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Fermi Oyewole, 1964

Fermi Oyewole, 1964
Courtesy MIT Museum

Dr. Fermi Oyewole, one of 10 visiting teachers from Africa with ESI's African Education Program, participated in the Elementary Sciences Summer workshop at Newton, MA, shown conducting a 7th-grade science class on charges and currents, 1964.

In 1963, 13% of MIT's students were foreign students.

When an African student from Northern Rhodesia or Uganda talks about the political future of his country, it is likely to have more impact than when an American does it...There seems little doubt that a substantial share of our concern for racial injustices, and of the urgency which goads us to solve the problem, stems from the reaction of our foreign students to our practices of discrimination--practices that are sometimes imposed on these guests from overseas...At every level of the educational ladder we must train students who know their own educational system and cultural heritage and its strengths and weaknesses; students whose educational background includes the study of anthropology and of comparative education, and who cultivate the skill to make relevant comparisons among systems and have the courage to take the actions needed in the light of the comparisons made.

"Classmates from Other Countries" by Forrest Moore, Technology Review (July 1964), p. 37.

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