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30 “Now-False Facts” That Were Really Taught In Schools, But Did Not Stand The Test Of Time
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.
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Hard work will be noticed and rewarded.
Yeah, right. Even in school your hardest efforts could be mocked and ridiculed by teachers, or they put more pressure on you to try harder.
“You’ll never get a job looking out the window!”
I’m an airline pilot.
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.
Bro brought disease, slavery, poverty, death, war, pain, suffering, he is such a great guy! /s
And after all, I also listed examples from the exact sciences, astronomy and mathematics. And relatively exact - like geography. What can we say about history, which, as you know, is written by the winners? There is no doubt that if, for example, Napoleon Bonaparte had won a victory at Waterloo, not only would world history have changed its direction, but, much more significantly, its textbooks would have changed as well. In general, the process of education has always been quite dynamic, and the knowledge that was given at school to one generation sometimes becomes completely outdated when their children go to school.
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.
The theory only really gained acceptance from the 1960s onwards, so you're showing your age.
It's a scientific theory. A scientific theory is an explanation of an aspect of the natural world and universe that can be repeatedly tested and corroborated in accordance with the scientific method, using accepted protocols of observation, measurement, and evaluation of results.
thank you Spongey! so many people think "theory" means "not proven" or "questionable"
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My teacher and classmates had a similar reaction when I said Jesus was probably darker skinned than portrayed in art.
I have never understood the "Jesus was white" acceptance, and I never will. Just from the area it happened in should be obvious he wasn't, but when you add the When, it just becomes completely UNbelievable. Then I get into the area of questions like "taking those two into consideration, why did ALL apostles have "white" names except Judas?? , and how much of the original text was mistranslated? My beliefs now are definitely Not the same as 16 year old me, that's for sure.
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Sorry, Unless you went to some peculiar school, I can't add faith. I learned about Wegener's theory at school.
I learned about plate tectonics in like 3rd grade. I'm sorry you had a terrible teacher 😔
Scientific theory and what people see as the definition of theory are different...
I noticed the same thing when I was a kid - before they proved that it was true. Interesting that 'kids' could see it.
I taught myself about plate tectonics when I was about 9, in the 70s, I got top marks at school when I wrote an essay for a school competition .
I highly doubt your teacher laughed and called you a idiot or that you made the association at 6 years old.
Kids can be clever. Adults can be abusive a******s
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There's a large rock formation on the island of Newfoundland that's got very distinctive composition that matches pretty much the same type as another one in Ireland. About 180Mya.
Cause the earth is just a stagnant rock. Never moving, never changing?????
I don't believe this for one second. Students wouldn't have enough information on this subject to find this person's observation so preposterous as to deem it laughable. And a teacher might tell a student that they are incorrect about something and maybe even that they have a vivid imagination, but I don't believe any teacher would call a child an "idiot" for making a harmless observation. I am a teacher, and I've literally known hundreds of other teachers; maybe even over a thousand at this point in my career. Exactly none of them would be so needlessly cruel.
I personally believe the story @ commenTors that don't, because I do not ask the question of "when", I ask the question of "where". There doctors who tell me I don't have epilepsy because: I am using terms that have been either outdated "for at least 30 Years"/ don't even Know the term so don't need the medication I have been taking religiously for over 5 years, and "who even gave you that medication. That alone has been outdated since the 60s. Simple explanations they thought I was making up, too. But then again, these are also the same practitionors that said I was a "medical mystery" for over a decade not sending me to the much needed specialists reaulting in a 70 year old hard core athlete's body at half that age whose body hasn't let her play Any sports coming out of High School.having to move to find out within just 2 years of that None of me is a "medical" mystery and the meds They had me on could have killed me ..... I will stop there.or i'll wind up on a book-long rant.
I apologize for the length it is, but at the time not sorry. Just because it seems out there, doesn't mean they're lying about it. Backwoods places tend to have the most outdated mindsets, for whatever reason.
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I learned about plate tectonics when I was a kid. I am 75 now. I remember a teacher tracing the continents with a pointer and talking about the then most recent thinking in the science.
I don't think there is such a thing as an idiot with a wild imagination.
Atomic power. When I was in the 1st grade I told my teacher that it seemed like splitting the tiniest particles could release an unimaginable amount of energy. My teacher laughed at me...
How TF old ARE you? The wierd thing is that they do NOT fit together like they appear to. New York fits opposite the southern end of Morocco. But if you see the continental shelves, then they DO seem to fit quite well.
That standardized tests help kids learn better. No, no they did not.
