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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 October 2018
In the early 1960s, Peace Corps staff turned to American colleges and universities to prepare young Americans for volunteer service abroad. In doing so, the agency applied the university's modernist conceptions of citizenship education to volunteer training. The training staff and volunteers quickly discovered, however, that prevailing methods of education in the university were ineffective for community-development work abroad. As a result, the agency evolved its own pedagogical practices and helped shape early ideas of service learning in American higher education. The Peace Corps staff and supporters nonetheless maintained the assumptions of development and modernist citizenship, setting limits on the broader visions of education emerging out of international volunteerism in the 1960s. The history of the Peace Corps training in the 1960s and the agency's efforts to rethink training approaches offer a window onto the underlying tensions of citizenship education in the modern university.
1 Joseph Kaufmann to Sargent Shriver, memo, Sept. 12, 1962, box 6, Gerald W. Bush Personal Papers (hereafter cited as Bush Papers), John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum (hereafter cited as JFKL), Boston.
2 William Talcott, “Modern Universities, Absent Citizenship? Historical Perspectives,” Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) Working Paper 39, (Sept. 2005), 3, https://civicyouth.org/PopUps/WorkingPapers/WP39Talcott.pdf. Talcott rightly notes that there has been an “absence” of work on the traditions of citizenship education in the historiography of the modern American university.
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7 John F. Kennedy, “Remarks of Senator John F. Kennedy” (speech, University of Michigan, Oct. 14, 1960), JFKL, https://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/JFK-Speeches/University-of-Michigan_19601014.aspx.
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10 Hoffman, All You Need Is Love, 53. For more on the goals of the Peace Corps, also see Rice, The Bold Experiment and “The Peace Corps Mission,” https://www.peacecorps.gov/about/.
11 Sargent Shriver, “Report to the President on the Peace Corps,” Feb. 22, 1961, President's Office Files, 7, 18, JFKL, http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKPOF-085-014.aspx.
12 Lawrence E. Dennis, “The Proper Role of Higher Education in the Development of a ‘Peace Corps,’” paper presented at the Sixteenth National Conference on Higher Education, Chicago, Illinois, March 6, 1961, box 1, Peace Corps Vertical Files, RG 23/3, Archives and Regional History Collections, Western Michigan University Zhang Legacy Center (hereafter cited as Peace Corps Vertical Files).
13 Frederick L. Redefer, “Implementing Peace Corps: Role of Colleges in Preparation of Members Discussed,” Letters to The Times, New York Times, March 16, 1961, 36.
14 George H. T. Kimble, “Challenges to the Peace Corps,” New York Times Magazine, May 14, 1961, 9. The public service rhetoric of university administrators and faculty echo what Charles Dorn sees as the “common good” in American higher education. See Dorn, Charles, For the Common Good: A New History of Higher Education in America (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2017)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
15 Conference of University Presidents Report, June 24, 1961, box 6, Bush Papers; and “Peace Corps Congressional Presentation, Fiscal Year, 1968,” May 1967, United States Peace Corps Records, JFKL.
16 Simons, John J., “Shriver to PCVs: ‘Come Back and Educate,’” Peace Corps News 2, no. 2 (Feb. 1962), 6Google Scholar, http://peacecorpsonline.org/historyofthepeacecorps/primarysources/19620201%20PC%20News_Feb.pdf.
17 Loss, Between Citizens and the State; Schrum, Ethan, “Establishing a Democratic Religion: Metaphysics and Democracy in the Debates over the President's Commission on Higher Education,” History of Education Quarterly 47, no. 3 (Aug. 2007), 277–301CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
18 For earlier forms of volunteer service, see Zimmerman, Innocents Abroad; and Tyrell, Ian, Reforming the World: The Creation of America's Moral Empire (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010.)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On the demographics of the Peace Corps, see Zimmerman, Jonathan, “Beyond Double Consciousness: Black Peace Corps Volunteers in Africa, 1961–1971,” Journal of American History 82, no. 3 (Dec. 1995), 999–1028CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The average age of Peace Corps volunteers in the 1960s was twenty-three.
19 Iversen, Robert W., “The Peace Corps: A New Learning Situation,” Modern Language Journal 47, no. 7 (Nov. 1963), 302CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
20 Carter, George E., “The Beginnings of Peace Corps Programming,” Annals of the Academy of Political and Social Science 365, no. 1 (May 1966), 46–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and What can I do in the Peace Corps?: The Era of the Generalist (Washington D.C.: Peace Corps, 1968)Google Scholar. For more on the roots of the “generalist” and community development work, see Cleveland, Harlan, Mangone, Gerard J., and Adams, John Clarke, eds., The Overseas Americans (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1960)Google Scholar.
21 Peace Corps 1st Annual Report to Congress (Washington, DC: Peace Corps, June 30, 1962), 72–80.
22 “Michigan State University Peace Corps Training, 1961,” folder 11, box 206, University of Nigeria Program Records, Michigan State University Archives and Historical Collections, East Lansing, Michigan.
