nothing has been taught until something has been learned

• 71% of Canadians disagree with the Omar Khadr ruling.
• Brian Jean professes equalization payments are unfair to Albertans, misleading his followers into thinking transfer payments come from provincial coffers.
  

• Jason Kenney calls a university professor a "communist" after being asked simple questions about Gay Straight Alliances, what evidence he had that demonstrated right wing voices were being shut down at our post secondaries and where he would run as an MLA.
• An editorial writer at my town newspaper, joining 5% of Canadians, states climate change isn't "verifiable science".
• And let's not forget the 58,000 Albertans who signed a petition  not that long ago, demanding that the Lieutenant Governor ask for the Premier to step down.

It's a bleak and black time for teachers, as they recall their many pointless lessons on Charter Rights, transfer payments, the role of the citizen in a democracy, climate science, the role of the LG and how premiers are elected.

I mean, really. What are we doing in the classroom?  Just wasting our breath, it seems.  And if those lessons fell on deaf ears, what about all the others?

What about advocating for a healthy lifestyle?  What about their, they're, there? What about capitalization and punctuation and evolution and BEDMAS and computation and your times tables? What about nutrition and how to spell "a lot" and "measure twice, cut once" and what complementary colours are and what prejudice is and how to calculate interest rates and what the ventricle does and the laws of physics and human rights? What about basic probability and "i before e except after c" and using goddamn facts to support a position?

We've all worked with those kids who say "It's my opinion and you can't tell me it's wrong." 

Maybe an "opinion" isn't right of wrong in itself. But there is such a thing as truth. 

And this teacher ain't going down without a fight.