Federal

I had a class in U.S. Legal Systems all day at work (and half of tomorrow). It covered branches of the government, checks and balances, legal reporters - sort of a politics 101 for non-lawyers. Surprisingly useful for my job once we got to the parts about what's published where and by whom.

However, we were divided into four groups of three to four at the beginning of class and each group given a very easy concept to define as best we could: checks and balances, etc. Three of the groups did a pretty good job (I did have to explain checks and balances to the others in my group, but neither of them was a native), but when they got to the last group (all native), they couldn't define federalism (wiki). I don't mean they couldn't define it in philosophical detail or in a historical context - they couldn't even define it in the most general terms. Fortunately, they work with Mr. Mustard, not me.

The teacher explained to them that it was the system of government in Canada.