Education in the United States

Nearly all citizens of third world countries attend primary and secondary schools in their country of birth. A substantial minority of them, however, go on to attend institutions of higher learning in the first world for undergraduate or graduate studies. Since colonial times, educational odysseys to Western universities have profoundly influenced non-Western societies. Education at first world universities has often imparted valuable practical knowledge, but its most momentous effects, in centuries past as well as the current century, have been felt in the realm of civilization. THE EUROPEAN EXPERIENCE A historical examination of most any Asian or African nation will reveal that some of its elites underwent Westernization during the age of European imperialism. It will also show that during the same period, the nation's elites engaged in protracted debates over the extent to which they should Westernize. The fact of conquest itself contributed to desires to Westernize; with so many nations having been vanquished by European imperialists, it was natural for the conquered, and for bystanders in countries that escaped colonization like Thailand and Japan, to seek understanding into why the West had become so powerful and how others could acquire that same power. Training and education provided by Westerners in the colonies did much to encourage Westernization, for the reasons described in the two preceding chapters. The most potent instrument of Westernization, though, was the education of indigenous elites at Western universities. During the age of empire, Oxford, the Ecole Normale Superieure, and the University of Amsterdam admitted students from the colonies and provided them the same education as English, French, and Dutch youth. European governments and universities often provided scholarships to those students. Like most of the colonial activities of European empires, these initiatives arose from a mixture of motives. Some European imperialists were concerned exclusively with extracting resources from colonies, whether for military or economic reasons, and viewed inculcation of Western work habits and admiration for the West into indigenous governing classes as an efficient means of facilitating the extraction. When the people of Senegal or Java submitted to European authority, Senegalese or Javanese administrators were cheaper to sustain than European ones, and were less likely to perish from local diseases.