Да, пара слов о топовых учебных заведениях загнивающего. Пусть будет Гарвард. О равных возможностях, понятное дело, речи нет: у какого-нибудь Ричи Рича возможностей куда больше. Это с одной стороны и это плохо. С другой, есть всякие там гранты, и самые бедные тоже могут того-этого, если очень-очень захотят. Вот, например, американка, чья семья бежала из Вьетнама, делится воспоминаниями об учебе в Гарварде. Если коротко, воспоминания не сильно радужные, но интересно вот что:
As a refugee from Vietnam who grew up in inner city Philadelphia and attended a public high school, I felt extremely lucky and blessed when I got my acceptance letter from Harvard. It was an unlikely dream come true. My zip code in Philadelphia had (and continues to have) one of the higher rates of crime, violence, poverty, and trauma scores in the city. In my hood, nearly half the kids drop out of high school, so it is seen as a triumph for a kid to go to community college. Getting into Harvard was like boarding a rocket ship out of the ghetto. My hope was to eventually use my education to support my family and help more poor kids like me break through barriers.
https://medium.com/@duequach/poor-and-traumatized-at-harvard-e5938b702207#.xrc8z86pcИли вот дочь эмигрантов из Колумбии:
WHEN ANA BARROS first stepped into Harvard Yard as a freshman, she felt so out of place she might as well have had the words “low income” written on her forehead. A girl from Newark doesn’t belong in a place like Harvard, she thought, as she marveled at how green the elms were, how quaint the cobblestone streets. Back home, where her family lives in a modest house bought from Habitat for Humanity, there wasn’t always money for groceries, and the world seemed gray, sirens blaring at all hours. Her parents, who immigrated to the New York area from Colombia before she was born, spoke Spanish at home. It was at school that Barros learned English. A petite 5-foot-2 with high cheekbones and a head of model-worthy hair, Barros found out in an e-mail that she’d been accepted to Harvard — a full scholarship would give her the means to attend. “I knew at that moment that I’d never suffer in the way that my parents did,” she says.
http://publicservice.fas.harvard.edu/news/what-it-be-poor-ivy-league-school(Если кому перевод нужен, скажите.)
Ну это в США: диавол капитализма, все дела. А в какой-нибудь Норвегии или, не знаю, Швеции - там все не так плохо ведь, правда?