The Education of Tom Hanks.

• Author: Glastris, Paul
• Position: Editor's Note

Anyone who is a fan of Tom Hanks--which is to say, pretty much everyone--can probably recall some of his most famous lines: "There's no crying in baseball." "My mama always said, 'Life was like a box of chocolates.'" "Wilson!"

My new favorite is not from one of his movies. It's from the opening of his commencement address at Harvard University earlier this year:

On behalf of all of us who studied for two years at Chabot Community College in Hayward, California, two semesters at California State University, Sacramento, and for 45 years at the School of Hard Knocks, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in one damn thing after another, thank you. With that line, Hanks summed up something essential about America: Its true greatness is not defined by its elite. The newly minted Harvard graduates sitting in that audience, most of them from wealthy families, are destined for successful careers, some of them spectacular ones. Few, if any, are likely to achieve as much as the veteran actor with humble roots.

One of four children of divorced, financially strapped parents--his father was an itinerant cook, his mother a hospital worker--Hanks learned enough from his modest postsecondary theater studies to earn parts in regional Shakespeare productions before moving on to television and then cinema--first as a comic actor, then in more serious roles. Over his career, his pictures have grossed nearly $10 billion--an astonishing feat for someone who has never played a superhero. Instead, in carefully chosen films like Saving Private Ryan, Sully, Captain Phillips, and Apollo 13, Hanks has portrayed a specific type of American hero: the quietly competent man next door who, under extreme pressure, acts with kindness, good humor, and professionalism. Those characteristics have also defined Hanks's offscreen presence, helping to make him the most admired actor of his generation--on both sides of the political aisle.

American colleges and universities once enjoyed wide admiration, too. In recent years, however, public approval of colleges and universities has plummeted for two main reasons. First, tuition and fees have skyrocketed, and government has done too little to rein them in or help students cope. When Hanks went to college in the 1970s, the federal Pell Grant for low-to-moderate-income students covered 80 percent of the cost of a public four-year degree. Now it covers only 30 percent.

Tuition increases have not been a problem for students from the most...