One day as we were sitting around the Easter dinner table, a debate about residential schools started up. These could get pretty heated given it was my step-father's family, and they are Cree. Being younger I didn't care much, so went to help my grandmother with the dishes. "They weren't much fun, but then school never is. In the end, your grandfather and I got educations."

This was years ago, and she now has a lot of bad things to say about the schools (peer pressure?). I will never forget the quiet comment made by an RN, from the kitchen of her paid for bungalow, listening to Master Degree level family, staring out the window at the cattle on her acreage, being grateful for the chance to have gone to school.