Toku-high: Game On

Accurately Inaccurate

Content note: Job termination and institutional pressure over teaching: discussed, non-graphic. Deliberately misleading education is defended in dialogue.

Source date: 2025-05-17SST date: Toku-high: Game On, May 172 min readComplete text

Original writing prompt

You are an immortal who has been alive for over 2000 years. Nowadays, you work as a history teacher. Thing is, a lot of the history textbooks are just flat-out WRONG, and you would know; you were there for a lot of the events they cover. Fed up, you decide to teach what ACTUALLY happened
Original response reference

This reader preserves the complete local source edition. Captured original response link ↗

THE MOMENT

"But, it's wrong!" Claude was understandably aggravated. The Principal was in the middle of firing him for trying to teach reality, and he was done holding back.

"I'm sorry?" Principal Reynolds tilted his head with the question.

"The history we're teaching isn't how anything really happened...," Claude answered. The cat was already out of the bag, and he was on his way out anyway. "...I'm immortal. I've been alive for over 2000 years, and all the textbooks are wrong."

"... And?" Principal Reynolds asked with a shrug. "Your job was to teach the curriculum. This isn't some community center where you can just stand up and share your life story, you had very clear guidelines that you chose to ignore."

"I was there, and it's all wrong."

"I think you're still missing the point a little bit," Principal Reynolds chuckled. "But, let me ask you something. Last week we had that luncheon; what'd you have for breakfast the day before that?"

"What?" Claude was confused by the sudden subject change. "I don't know, we're in the middle of something here," he said.

"No, I know," the Principal grinned. "I'm just wondering... if you can't remember breakfast from last week, how is anyone supposed to trust your memory from 2000 years ago?"

"I don't scrutinize my breakfast every single day!"

"Uhuh," the Principal shrugged. "And so why would I believe you scrutinized your life in detail back then?"

"I don't think it's unusual for important moments to stand out," Claude replied. And, Principal Reynolds actually nodded at that.

"Yeah, I'll grant you that, I suppose. But, it doesn't change the facts. You taught unapproved lessons, so we'll be letting you go."

"So, that's it? You're just going to let those kids be taught the wrong information?"

"Hey, there you go. A bit late, but you finally found the point," the Principal smirked. "Is it really 'wrong information', if it ends in a desired outcome?"

◇