They make kids hate school better. School should be based on developing knowledge, not funneling knowledge into our brains so that we can put it on paper for something I don’t give an f about. Our school system has to change. We need development as our key goal in education. As a kid living in a US state that is placed 48h in education, we have to fücking change. Rant over
But in the last few decades, the process has been moving so rapidly that no one, including the education system, can keep up with it. School teachers who received university education sometimes twenty years ago may also lag behind trends, or simply be out of touch with the latest changes and discoveries in science. And if we talk, for example, about the '90s, when the internet was not yet as comprehensive as it is today? Okay, Sir Andrew Wiles and his colleagues proved Fermat's Last Theorem in 1994, but when could the average math teacher somewhere in the outback know about it? If you missed the corresponding news release on TV or an article in the newspaper - that's it, the most important discovery for world mathematics was late for students for years and years...
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.
Not only that but now you can get money by people watching you play with computers 🤔😅
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)
Glad that c**p was gone by the mid-80s and early 90s. Sinistrals unite!
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.
"That's exactly the problem with printed textbooks in today's world," says Olga Kopylova, Ph.D., associate professor of economics at Odessa National Maritime University, whom Bored Panda asked for a comment here. "For example, if you are holding a paper school or university textbook released in 2023, this most likely means that it was written several years ago. The writing process itself takes a lot of time, and then coordination, approval, the process of submitting to printing, distribution - some scientific books today have time to become obsolete, even before being printed. And this is not a drawback, it's just the reality of our time."
"As for searching for information online, on your own or under the guidance of any mentor, another problem arises here. The colossal amount of available information makes it difficult, firstly, to select reliable sources, and secondly, to analyze it. Artificial intelligence was designed to help a person understand all this - but today it often even gets in the way. At least in the scientific world, there are now numerous cases when unscrupulous researchers abuse the capabilities of AI to create a large number of fake articles. Someday, of course, this will stabilize, but so far the educational process lives in an era of great change," Olga sums up.
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.
I'm from Alabama, and was taught a lot in the 80's about how sorry and unforgivable the institution of slavery was. Perhaps it was at a crux, when the views went from defending the confederacy to a full condemnation, or just teachers willing to do their due diligence, but were were also taught of how the Europeans set up the colonies to run on slavery in the first place. We were taught that fellow Africans rounded up the slaves, their own kith and kin, and sold them to the Europeans for profit and arms, taught how some tribes threatened war and tried to continue the slave trade after the English, Spanish Portuguese and others stopped buying. We were taught how Anthony Johnson, a black Angolan and former slave, created the breed of lifelong chattel slavery in the United States by going to court to retain a slave named John Cassor. In short, we were taught a lot of raw and ugly truth, not just about our state, but the nation as a whole, the cause and effect. The truth, on all sides.
That people only use 10% of their brains. I mean some do, but that’s not normal
Are you intentionally trying to get my generation riled up about Pluto again? Lol
Pluto took a demotion so the other dwarf planets could get a promotion! I like that future generations will now know about Ceres, Haumea, Makemake, Sedna, Eris, Gonggong, Quaoar, Orcus and Salacia.
Damn it, but how upset I was for Pluto when in 2006 it was denied the right to be a full-fledged planet by those heartless astronomers! Ever since my school years, I felt for it, so small, cute, distant and lonely, some kind of tender sympathy - and then such a disappointment! Although, thanks to the internet, I found out about it almost instantly... I'm sure each of us has our own similar story under the belt. So now please feel free to scroll this selection of ours to its very end, and share your tales about some outdated pieces of school knowledge in the comments below this post.
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
There are several animals who started off as cryptids, like okapi or coleacanth. Makes me wonder if there'll ever be a day where a yetti or a lake monster (Nessie) will be regarded as a totally normal animal.
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.
So many things. The lifetime of facts is shorter than you'd think. Among them:
* You use 10% of your brain (was in a textbook)
* Model of the atom
* What composes a healthy diet
* Various histories from how dinosaurs looked to what life was like in the Middle Ages
* Causes of ulcers, poor vision, acne..
The model of an atom.... There re different models of the atom, each geared to different levels of education/understanding. As a student progresses they are taught, "What you learned in previous years is just an approximation. THIS is closer to reality." And a different model is presented.
That you’re gonna end up working a minimum wage job if you don’t go to college.
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.
My f*****g history teacher taught us how great of a president Woodrow Wilson was.
I later learned he was a literal white supremacist who admired the KKK and an overall giant racist even for his time.
Maybe it says something about the teacher's belief system. I mean... there are people who say that the Orange Guy was a great president even though he's one of the "very fine people".
The American Civil War wasn't about slavery.
Sadly, Governor DeSantis in Florida is trying to teach this Florida schools.
Blood is blue until exposed to oxygen
If your blood turns blue it's usually a bad sign. The arteries and veins that appear blue are just because they're moving deoxygenated blood back to the heart. And that blood in those veins is actually still red!
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.
But only four are beautiful. It's like "she gave me the seven best years of my life." "You've been married 20 years." "I said what I said"
that microwaves kill all the nutrients in food.
