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25 “Now-False Facts” That Were Really Taught In Schools, But Did Not Stand The Test Of Time
Article created by: Saulė Tolstych
When I was in elementary school, teachers told me that Columbus discovered America. When I was in high school - that there are nine planets in the Solar system, including Pluto. After algebra lessons in high school, I knew for sure that Fermat's Last Theorem had no proof...
Do you know what those all have in common? Yes, that's right - some time passed, literally several years, and everything that the teacher said turned out to be untrue. More precisely, not even a lie - just science convincingly refuted everything that was considered an indisputable truth earlier. And I'm not alone here - in this thread in the AskReddit community, many netizens share similar stories from their own school years.
More info: Reddit
- Read More: 30 "Now-False Facts" That Were Really Taught In Schools, But Did Not Stand The Test Of Time
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#1
Plate tectonics. When I was in the 1st grade I saw a map of the world and I told my teacher that it looks like all the continents used to fit together, but they moved apart.
My teacher laughed at me and loudly proclaimed I was an idiot with a wild imagination.
School kids laughed.
Jokes on them.
RELATED:
#3
I was always taught Mississippi's secession from the union in the civil war was to preserve state's right to be independent and nothing at all to do with slavery. That Confederate heritage was about family and not racism.
[Slavery is mentioned in the very first sentence of the first paragraph of the letter of secession as the primary reason.](https://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_missec.asp) They decided if they couldn't own humans anymore it would crash the economy.
#4
Late 90’s computer class, “we’ll never have terabyte hard drives in our lifetime, or a need for that much data.”
Heh, now you can get terabyte Micro SD cards, wild.
#5
That Columbus was the first European to step foot in the new world. Once found an old textbook that stated this. This was prior to the discovery of the Viking settlement in Nfld.
#8
Glass is actually a liquid, which is why old windows look droopy. I was definitely in my 20's before I learned that wasn't true.
#11
That Christopher Columbus was a great guy and all the natives rose up in celebration when he came.
Yea, I don't teach history that way.
#13
Playing with computers is a waste of time and won’t lead to a career. Said to me by a very old, and bitter teacher. 25 years in IT and counting.
#14
I had a teacher in 4^th grade that would force left handed kids to write with their right hand.
she said that it was the normal way to write and would benefit them later in life.
(circa, 1974)
#15
Are you intentionally trying to get my generation riled up about Pluto again? Lol
Angel Investors 8 months ago
Pluto is a great dog for a cartoon, he knows the mouse is realy dumb.
#16
When I was a kid, the Giant Squid had never been captured or photographed, and some people talked about it like it was el chupacabra. My little brother always said he'd be the first person to get footage of one. Sadly, it has since become an ordinary animal that we know exists. RIP the Kraken
#17
The USA is the only free country
Angel Investors 8 months ago
USA is the only free country that votes in a mad king as a Supreme Leader. Iran is green with envy.
#18
Cracking your knuckles causes arthritis.
Angel Investors 8 months ago
Not according to the researcher that spent all those years cracking his knuckles every day.
#19
Pompeii was buried slowly by falling ash. They pointed out that remnants of people were found, right in the middle of doing things, but didn't realise this contradicted the burying being slow. It's now thought that it was buried very quickly by pyroclastic flows - superheated gas travelling over 200mph.
Angel Investors 8 months ago
They must have thought that ppl didn't feel pain, like the myth about babies, so simply carried on with life while their bodies were on fire.
#20
Blood is blue until exposed to oxygen
Angel Investors 8 months ago
This myth is based on the blue veins you can see on your body. Logically illogical.
#21
From an educational filmstrip: "Saturn has four beautiful rings..." The Voyager photos of the thousands of rings had come in like a week before we watched this.
#22
When my mom graduated high school in 1944, the nuns were teaching that the atom could not be split. I think the Manhattan Project was already extant at the time. Correct me if I'm wrong, I did see Oppenheimer twice.
#23
So many but I’ll start with cold blooded dinosaurs. I was in college when opinions about them changed.
vvryr4q4zj 8 months ago
lets try this...dinosaurs were not 'grey' or 'brown'...they were actually multi colored polka dotted creatures...and, they were super intelligent; created their own civilizations, language, religions, etc...they built huge cities and transportation hubs...then, they created dinosaur nations...and these nations became war-like...several of these dinosaur nations developed nuclear weapons, and they went to war, and a nuclear war...not a collision with a meteor...killed off all the dinosaurs...the nuclear war destroyed everything; buildings, roads, cities...and now, millions and millions of years later, all that we can find that is left, are a few thousand fossilized skeletons and bones...everything else has fully eroded away
#25
That people only use 10% of their brains. I mean some do, but that’s not normal
Angel Investors 8 months ago
All people use 100% of their brain, some act like they use 10%. However, no one thinks with 100% of their brain, that would be like a PC that only has a CPU.
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