23 Marjorie Michelmore as cited in “The Infamous Peace Corps Postcard” Peace Corps Writers, http://www.peacecorpswriters.org/pages/2000/0001/001pchist.html.
24 Murray Frank, “The Infamous Peace Corps Postcard.” For more on the incident, see Rice, The Bold Experiment; Cobbs Hoffman, All You Need Is Love; and Coates Redmon, Come As You Are: The Peace Corps Story (San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1986).
25 A. Ray Olpin, “Memorandum on a Youth Service Corps Abroad,” box 132, Student Association Records.
26 Michelmore as cited in “The Infamous Peace Corps Postcard.”
27 Trip Reid, University of California-Berkeley, Panama Training Report, Feb. 1963, box 3, Evaluation of Domestic Training, 1961–3, Records of the Peace Corps (RG 490), National Records Administration and Archives, Washington, DC (hereafter Peace Corps Records).
28 Lawrence Dobson, “The End of the Beginning,” India 40—A Study in PC Programming, box 4, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Peace Corps Training Center Records, 1960–1970, Student Association Records.
29 Pennsylvania State University, Philippines Training Report, Feb. 2, 1962, box 1, Evaluation of Domestic Training, 1961–3, Peace Corps Records.
30 Kevin Delany, Syracuse University, Liberia 3 Training Report, Aug. 12–16, 1963, box 3, Evaluation of Domestic Training, 1961–3, Peace Corps Records.
31 Ohio State University, India Training Report, Dec. 6–8, 1961, box 1, Evaluation of Domestic Training, 1961–3, Peace Corps Records.
32 David Schickele, “Draft of the Education Task Force,” December 30, 1965, box 23, Subject Files of the Office of the Director, 1961–1966, Peace Corps Records.
33 Schickele, David, “When the Right Hand Washes the Left,” Peace Corps Volunteer 3, no. 4 (Feb. 1965), 17Google Scholar.
34 James H. Pines and Samuel Guarnaccia, Completion of Service Conference Report, Chile, May 10–14, 1965, box 3, Close of Service Conference Reports, 1963–1970, Peace Corps Records.
35 Paul Cowan as cited in Committee of Returned Volunteers, “Abolish Peace Corps,” Pamphlet, box 1, 6, Shelton Stromquist Papers, 1963–1980, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, WI.
36 David Bragin as cited in “Abolish Peace Corps,” 11.
37 For more on the CRV, see David S. Busch, “The Politics of International Volunteerism in the 1960s: The Peace Corps and Volunteers to America,” Diplomatic History (Aug. 2017), https://doi.org/10.1093/dh/dhx063.
38 Kauffman, Joseph F., “A Report on the Peace Corps: Training for Overseas Service,” Journal of Higher Education 33, no. 7 (1962), 364Google Scholar.
39 Pagano, Jules, Education in the Peace Corps: Evolving Concepts of Volunteer Training (Brookline, MA: Center for the Study of Liberal Education for Adults at Boston University, 1965), 6Google Scholar.
40 Lawrence Fuchs to Paul Rixby and George Guthrie, Feb. 2, 1962, box 1, Evaluation of Domestic Training, 1961–3, Peace Corps Records. On the discourse of “culture shock,” see Cobbs Hoffman, All You Need is Love, 121–147; on cultural “difference,” see Zimmerman, Innocents Abroad.
41 On the Rassias Method, see John A. Rassias, New Dimensions in Language Training: The Dartmouth College Experiment, Peace Corps Faculty Paper No. 6 (Washington D.C.: Peace Corps, Feb. 1970), https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED046286.pdf; and Allan M. Kulakow, To Speak as Equals: Language Training in the Peace Corps, 1961–1968, Peace Corps Faculty Paper No. 1 (Washington D.C.: Peace Corps, April 1968).
42 “Columbia-Social Work, Peace Corps Training,” box 1, Evaluation of Domestic Training, 1961–1963, Peace Corps Records.
43 Pagano, Education in the Peace Corps, 32–33.
44 Bill McKinstry, “Field Training Introduction,” reprinted in John Arango, “The Community Development Program of the University of New Mexico Peace Corps Training Center for Latin America” (Albuquerque, NM, June 1965), 134–45, Report – Community Development Program 1965, box 3, Peace Corps Collection, Center for Southwest Research, University Libraries, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. For a more in-depth analysis of this type of field training at the University of New Mexico, see Goldstein, Alyosha, Poverty in Common: The Politics of Community Action During the American Century (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2012), 97CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
45 David Schickele, “Draft of the Education Task Force,” Dec. 30, 1965, box 23, Subject Files of the Office of the Director, 1961–1966, Peace Corps Records.
46 On the origins of the Great Books, see Lacy, Tim, “Dreams of a Democratic Culture: Revising the Origins of the Great Books Idea, 1869–1921,” Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 7, no. 4 (Oct. 2008), 397–441CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Graff, Gerald, Professing Literature: An Institutional History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987)Google Scholar.
