Our cultural lore suggests that curiosity may claim the lives of a few cats. Moving from lore to a distinct possibility, we really should add poverty to that list. Connecting their theme "Stay Curious" the 2013 Projecting Change Film Festival, is pushing forward the conversation that can't be ignored. Closing the festival with a showing of Girl Rising, the vital importance of educating women around the world lit up the screen. Learning is about staying curious. Education is a key to curing poverty.

School trustees and superintendents may bristle at the suggestion that top education staffers don't deserve pay increases. But how can they defend that position when they fail to evaluate their top employees every year?

Once you get past the breathtaking natural scenery and vistas of Squamish, B.C., and the architectural beauty of the campus buildings, and get talking with the students and staff of Quest University you know you've stepped into a community that doesn't have the same resonance of a large research institution.

With support from Electronics Arts, the Directions Youth Services media room helps street youth find the voice many never realized was inside them. Co-ordinator Colin Ford and the staff teach music, art, audio recording, film-making, computer literacy, digital media skills and teamwork. They provide an opportunity for social inclusion and creative expression where it might not have existed before.

I've seen thousands of experiments conducted in my day. But nothing prepared me for the ultimate educational experiment — watching seven youth each run 180 kilometres across Botswana's Kalahari Desert to better understand the value of something we take for granted here in the Pacific Northwest: water.

Since when did adults take their morality cues from teenagers still in high school? Students from a B.C. high school want to shut down a strip club because they say it objectifies women. But therein lies the problem, they clearly forgot to ask the women that work there if they feel they're been objectified.