Year in and year out Karns Middle School has the best Chapter Team program in America. Chapter Team is a competition that has to do with Parliamentary procedure and the application of Roberts Rules of Order. The competition is fierce. Year in and year out Bearden Middle hangs out in the top 10, seemingly always behind Karns.

I asked my son why Bearden couldn't ever beat Karns.

"They have girls."

"Why does that matter?"

"Girls are better at it than boys."

I took our exchange as an opportunity to explain, as a progressive, that we are all children of the universe and our gender is irrelevant to our ability to perform intellectual tasks on a level playing field with other humans.

Then I studied the competition. "Point of order," "Point of order," you can do this , you can't do that, there is the rule of 43.b that covers that, etc. The chair recognizes member J. from the floor. That point is not recognized by this committee.

"Son, don't quit."

"Dad. Girls are just better at some things than boys are."

"I feel your pain, son."