Shocking news this week– the price of a college education is rising. Yeah, I didn’t find it so shocking either. I think we’ve begun to expect it to rise. And rise and rise and rise. What did surprise me was stumbling upon an uprise in Budapest over students having to pay to attend university.
I was a little nervous about walking through a group of 6 ft tall teenagers and twenty-somethings, wearing yellow shirts and holding up signs (which I didn’t understand but seemed angry). Plus, I’d gotten enough flack for ending up at what I like to call “the Communist Party’s party” in a park in Madrid. My cousin didn’t know what the festival was for– her friend had invited us. But when we saw the hammer and sickle flags and heard the Cuban music [See Picture Above with Baffled Expression], she laughed and said, “Now that I think about it, he was always a little red!”
Growing up in Italy, my father had never crossed the “Iron Curtain” and was taught to see those “crazy communist countries” in a very negative light. But I was so enchanted with Bosnia and Herzegovina that I convinced him to meet me in Frankfurt last October and take a road trip through Czechoslovakia and Hungary. Budapest captivated both of us. Maybe because it reminded me of my grandma on my mom’s side (it was her family’s homeland and she often talked about her one visit there) or maybe because there seemed to be theaters and concert halls everywhere. In fact, we were walking along the fortress walls by the palace when we saw an outdoor musical theatre performance with lights and medieval costumes. That’s when we walked up closer and discovered the protest.
“Hey, what are you guys doing?” my father asked as if this kid was supposed to speak English.
He did. “We want an education!”
“At that theater?”
“No. We heard this performance was going on and that the government would be here. So we are protesting.”
“They won’t give you an education?”
The kid smiled. “Not for free!”
Obviously there are all sorts of reasons why Hungarians would demand a free college education and Americans might not, but I couldn’t help thinking about it. Education is a right (and even a requirement) in this country through high school. Why not through college? No, I didn’t get converted at the Communist Party’s party– although they did serve good beer. I’m just curious. Is that argument that a college education is a privilege or that college students would get lazy or ungrateful if they didn’t have to work for their education? I don’t believe I would have. Personally, I am incredibly thankful for the state fellowship that supported me through grad school. It made me think of my education as an amazing job, which only made me want to work harder.
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All the World is Cristina Pippa’s weekly column, which appears on Thursdays.
This entry was posted on Thursday, October 25th, 2007 at 3:14 pm and is filed under All The World, Education, Theater. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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Having grown up in an England when a host of social services still worked fairly efficiently, and having received a free 1990s education at a top 6 UK university, I have to wonder whether I or my friends would have worked harder if we had had to foot the bill. We came out alright, so in looking back, I guess it’s a moot point, but it’s an interesting question.
During my study year abroad at the University of Bologna (1993-1994), tuition fees at the time would have set you back roughly $1,200 per semester. Students had the option of deferring exams if they were not sufficiently prepared to take them. The consequence of this was the extraordinary longevity of typical undergraduate careers in Italy – some as much as 10-12 years (like my finance major roommate – Paolo from Puglia – who had turned 30 by the time he graduated). Is this an example of free – or at least very cheap – education fostering a lethargic work ethic, or is this merely a cultural quirk?
I haven’t experienced the flipside of paying for education, but if I re-apply the root of the question – without the UK National Health Service, would I have exercised more effort to stay healthy if I had to stump up the cash? – I think my answer would be no. Now I’m enrolled in a US healthcare plan and pay deductibles, I must confess my health ethic hasn’t really changed from the time I used to visit my East London doc for free. Admittedly, this in no way compares with fully paying out of pocket; others who are whacked by full healthcare costs may disagree. (In which case, if Austin Powers and my American friends’ sense of humor have any basis in truth, Parliament should’ve introduced a VERY HIGH dental tax in the UK decades ago – our bad teeth are as quintessential as our London fog, right?)
Anyhow, what I do know is that I and my UK university mates never fail to be amazed at the high cost of education in the US. If anything, we are grateful in retrospect to have received our freebie degree before the Iron Lady et al began the dismantling process.
I totally agree that higher education should be free. But then I think the same thing about health care. It drives me crazy that people go into such steep debt for things that should be something we provide because we’re a society and should want the best for others. There’s no way these things should be businesses. Listen to the idealism.