How is your week going?

I helped a friend's child going to school in Canada to write a presentation on Canada's 2008 apology for the residential schools scandal. Said child observed that all of the available topics were positive things only and she was utterly frustrated by this.

So I showed her how to turn the residential schools thing into something that shoves Canadians' faces in their history. The introduction mentions the apology and the important step forward that it represents, but also says it's pointless to talk about the apology without knowing what Canada is apologizing for.

She then (with some guidance) wrote a harsh and merciless summary of the residential schools, highlighting in the history section the terrible motivations for them, the cruelty of them, and, above all, how LONG they lasted. Then she turned her words to the complicity of the Canadian government in them. Finally she painted a dreadful picture of the aftermath of the residential schools and how they continued to cause harm for decades after the last one was finally closed with other impacts that last to this very day.

Then, in her conclusion, she stated factually that the PM apologized on behalf of Canada in 2008. She closed off then with, "with Canada apologizing, everything's good now" delivered in the degree of sarcasm that only a 17-year old girl with a grievance of her own about Canadian racism could provide.

Her teacher was furious, and about half the class shared the teacher's reaction. The other half cheered her. (I'll let your imagination figure out where the dividing line was between anger and cheering...)

I've never been so proud of a child that I know in my entire life.