Disappearing Students: The Miseducation of Romania’s Gypsies
Most of Romania’s Gypsy children never get past eighth grade. They face pressure to work and help their family, and discrimination in the classroom. Their miseducation enforces a cycle of poverty that shows few signs of slowing down.
We were sitting on the steps of some hidden monument flanking the Danube, which celebrated a long-ago victory over the Ottomans. There were 8 of us there on the steps, 1 guitar, and no voices melodic enough to be enjoyable. We compensated by singing some traditional Romanian song in unison, reading the lyrics on little slips of paper our friends had printed up. The environment was relaxed, touching on boredom.
Then the four gypsy boys arrived. They were young, 10 years old maybe, but their presence made the air so tense it could have been cut with a knife. The Romanians pulled their bags a little closer. Nobody said anything, but nobody turned their backs to the boys either. There was a Uruguayan volunteer in the group, and she invited the boys to sing with us; it did little for the Romanian’s nerves. The first boy to receive a slip with lyrics glanced at the paper and handed it back. “I can’t read,” he said.
The People
