success be self-relian- d High-Lev- self-confiden- Responsibility el While some Volunteers felt they had had the opportunity to be on their own in college, all noted that the intensity of their Peace Corps experience was incomparable with any other. In a Questionnaire answered by returning Corps-me- n the question What did you like best about your service most often drew the following general answer: Discharging a high level of responsibility with a great deal of freedom and initiative. Dr. Colmen, who is currently compiling the results of the tests administered to returning Volunteers, said that the individual Corpsman was subjected to far self-assuran- ce 3L I . , i ? : -- t A , ' r- -- Hv,: V- V.w vr. t 1 . if i ; k .fA 4 - s'r' v . fT 4 f if. ! HVt L .t t . v.J1 - yjks a I- -- . f : f 4 ll i I, r . . t yy'KA y A; - 4 - - J4' 7' v n. - - 'w t M-- r: - 1 & h 5 r a v . 4- V K 'V'k M v s-- , - t 4 Tv ; " l a . v A f , i. . ty i 1.JH1 j u AV 'IT'i , $ V Av- i i V V f t f. i trudges down a road in Colombia between two young friends. Kroon, a business administration major at Claremont College, is now intent on a career in community development. GEORGE KROON Peace Corps News in Tanganyika, instructs comes making your students understand the past tense. Perhaps education is, in the end, getting to know oneself. And this, above all, happens to Peace Corps Volunteers. In facing the tests and challenges of their jobs they come to know their own capabilities and limitations, and from this springs their And it is this opportunity for that most of them found lacking in their college careers. College is a shell, a half-lif-e says Georgianna Shine, because one only knows things intellectually, not through experience. The Peace Corps Volunteers now returning have, like Mumooney the watchman, been learning the other mans way, and thus have come to understand themselves and their country with deeper insight. Thus too, they will be better teachers of their children, and better citizens of a wiser and more humane nation. ge self-knowled- ge Chuckles from the Mailbag The following excerpts are from application forms and from references of Volunteers and would-b- e Volunteers received by the Peace Corps Division of Selection: Job Description: Connector of steel girdles. Ive never had a fiscal examination. First, I thought you had to be an English major to teach English; then I learned different. About emotion, he can take it or leave it. And when he was in the mental hospital with T.B. . . . Area preferences: Europe Rome, Germany, London, Hawaii. I would prefer these countries because of their higher cultures and more scenic travel areas. What do you want to accomI need, want, and must plish: have a job. Hasnt been arrested as yet. Primary skills: I dont Autumn, 1963 |