education.

get this. for many students at AUK english is not their second language, it's their first! but meredith, aren't you in kuwait!? yep, exactly. so, what in the world is going on here? well, for starters, it matters if you are a kuwaiti citizen, or not. you see, in kuwait, you are a citizen by family origin, not by birth. therefore, it's feasible, and highly probable, that you could live your entire life in kuwait and never be a citizen (which, citizens by the way, get a ridiculous amount of benefits--free government housing, money when married, free education--now that's what i call welfare :). but, if you aren't a citizen you also aren't entitled to free public education--you must attend a private school. and these schools, well, they're primarily british and english. and the result, high school graduates are fluent in english, but barely know how to read and write arabic. does anyone else find this slightly problematic?

second issue. as you may also be aware, classes are gender segregated (which, btw, the rise of religious conservatism directly coincides with western presence post gulf-war--think about that for a second). so, as i was saying... in the united states, there's ample research to show that women actually fair better in gender segregated learning environments (this in large part is due to teacher bias towards male students). but in kuwait the gender segregation is really hurting men. let me explain. so, the men in kuwait, pretty much well, have it made. they occupy positions of dominance and power--due in large part to coming from the 'right' family. the women, however, do not. women thus see education as a vehicle for upward and maybe outward (leaving kuwait) mobility. as a result, the women overall perform at much higher levels and the men are left with no one to compete with, or impress, in class.