Schools were intended to turn indigenous boys and girls into ordinary members of Mexican society, yes, but Mexican society was supposed to adapt and incorporate some elements of indigenous culture, as well. Unfortunately for Sáenz, this was far less successful than his expansion of rural education; it proved to be far more difficult to implement a successful system of two-way cultural assimilation than it was to reform, expand, and improve the school system, and only limited progress was made toward Sáenz's goals in this area in the immediate aftermath of the implementation of his policies. After completing his run as Sub-Secretary for Public Education in 1930, Sáenz was rewarded with an appointment as Mexico's ambassador to Peru. In October 1941, Moisés Sáenz died of pneumonia while still stationed in Lima. He left behind a strong legacy in the fields of diplomacy, indigenous relations, and education. In his period of service to the Mexican government, inspired by his Protestant background and education, he significantly expanded the scale and quantity of the Mexican education system, transforming it from what was almost a sham of a system under the regime of Porfirio Diaz before the Mexican Revolution into one that produced one of the highest literacy rates in the world in a very short period of time. He also led the way in formulating Mexico's indigenous strategy, drawing on the philosophy and teachings of John Dewey to combine an assimilation program with the rapidly expanding education system, thus ensuring it reached its targets, while also advocating a more open and flexible form of acculturation, one that tried to learn from indigenous culture. In what would prove to be the final years of his life, Sáenz served Mexico as an able diplomat. It is important to note that Sáenz sought for Mexicans an understanding of the Mexican Revolution that de-emphasized factional struggles and the "cult of martyrs" for one emphasizing unity of revolutionaries and the Revolution as a great event. In 1929, he articulated the important idea of that for Mexicans there was a difference "between the Revolution with a capital [letter] and revolutions with a small letter." Although his name is less famous than contemporaries such as Jose Vasconcelos, Moisés Sáenz was arguably just as influential in formulating post-Revolutionary Mexico.