47 For more on Wofford's life as a public servant, see Wofford, Of Kennedys and Kings.
48 Wofford, Harris, “The Future of the Peace Corps,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 365, no. 1 (May 1966), 129–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
49 Wofford, Harris, “Training: Ideas Wanted,” Peace Corps Volunteer 4, no. 4, (Feb. 1966), 13–14Google Scholar.
50 Scott Buchanan, “The Peace Corps and the American College,” paper presented at the Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Conference, Washington, DC, March 1965, box 46, Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Collection, JFKL.
51 Harris Wofford, “Training for Revolution,” box 16, R. Sargent Shriver Personal Papers, Subject file 1961–1966, Series 2.1, JFKL (hereafter cited as Shriver Papers). On the “reverse” Peace Corps, see David S. Busch, “The Politics of International Volunteerism.”
52 Francis Hutchins, interview by author, Washington, DC, June 29, 2017.
53 Peter Larkin, interview by author, Washington, DC, June 27, 2017.
54 Eugene Lichtenstein, St. John's Evaluation Report, India, June 21, Sept. 10, 1965, box 2, Training Evaluation Reports, 1964–1969, Peace Corps Records.
55 Lichtenstein, St. John's Evaluation Report, India, 17–21.
56 Ann Anderson and Maureen Carroll, St. John's Evaluation Report, India, 1966, box 3, Training Evaluation Reports, 1964–1969, Peace Corps Records.
57 Jim White, interview by author, Washington, DC, July 13, 2017.
58 Charmazel Dudt, interview by author, Washington, DC, June 29, 2017.
59 White, interview; and Dudt, interview.
60 Harris Wofford as cited in David Schickele, “Draft of the Education Task Force,” December 30, 1965, box 23, Subject Files of the Office of the Director, 1961–1966, Peace Corps Records.
61 Fuchs, Lawrence, “Those Peculiar Americans”: The Peace Corps and the American National Character (New York: Meredith Press, 1967), 150–160Google Scholar.
62 Shriver, Sargent, “Commencement Speech” (speech, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, June 12, 1965)Google Scholar, box 22, Shriver Papers.
63 Warren Wiggins, “A Question of Values” (speech, Hanover College, Hanover, IN, April 4, 1966) Bush Papers.
64 Maurice Albertson, Roy Nelson, and Dean Bowman, “The Peace Corps—A University Viewpoint,” Report, box 2, Bush Papers.
65 James P. Dixon, The Peace Corps in an Educating Society: Excerpts from a Discussion at the Brookings Institution, Report, July 22, 1965, 7, David W. Mullins Library, University of Arkansas.
66 Dixon, The Peace Corps in an Educating Society, 7.
67 Grennan, Jacqueline as cited in “The Threat of Innovation,” Peace Corps Volunteer 3, no. 6 (May 1965), 13Google Scholar.
68 Theodore Hesburgh as cited in Dixon, The Peace Corps in an Educating Society, 17.
69 Robert Maher, “Social Science and Area Studies Perspective of WMU/PC Program,” box 5, Peace Corps Vertical Files.
70 Lewis Butler, “Michigan State University, The Master's Degree Training Program for Nigeria Education,” Jan. 28, 1966, box 3, Training Evaluation Reports, 1964–1969, Peace Corps Records.
71 “Hawaii/Peace Corps Study Committee: Some Questions,” box 2, Training Files, 1961–1970, Peace Corps Records.
72 Harrison, Roger and Hopkins, Richard L., “The Design of Cross-Cultural Training: An Alternative to the University Model,” Journal of Applied Behavioral Sciences 3 no. 4, (Dec. 1967), 438–439CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
73 Leonard Gernant, Western Michigan University-Peace Corps Program, box 3, Peace Corps Vertical Files.
74 “Ford Foundation Application,” Radcliffe College Education for Action Records, 1966–2000; 1966. folder 1, box 1, RG XXVII, Radcliffe College Archives, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. These new programs were part of a broader recognition of “experience” as part of higher education. By the fall of 1965, thirty of the eighty-four colleges and universities that served as Peace Corps training institutions granted academic credit for the training completed on those campuses and volunteer work abroad. “Colleges Give Credit for Peace Corps Training,” Peace Corps Volunteer, 3, no. 8–9 (June-July 1965), 32; and Eberly, Donald J., “Service Experience and Educational Growth,” Educational Record 49, no. 2 (Spring 1968), 198–199Google Scholar. Roughly, 39 percent of the first 7,057 volunteers returned to higher education. See Peace Corps: Fifth Annual Report to Congress (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1966), 71. Sue Bartholomew, a returned volunteer, became the director of Radcliffe's “Education for Action” program.
75 Gaudino, Robert, The Uncomfortable Learning: Some Americans in India (Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1974), 77–79Google Scholar.
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77 Gaudino, The Uncomfortable Learning, 18.
78 “Atlanta Service-Learning Conference Report, 1970” Conference Proceedings (Atlanta: Southern Regional Education Board, 1970), 2.
79 “Atlanta Service-Learning Conference Report,” 11.
80 “Atlanta Service-Learning Conference Report,” iii.
81 National Student Volunteer Program, Directory of College Student Volunteer Programs, Academic Year 1972–1973 (Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1973).
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