How Green Becomes Wood

"For some, yes, but others could hardly be considered credible, and I could find no evidence to the contrary," she said with a faint smirk. "Unfortunately, it has been proven many times that governments like to alter the truth, hasn't it?"
 
"That's true," Daizi agreed slowly, "but it seems..." Finding her words was a struggle. It seemed unfair to her, but she couldn't determine how to explain that without seeming like she was just emotionally defending her precious baby. The suddenness in which she stopped speaking, and the clear look of thoughtfulness in her face, made it seem like she perhaps just didn't remember the word. Instead, she was trying to articulate how a teenager should be critical of the government, and not accept information blindly, but also that there needs to be some standard of accessible sources.

Dark, though, simply looked to Ciara.
 
Ciara said nothing just yet. She had been silently listening to every word, letting Miss Jones have her time. She still had the paper and appeared to be studying it quietly.

Miss Jones waited a moment, her face trying to remain neutral, but there was a tiny, impatient crimp in the corner of her mouth, and her finger tapped the table very lightly. Finally, she said, "I know it may seem harsh, but I want my students to learn to be able to dig into their sources and check things like, 'have they been altered?' As well as consider the consequences to using sources incorrectly and the harm that can cause."
 
"One or two looked decent, but most of them were emotional pieces. Blog posts and that sort of thing," she said dismissively. "Things we were cannot accept as accedemic research unless it is supposed to be a personal piece."
 
"They were primary sources, though, were they not?" Dark asked, taking out his own copy of Alec's assignment and flipping through it, "If the Government sources were insufficient as primary sources, and these are primary accounts of the topic at hand, sectioned out to account for their subjectivity. I suppose I am only wondering what sources you would have preferred to see?"
 
It looked like she had been expecting that question. She picked up a piece of paper and laid it in front of him. "Sources like these, which tell these ones, since you asked. These would be a good start."
 
Dark looked over the paper with a flat affect, taking the time to carefully read the document. For a long time he was silent. Then, raising his head, he looked at her straight on and asked, "Do you know, I was also a history teacher, until about one year ago?"
 
Dark's expression didn't change, but Daizi shifted in her seat, "I was not let go, but my reasons for changing focus are not important here. I only mentioned it at all because I have a question not as a student's parent, but as a fellow in the field."
 
"In your opinion, these are biased and untrustworthy," Dark said, placing his fingertips over Alec's sources, then touched what she had handed him, "but these are acceptable, do I have that correct? Because having read this source, it seems to me as biased as the first-hand accounts, they are merely in a disagreement. What is it about these sources which make them more valuable to you? We both have studied history, surely we both recognize the importance of first-hand, primary sources to the historical record."
 
"This is very true, I agree, and I think we can both agree that no matter how much a person may try not to show it, every author of said primary sources has a bias of some sort," she said calmly. "After all, look at the [hang on, need to find name spelling]! Both of which claim to be first hand accounts of the [starts with an M], but are very different from each other. Personal experiences and expectations can highly color the lens through which you write or read, would you not agree? And we all have certain sensitivities from our own perceptions of the world. It is unavoidable. Not to mention, these are blog posts. They are completely unverifiable. Even if they are intended only as a snapshot of the life of someone living in a certain situation, how can someone prove that they are what they say they are? Especially in this day of AI Generation. Do you remember that massive problem with 'Amish Life Hacks' on YouTube back in '26? Terrible things. Even before AI, people pretending to be or suffer from things that did not exist was not exactly unheard of."
 
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