ABSTRACT
One of the most amazing post-Cuban Revolution feats was the campaign to eradicate illiteracy on the island. Fidel Castro in what remains the longest address in United Nations history told the General Assembly that he planned to eliminate illiteracy in Cuba within a year. Each of the six delegations of the National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME) toured the one-of-a-kind Literacy Campaign Museum, where its director, Luisa Campos Gallardo, enthusiastically explained how the herculean effort took place and why it was successful. She said Castro instructed each of the volunteers to be sure to “‘learn more than they teach, to learn about life, to learn more than what’s in books—to learn from the people of Cuba.' That was really important.” And the young volunteers did. What's beyond bizarre is how people in the United States still can't accept the Cubans' amazing accomplishment. The NAME delegations met with teachers and students each year they visited Cuba, but in the last couple of years, the NAME groups got to visit schools and see how the free public system of education works on the island. The students expressed an unbelievable love for school that NAME educators wished they could bottle and take back to their schools and colleges in the United States.
