So when a letter arrived in September from the headmaster of the school informing parents of a possible choice: we could either do fifty hours of voluntary work per year or pay the equivalent of this in money, we opted for the former even though we had never done anything like this in Budapest before.

My husband became the football coach for the fourth grade and I undertook a shift in the library or I did the cooking for school reunions where my exotic habits drew people's attention. I was the only one who prepared food that didn't have to be eaten with chopsticks. The senior girls from the school tended to the old and the sick and also worked in the soup kitchen in the school that served food to the homeless. Disadvantaged children were also taught at the school.

What follows in this instructive tale is not too hard to guess: we really got to like the work we were doing and in the work we put in we far exceeded what was expected of us; moreover, we became more familiar with the school and found friends among the other parents. My girls, thank God, now on occasion have to put Christian charity into practise in their everyday lives rather than just in theory. My fellow parents were extremely grateful that the school had found some worthwhile activities for the pupils in the afternoon hours after lessons were over.

Voluntary work in American schools is part of people's upbringing, in a country in which instead of relying on the state people like to take their fate into their own hands. It is a place where there is not only a tradition of individual freedom but a feeling of mutual responsibility and communal solidarity. People who find themselves in trouble or fall victim to a disaster need never feel that they are alone as help pours in from all over the country.

Encouragement to carry out work for the community and the country is permanently present at the level of big politics too. This became especially topical in January last year, when America commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of John F. Kennedy's inauguration and a quote that has now become part of history was on everyone's lips from primary school children to pensioners: "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." In addition to organising domestic voluntary activities, President Kennedy established the Peace Corps in 1961, in the framework of which millions of young Americans have worked without remuneration all over the world. The programme was the most successful American opening to the Eastern Block during the Cold War period.

Almost every American president has expanded on the Kennedy traditions. In 1993 Bill Clinton founded AmeriCorps, a government programme carrying out voluntary work. This was enlarged by George W. Bush and then by Barack Obama, and now has two million volunteers serving the community in the areas of education, health and welfare care, regional development and environmental protection. After working satisfactorily the young people that participate in the programme can win a scholarship that, among other benefits, allows them to pay back their student loans under more favourable terms.

Of course the usefulness of social work did not just occur to me by accident. I was very happy to read that the Hungarian government is to introduce these kinds of activities for secondary school pupils. I would like to enthusiastically encourage the ministry of education and my former students, and also send a message to opposition faction leaders that everyone should support this, regardless of their party affiliations. I would gladly and enthusiastically express my reasons for this in detail but I realise that there is nothing less appealing than when someone pontificates from a distance.