American History, Period 2, 01/08

[shiroi_tiger]

When students entered the classroom today, they would find not one, but two men standing at the front. One of them was probably familiar to some of them, the other one was a new face... Although his wardrobe probably needed a little updating.

"This, boys and girls, is your all-purpose catchup class on the history of the United States of America," the new teacher said, straightening out his brown duster coat as he surveyed the group. "I'm Nathan Algren." A pause. "Captain Nathan Algren. Just call me Algren if you have to call me anything at all. And I imagine a few of you already have a passing acquaintance with my associate and your other instructor for this class, Mr. Durden."

The younger man stepped out with a slight grin and folded his arms. "Right, I'm Tyler Durden," he supplied. "And, just to break all of your hearts, I'm not blowing anything up in class this term. Call me Tyler, Mr. Durden, Sam might even get away with calling me a Stickbug, I am not fussy. Anyhow, as Captain Algren told you, this is American History. We're going to try to get from pre-Columbian times through current events and hit the turning points along the way."

"Because I'm more than a few decades behind the times," Algren continued, "I'll be taking the brunt of the workload for the first half of the semester, covering whatever I can right on up to America's centennial year. Mr. Durden will take it from there, bringing the lot of you up to date." And bringing Algren up to date as well, but he wasn't going to tell that to the class. "But today, we're going to take pity on you all and get introductions out of the way."

"We want to get you started thinking about history as a living thing," Tyler said. "Something you can interact with and have opinions about, not just a set of dates blah blah blah. So we'd like you to stand and state your name, grade, and one historic figure -- and it can be your world's history, if you aren't from the U.S. -- who you would like to confront."

"We're going to be pretty open as to the definition of 'confront,' here. It can be someone you want to tell off for choosing to do things a certain way, someone who you would like to start a coup against, or even somebody who you think needs a punch to the face." Algren wasn't picky, here. "And then tell us why. For example, I'm Captain Nathan Algren, I'm co-teaching this class, and I would personally like to have a long, serious chat with Lieutenant Colonel Custer for not opening his eyes before getting most of his men killed. But we'll get to that in another class."

"The one before your midterms," Tyler added helpfully. "And I would like to have a long discussion with Mahatma Gandhi and see if we could come to an agreement over the necessity of violence." Possibly with hitting, but the class didn't need to know that.

He gestured to one of the students. "You can start. And Ms. Yamanata, see me after class, please."

[OCD is up! Class roster, rules, and syllabus are located here!]

Comments

Sign In

[shiroi_tiger]

Put on your fighting challenging face!

Re: Sign In

[intraspective]

Yamanaka Ino

Lecture

[shiroi_tiger]

Listen, take notes, wonder what in the world is wrong with your teachers, that sort of thing.

Re: Lecture

[intraspective]

"Yamanaka," she muttered very, very quietly.

Besides, she was more amused that Tyler-sensei had primarily managed to stick to his form for introductions even when another teacher was there too.

Re: Lecture

[sixstandingby.livejournal.com]

Gavin hadn't really seen someone who looked like he was from so far in the past but really everyone was from the past to him. Still, at least he knew what he was talking about.

And his coat was really cool.

Re: Lecture

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

Cal slumped with his chin in one hand as he listened, thinking it was a little pointless telling him to think about history as a living thing, all things considered. Should be interesting, though; he hoped he could come up with something that wasn't lame for the question.

Re: Lecture

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Seriously. Classes on how to be a superhero and take care of magic animals and Katchoo had ended up in history and literature?

Oh, look, she was cranky.

Big surprise.

Maybe a little disappointed about not getting to blow things up.

Re: Lecture

[iruinenglish.livejournal.com]

Well, suck. Buffy just knew that with a teacher from actual history, it was going to be really embarrassing when she failed miserably.

Re: Lecture

[likethegun]

Sam had thought he'd spend his time in class merely amused at the idea of Tyler teaching history, but he was really intrigued by Captain Algren.

Introductions!

[shiroi_tiger]

You! Name, class, which historical figure you would challenge, and why!

Re: Introductions!

[intraspective]

"I'm Ino Yamanaka, a sophomore, and I... guess I can't get away with either of my usual answers for this one, so um..."

A long, long pause.

"You know," she said slowly, "I honestly don't know. I mean, I don't like some decisions of some people, but when my village has done the same or worse as any other village it's hard to pick one person to lecture. Especially when I don't know all their circumstances 'round why they did what they did."

Re: Introductions!

