You need to know this about education in Argentina.

You might not like waking up 3 days a week for your 8:00am class, but don't take your education for granted.

In Argentina, free education is a guaranteed right for all. There is a graffiti near my old house that says, "La mala educación es un derecho." I wish I took a photo of it. All of the words are written in the same style, except for the word mala. The artist who wrote this statement means to say that education is guaranteed in Argentina, but good education is not.

What I've learned since being here is that almost every single year there is a paro (strike) because of the status of the education system. Professors at the public universities go on strike to protest their incredibly low and unreasonable salaries, and they receive tons of support from the student body. This year, however, the situation is far worse. The start of the school year was delayed longer than usual and more complications persist still than in past years. There was a march just the other day that drew tons of national attention. Here are some comments I saw on Facebook regarding the situation.

"Without public education, there is no future."

"I support public university."

"This disgusts me!"

I have experienced this first-hand with my class in UBA- la Universidad de Buenos Aires. There was no class the first week and literally no one - no students and no teachers - showed up. The second week, we had "class" but it only consisted of the 2 professors telling us about the situation and what their plan is moving forward. They told us they weren't sure if we would have the class. Maybe they would open it the public, maybe we would have class in the street, maybe it would be canceled... I'm very fortunate that they decided to teach the class and also fortunate to have had this eye-opening experience.

Over the next few weeks we had class, but in a very unique style. There was a tomada por estudiantes which basically meant that students, in support of the docentes (teachers), took over the school and prohibited classes from being held in the classrooms. They "took over" the school. This is why classes were being taught in the street, and in my case, in the cafeteria. The tomada is supposedly supposed to end next week so we'll see on Tuesday whether or not that's true.

I also take classes at USAL (Universidad del Salvador) and there is no strike there because it is a private university. Ironically, those teachers get paid even less than the teachers at UBA. The UBA professors demand that the government increases their salary by the same rate as the country's inflation. So right now the US dollar is equivalent to 39.98 Argentine pesos, meaning they want a 40% increase in the pay rate. The government made pathetic attempts to increase their salary by 15%, but the teachers rejected this.

This experience has taught me not to take my education for granted. It is incredible that these teachers are paid so little, and yet are still so motivated to teach because it is what they love to do, and they feel so devoted to their students and their responsibility to educate. Upon arriving in Buenos Aires, many people insisted that I take classes at UBA, if not for the education, then for the incredible cultural experience. And they weren't wrong. UBA is one of the most politically active institutions I've ever seen. Just look at the photos above... there are countless posters about abortion, teacher pay rate, feminism, and so much more.

However, this has also made me think about the ridiculous amount of money we pay to attend a college in the United States. Yeah, my teachers don't go on strike, but that's because Davidson costs about $68,000 a year. I better be getting a good education if I'm spending over a quarter of a million dollars on it.

It boggles my mind that we can't find some happy medium; a system where teachers get the money they deserve, students get the education they need, and education is a guaranteed right.

Throughout my time here, I have truly come to understand why they say: "Education is a privilege, not a right."