Author of Julia's Jihad
As the daughter of a diplomat who traveled with my parents to their various postings abroad, I both won and lost when it came to my education. I won when we went to Italy in 1968. According to my results on the entrance exams to an American international school in Rome, I was enrolled in the ninth grade. This meant that I could skip two grades, as I was in the school level equivalent to the seventh grade when I left Jakarta. Ironically, I lost when I returned to Indonesia three years later in 1971. Without putting me through any tests, the headmaster of the high school I enrolled in told me that I was only allowed to start in the first year of senior high school) — or equivalent to the 10th grade — if I wanted to enter the science stream. If I entered the humanities stream, then I could start in the second year of senior high, or 11th grade. I told him that I had ski...
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