I've taught fifth-year Christmas leavers last thing on a Friday afternoon. Basically, if you can face that you can face anything.
Telling the truth, and confronting the challenge, is what politics is about.
Scotland is my country, the nation that shaped me, that taught me my values. A nation whose achievements inspired and inspire me, a community whose failings drive me - drive my overwhelming desire to fight for social justice and equality.
I've got a very deep and abiding passion about education being far more than buildings and textbooks it's what children bring into school with them.