“Have you ever stopped to think what the over-emphasis on western education has done to my country, and countries like it?”  Habte noted the unintended consequences of a singular focus on schooling when he said, “You came to Africa and told us that our traditional way of learning (apprenticeship) was ‘out-of-date.’  You said that our way of formulating knowledge was inappropriate.  You emphasized the dominance of narrowly defined intellectual skills.  We listened too carefully to your advice.  So we told parents that they needed to care for their children only when they were very young, but that ‘proper’ learning would now be organized by professionals in schools.  The old men were saddened as no one wanted to learn their wisdom, and the old women mourned for the grandchildren who would never come and talk to them.  We emphasized higher education, and our students did well.  So well that they were over-qualified and there were no longer challenging jobs for them in Ethiopia.  They started to leave for lucrative careers in America, in Europe, and in Australia.  Many of them left our country for good, denying it the leadership it desperately needed.  Society became increasingly unstable.  We had, as it were, too many people trained to be clerks but few who were wise enough to be leaders.

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