More on Thomasites and the Peace Corps

Last August, we marked the 121st anniversary of the arrival of a group of young Americans on board US Army transport ship Thomas. Mostly new college graduates, they had volunteered to teach English and mathematics to the natives of a land the United States had just bought from Spain for $20 million. Since then, the term “Thomasites” has come to cover all those who followed to the Philippines, ending up as teachers in a public school system that was then being organized.

One such individual was William Hotchkiss, a native of Lyons, in the state of New York. A Hamilton College graduate, he came to the Philippines as a tourist, possibly seeking adventure in a faraway land that had caught the attention of many of his fellow Americans.

Arriving in Manila, he proceeded to move around the country, ending up in Cantilan, in what is now Surigao del Sur, in Mindanao. Here he met Hermenegilda Azarcon, a schoolteacher, fell in love and stayed on, teaching what he knew best, the English language. Hotchkiss would go on to serve as a high school principal in Negros and Sorsogon, but would settle down in Cantilan to raise his family.

In 1996, William Hotchkiss III, grandson of the New Yorker, was appointed commanding general of the Philippine Air Force, possibly the only blue-eyed general in the AFP. He would end his outstanding public service record as director general of the Civil Aeronautics Authority of the Philippines (CAAP). Today he serves as chairman of the Cantilan Bank Inc., the only financial institution offering digitalized banking services to people in his region.

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More than half-a-century later, another group of American volunteers arrived in the Philippines for almost the same purpose as the Thomasites. President John F. Kennedy had issued an executive order establishing the Peace Corps, with his brother-in-law Sargent Shriver as its first director.

On Oct. 12, 1961, the Philippines received its first batch of 128 Peace Corps volunteers (PCV) who were deployed in Luzon and the Visayas to serve as English, mathematics and science instructors. In the 1970s, Peace Corps Philippines (PCP) expanded its work beyond education and focused on social and economic development in rural areas. But in the mid-1980s and the 90s, PC volunteers again would work in schools as teacher-trainers at the high school level. In June 1990, the Peace Corps suspended the Philippine program due to security concerns, but resumed in 1992. In March 2020, all PC volunteers were evacuated because of COVID-19. But next year, in January 2023, 60 volunteers are projected to arrive.

Perhaps one way of appreciating the work of the volunteers is to present institutional and individual experiences that highlight the cooperative endeavor.

Center for Excellence in Special Education Foundation Inc. (Stepping Stone) – The Stepping Stone is a school for special education that provides diagnostic, therapeutic, educational and pre-vocational services and facilities for students with learning and behavioral difficulties.

The Peace Corps Response program has been in partnership with Stepping Stone since 2014, one of the long-term partnerships of the program, and has hosted numerous PCRVs with expertise on Speech Language Pathology and Physical Therapy. The PCRVs, whose assignments range from seven months to a year, provide technical assistance on the enhancement of techniques, methods for assessment and intervention, training of teachers and students, among others.

Michael Beaudoin, PC volunteer, 1962, writes:

“. . .  My first memory of the Philippines still stands out. Maybe because it showed me the commonalities between people. The night before I left Maine, my family feasted on Maine’s world-famous lobster. We all assumed it would be the last time I’d eat it for a while. Imagine my surprise when, about 36 hours later, I was eating a first dinner with my temporary host family on the island of Mindanao and what was the main course? Lobster.

“My arrival to my assigned barrio was not an especially auspicious start to my two years of service. A Peace Corps staffer helped me load my things into a Jeep and drove me over strange new geography. Suddenly, he stopped the Jeep at a dusty crossroads, pointed vaguely in a direction the road did not go and instructed me to walk a mile into the village. He told me to ask where Mr. Saldo, the school principal, lived. Once I found him, I was to introduce myself as his Peace Corps Volunteer. Mr. Saldo’s casa was my casa until I arranged for construction of a thatched-roof cottage on the school grounds, at a cost of $400.

“One question that likely remains with many returned Peace Corps Volunteers is whether or not their accomplishments have had an impact on the people and places they served. For me, a partial answer came a few years after I left the Philippines when I worked at Peace Corps headquarters in Washington, D.C.

“In the library, I spotted a magazine published in the Philippines that featured a story about an athlete I recognized immediately. She had been a member of the country’s 1968 Olympic track team. Though she did not win any medals, she set a new national record in her event – a record that stood for 26 years. I had the wonderful feeling that, as her high school coach, I might have contributed in some small way to her athletic achievements.”

In the end, Beaudoin says, “Our good works in those faraway places surely benefited us at least as much as those we engaged with for two or more memorable years.”