UNITED STATES PEACE CORPS - KOREA May, 1968
Peace Corps Plans For Future
To the oft-q1ised question, "Will
Korea I be replaced?," I must answer
No, Yes, and Maybe.
The No answer: A distinct group
such as Korea VII is not scheduled to
arrive and be a one-to-one replace-
Worth to Join P.C.
The Latinists say "Festimi Lente"
but PC/K has been sayi~g "Chon
Chonhee, Bailee Kasayo." Either way
it's suppose to mean "Make Haste
Slowly." That seems to be the slogan
of PC/K's staffing.
Finally, our long-awaited staff as­sistance
is coming. George Worth,
known to most PCV's through visits
to training sites and his recent partici­pation
in the TESOL team, joined
Peace Corps on April 24th, as PC/ K 's
senior Educational Advisor. After a
few weeks in Washington, George will
be enrotite to Korea . With his arrival,
the staff hopes to quickly determine
further staff needs and engage a Ko­rean
or American linguist to support
the TESOL'ers.
George was ,born in Kiangyin, China.
He received his B.A. degree from
Davidson College and a Master of
Education degree from the University
0£ North Carolina. He has also attend-d
the Institute of Far Eastern Langu­ag
s ai Yale Umversity .
ment of Korea I.
The Yes answer: The Korea I teach­ers
at the college and university levels
w ill generally be replaced on a one-to­one
basis if the program requested by
the MOE is approved. These replace­ments
would arrive in January or Feb­ruary.
This would get PC/ K arrival
and departure dates in line with Ko­rea's
educational calendar year.
The Maybe answer: PC/K feels
the National and Provincial Ed
tional Officials must review their P
Corps provided manpower and deci e
how such manpower can best be utiliz­ed
in assisting Korea meet its objectives.
With Korea I's departure there will re­main
about 140 TESOLer s in Korea II,
III, and V. We are asking that a study
be made of the schools which Korea I
vacates and the schools which have a
PCV. The purpose of t his review is to
determine an order of importance or a
priority list based on Korea's objec­tives.
We see this happening through a close
liaison of P rovincial Educators, PC/K's
Regional Reps, and our soon-to-arrive ·
Education Advisor. These three in close
consultation should be able to determine
most effective utilization of PC/K
npower. Naturally, the views of th_e
V 's should be factored into the de­cision-
making. Each PCV / TSL and es­pecially
Korea I TESOLers should be
contacted by, or be cont acting, their
Reps to make their views on this i.$.sue
known.
Kevin O' Donnell
Peace Cnrps Under .~rr11,tin11
'.l'hc write•·, Mai·shall Windiniller, an
Assoch~tc l'rofcssor or International
Relations at San l ~ranc isco late Col­lege,
delivered these remarks on his
radio broadcast of November 16, 1967.
* * *
One of the most interesting and pos­sibly
the most creative developments
in American government in the last
decade has been the Peace Corps. It
was the proud achievement of the Ken­nedy
administration and it has become
well known all over the world ....
T wo years ago there was a contro­versy
about the Peace Corps on the
It was begun by Gerald Berreman, a
professor of anthropology. Professor
Berreman criticized the Peace Corps as
an instrument of an insuportable US
foreign policy. "The government," he
said, "wants the Peace Corps to be a
play pen for activist students to keep
them out of the kitchen when the adults
are cooking up the war in Vietnam.
I have nothing against the Peace Corps
as such," he said, "but in the present
context it is being used as a sugar coat­ing
fot a very bitter pill - US foreign
policy and especially the war." ...
About a week before Professor Berre­man
made this speech, . I had discussed
the Peace Corps at some length in one
of these radio commentaries. In my
broadcast of October 28, 1965, I called
the Peace Corps "one of the most hope­ful
creations of the twentieth century"
and said that it could be an " instrument
of change and enlightenment." I then
criticized some of the more militant
protesters against the war in Vietnam.
" A large number of the campus acti­vists
appear to be totally alienated from
th culture and the polity . . . . They
huv g iven up on changing £ r ign
policy - they m erely want to x1ios'
the rottenness of the whole sys t m.
They want to tear it down, not reform
it. They are romantics who seem in­capable
of working with reality. One
manifestation of this type of thinking
is now springing up on a few key cam­puses.
lt is the idea that the policy of
the Johnson administration in Vietnam
is so evil as to corrupt even the con­structive
policies in other parts of the
world. Therefore, it is argued, the aca­demic
and intellectual community must
refuse to cooperate in any part of that
foreign policy and that includes the
Peace Corps." I went on to criticize
this argument taking the view that the
Peace Corps, a s one healthy e l ement
in an otherwise gloomy landscape,
should be supported and used as an in-strument
of reform of American foreign
policy.
In the two years that have passed
since Professor Berreman made his
statement and I broadcast my com­mentary
I have watched the Peace
Corps closely. I h ave talked with
numerous trainees and returned Volun­teers
and have corresponded with my
former students who have been serv­ing
as Volunteers abroad. I have also
watched the role of the Peace Corps as
an instrument of American foreign po­licy,
and have done a great deal of
thinking abou~ it. I have come to the
conclusion that Professor Berreman was
correct in 1965 and I was mistaken.
(Continued on Page 7)
Ji Son Middle School, built under the auspices of the School-to­School
program, was dedicated on April 20th.
School-to-School Builds School
The possibility of using a School-to­School
project at the Ji Son Middle
School in Kwan San was first brought
to Peace Corps' attention by the school's
Principal, Mr. Ji Son Lee, in May, 1967.
He had read about the program's suc­cess
in other Peace Corps countries, and
asked PC/ K Director Kevin O'Donnell
whether the program was applicable
to Korea generally and to his school in
particular. David Bachner, a Seoul PCV,
was asked to visif the site.
Bachner discovered that there w a s a
definite need for financ ial aid in Kwan
San. This farming village had been try­ing
to support the school, but the annual
per capita income there was only about
$130 and the school had only managed
operating sporadically since the Korean
War as a "tent school." The town needed
a school because the closest accredited
school was over an hour away by bus.
The average enrollment at the tent
school was 100 students, but this figure
had been dropping steadily because
there was no protection given by the
tent from the cold weather.
Mr. Lee had already managed to col­lect
$500, and had obtained a gift of
$2,000 from Armed Forces Assistance
Korea (AFAK). School-to-School
would have preferred to have been the
sole financeer, but the need for more
funds was so great that this posed no
real obstacle. Bachner helped file the
necessary papers in early June, and by
the end of the month School-to-School
had authorized Kevin O'Donnell to dis­burse
up to $999.16 for the purchase of
construction materials. This money was
given by six American schools. Because
Mr. Lee was a qualified engineer, con­struction
was able to begin almost im­mediately,
and it proceeded rapidly.
The school building (four classrooms
and a kyomoshil) was completed in a
little over t wo months, and the school
has been operational since the start of
the September, 1967, term.
The project has been a marked suc­cess.
The need for a school in Kwan
San has been fulfilled, and the com­munity
continues to show a great deal
of interest in it: the farmers plan to add
a model farming plot, an athletic area,
and four more classrooms, all to be con­structed
with voluntary labor during
the next two years. Kwan San is aware
of the School-to-School Program, the
Peace Corps, and the six sponsor schools
in the United St ates, and the three
American communities are now aware
of Kwan San and the problems of
similar communities throughout Korea.
Peace Corps/Korea is now aware of the
School-to-School program, and Volun­teers
are being encouraged by the staff
to explore potential sites for ot her
School-to-School Program link-ups.
j