fandomhigh | American History, Period 2, 01/08

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!]

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"Well," she said, tugging at a bit of her hair, "I mean, there's not much I can do but accept the way things are now, right? I mean, I can change the present and work on changing the future, but the past isn't something I can alter. So it... almost seems silly to say 'if this and this were done differently then we wouldn't be like this' because we are like that. You can learn from the past, sure, but you've also got to, you know, accept it and make your changes for the future. Dwelling on something like 'if I could've changed that there' just leads to a lot of headaches 'cause you can't change it."

"You're right," Algren agreed, nodding. "You can't change what happened. But you can direct your future. Instead of challenging anyone in particular from the past, Miss Yamanaka, is there anyone you know of in the present who, if you had the ability to steer in a direction you thought was right, you would confront? Not to change today or yesterday, but to improve upon tomorrow, instead?"

Now she looked rueful. "A lot of people," Ino said. "Though I can't say if my way would be right or not, but it really bugs me when people say 'I can't do this' or 'I'll never be good enough to try' and never bother to even attempt going after what they want. Which, I guess, most of it probably isn't the stuff that history is made of--they don't write stories 'bout just everyday people taking everyday steps to improve themselves--I don't know. I don't like people who don't try. Even if the trying turns out wrong, I'd rather they do that."

"Trying with the right intentions and ending with entirely the wrong results- what do you make of those people, then? If they were looking to promote peace, and instead ended up with a bigger war under their noses, you wouldn't fault them for trying, simply because they didn't roll over and give up in the first place?" Algren paused for a moment, thinking on the subject some more. "Maybe, then, instead of somebody to challenge, is there anyone in history who tried, and who failed, who you might have wanted to speak to, if given the opportunity?"

She thought for a long while. "Hatake Sakumo, he's from my world, not this one," Ino decided. "He... was on a mission, team leader, and the team got into a lot of trouble. He had the choice to either salvage the mission, or save his teammates."

"He choose his teammates--but the fallout from the mission being uncompleted started a war, and eventually he suicided because of it." Ino glanced up at Algren-sensei. "I'd tell him he should live instead of giving into despair. 'Cause I think he did the right thing, in saving his teammates. And, in killing himself, that he'd only make other people sad. There's a lot of reasons for a war to start, and him taking all of the blame for it isn't right."

Algren listened to Ino's retelling intently, shelving the concept of 'other worlds' just enough that it wouldn't distract him while he absorbed the specifics of the story.

"Taking your own life doesn't ever undo the actions you've made while living it," Algren noted. "And the responsibility for an entire war would be difficult to place on the shoulders of simply one man, when there are other factors, such as the will of the body of people also choosing to fight, to be considered. A good choice, Miss Yamanaka."

"Thank you," she said. "I'd also tell him if he felt so bad 'bout the war then he should fight to end it 'stead of running away from it. But, well, that's not what happened."

"And you're still feeling the implications of it today?" Algren nodded, satisfied, and clasped his hands behind his back. "Thank you for sharing, Miss Yamanaka."

American History, Period 2, 01/08

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