[justwantsquiet.livejournal.com]

"I'm Sookie Stackhouse, I'm a sophomore, and I'd confont...William Tecumseh Sherman."

There. That seemed like the best answer for a good Southern girl like herself.

Re: Introductions!

[notyourpawn.livejournal.com]

"My name is Alice Liddell," she said, standing and folding her hands behind her back. "I'm a junior this year. I would say that I'd confront the Red Queen, except I already did confront her, so perhaps that shouldn't count. Queen Victoria, then. I would like to have some strong words with her about her notions of propriety."

Alice had been wearing trousers and plain shirts for months, and had yet to descend into unutterable ruin. She should have noticed that sort of thing.

Re: Introductions!

[sixstandingby.livejournal.com]

"Gavin Darklighter and I'm a senior," he started while trying to think of someone to use as an answer to the second question. "Ysanne Isard. I mean, she's currently in power back where I'm from but I would assume she's historical and she's caused a lot of kriffing problems and I would love to just...yeah."

He took a breath.

"But, if you mean from here, um, probably...Napoleon I. Only because no one man should have that much power. It all goes to your head one day."

Re: Introductions!

[ktarian-wildman.livejournal.com]

"I'm Naomi Wildman," Naomi said, "I'm a junior and I'm not really sure which historical figure I'd challenge. Because even if they made a bad decision at the time, the outcome of that decision and how it was dealt with ultimately changed and shaped what became our present,"

Re: Introductions!

[not-a-mused.livejournal.com]

After a long, long, long moment to think about it, Cal finally came up with an answer that he felt was appropriate and also not incredibly stupid.

"Wayne Wheeler. He's the quack that thought prohibition was a good idea and wrote up the bill for Congress. I thought of a few other people. Sophocles was a big one, but the good outweighed the bad there. I was also going to say the head of the Greek military in the early 1920s, for attacking Smyrna, but that actually turned out pretty good for me. So I'll go with the Prohibition guy, since prohibition killed one of my grandparents. And it was incredibly stupid, anyway."

Re: Introductions!

[carsexual]

"I'm Sam Witwicky, I'm a junior, and I'd like to confront my great-grandfather, famous Arctic explorer Colonel Archibald Witwicky, about why he thought his last expedition was a good idea." Even if it had gotten him the best car ever, it had almost gotten the world destroyed.

Re: Introductions!

[death-of-hope.livejournal.com]

"Anemone, junior, and I wouldn't mind punching Colonel Dewey Novak in the face," Anemone said cheerfully. "Mostly because there's better ways of achieving your goal of a peaceful world than destroying the planet. It's counter-productive."

Re: Introductions!

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Katchoo was sitting very firmly in her seat; she wasn't about to willingly volunteer information. Besides, out of all the people she wanted to challenge, none of them were historical figures.

They were too behind the scenes for that.

Re: Introductions!

[endsthegame]

"Andrew Wiggin," Ender replied, his shoulders a little hunched over for reasons all his own. "Freshman. I'm not really interested in picking a fight with anyone." Well, except himself, anyway.

Re: Introductions!

[iruinenglish.livejournal.com]

"Buffy Summers, I'm a senior, and..." Wow, other people knew historical names. "I'd challenge, like, Amelia Earheart. What'd she doing getting lost anyway?"

It should be said that Buffy really sucked at history. At least she tried?

Re: Introductions!

[likethegun]

"I'm Sam Winchester," he said, "I'm a junior and...I'd probably fight Christopher Columbus. His ego was way too big considering all the mistakes he made, and I think he could stand to be taken down a peg."

Talk To The TA

[shiroi_tiger]

Once she knows she is one, of course!

Re: Talk To The TA

[intraspective]

She was the least knowledgeable TA of American History ever, but she was there after talking to Tyler-sensei and flipping through the book he'd given her as a primer.

Man, she had a lot of reading to do.

Talk To The Teachers

[shiroi_tiger]

They don't bite. Really.

There are better ways to make students suffer, after all. ♥

Re: Talk To The Teachers

[intraspective]

"I didn't do anything," Ino announced, wandering over to Tyler-sensei. As ordered.

OOC!

[shiroi_tiger]

If I could challenge any historical figure at all, it would have to be whoever it was who invented airplane seats that are too low to put a pet carrier taller than 8.5" under them. Yep.

Re: OOC!

[withoutverona]

*facepalm*

Yamanaka.

Gandhi.

Elisabeth needs to learn to proofread.