If you throw ANYTHING at ANY speed in ANY direction it will go directly in some kids eye. ALWAYS.... Always .. edit: no just SOMETIMES ... always... I'm talking about you can't even casually toss your fork in the sink without it defying physics and going in the eye of someone who isn't even in the room
Bohrs Atomic Model
Taste buds
We only have 5 senses
Brain cells, once lost, are gone.
Dogs and cats see in black and white.
Wolf packs have alphas. Turns out wolves are a lot like humans and the 'alphas' are simply the sire and b***h of the wolf pack (their parents) and they follow them and respect them because they're the ones who taught them how to hunt and survive.
wait the brain cells thing isn't true? when did the correct fact come out?
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.
The Manhattan Project was underway at that time, but it was VERY classified!
So many but I’ll start with cold blooded dinosaurs. I was in college when opinions about them changed.
Germany would never reunite. The French would never allow it.
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.
Note: this post originally had 42 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
I was taught that if you get under your (wooden) desk, shield your eyes with one arm, and protect the back of your neck with the other, that you will survive a nuclear blast.
Well, we still get Iodine pills as first aid measure in case the nuclear plant blows (3km away). Yours as well as this is likely a way of keeping people calm and showing the municipality or government is doing something, offering solutions. 😅 It's rubbish, but to some it gives a measure of security 🤷♀️
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Science as well as history are subject to change or correction as we dig deeper, experiment more or communicate better. Sometimes the corrections or changes (image a beverage using cocaine or a beauty product causing long term health problems) come at a high cost but they continue to appear hopefully because we we are curious and continue to be open to research, discovery and whatever may be the current truth.
Yes. Not just the model of the atom. The models of simple chemicals were totally wrong as well. Eg. Chemicals like ozone and the oxides of nitrogen.
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That the door is the best place to go in an earthquake. My teacher believed it until I corrected her. (Or was it tornado? If orget)
Our physics teacher told us that most of what we were taught in younger grades was false to some degree
Oversimplified as to be better understood. Makes the false stuff glow in the dark when you actually dwell academically further into the subject
Load More Replies... -The whole concept of the human evolution, thought as a ladder, with Homo sapiens on top as the most "advanced" form of human, ergo the researches for the "missing link". We all remember that drawing with a monkey on the left, followed by different "homos" (erectus, abilis, Neanderthal, ecc) and homo sapiens on the right. We now know that there's no missing link, there were several human species, many existing even at the same time, and, for some still unknown reasons, Homo sapiens is the one who survived. - The fact that people used to believe the earth was flat until the 16th century, pretty much. No, in Ancient Greece they knew the earth is round, they even calculated its circumference.
I had a teacher tell me that no nukes had been detonated in space and that rockets by the time of the Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963 weren't strong enough to put nukes in space. Note there were at least 5 US and 4 Soviet tests above the Karman line (100km). This was during a time with nuclear artillery shells, people had been to space, probes sent to other planets, and ICBMs capable of sending their payloads over 1000km into space before they came back down. In fact the first suborbital flight was a test of the V-2 in 1944.
This is the first I've heard of nuclear devices being detonated above 100 km up. If you want a list of nuclear lies taught at school I can think of half a dozen.
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as a child i fell for the "dont swallow gum, it'll stay there for 6 or so years" lol
Ever stopped to ask why we practically worship the Mayflower and Pilgrims as the US's origin story, even though Jamestown was founded first? I learned last year that it was because the peeps at Jamestown expected to hit it rich quickly, and so they didn't even prepare for the long term. Not stocking provisions, not building solid shelter. Just digging holes looking for gold. And the Pilgrims left England because they were extremists. They went to the Netherlands first, but after a while, were unhappy with how liberal things were there, too. So they left for the new world in two ships. One failed before leaving Europe, so they stopped in Plymouth to put everything on one boat, then left from there. Religious extremists and treasure hunters founded the US. Explains so much.
I was taught that if you get under your (wooden) desk, shield your eyes with one arm, and protect the back of your neck with the other, that you will survive a nuclear blast.
Well, we still get Iodine pills as first aid measure in case the nuclear plant blows (3km away). Yours as well as this is likely a way of keeping people calm and showing the municipality or government is doing something, offering solutions. 😅 It's rubbish, but to some it gives a measure of security 🤷♀️
Load More Replies... Science as well as history are subject to change or correction as we dig deeper, experiment more or communicate better. Sometimes the corrections or changes (image a beverage using cocaine or a beauty product causing long term health problems) come at a high cost but they continue to appear hopefully because we we are curious and continue to be open to research, discovery and whatever may be the current truth.
Yes. Not just the model of the atom. The models of simple chemicals were totally wrong as well. Eg. Chemicals like ozone and the oxides of nitrogen.
Load More Replies... That the door is the best place to go in an earthquake. My teacher believed it until I corrected her. (Or was it tornado? If orget)
Our physics teacher told us that most of what we were taught in younger grades was false to some degree
Oversimplified as to be better understood. Makes the false stuff glow in the dark when you actually dwell academically further into the subject
Load More Replies... -The whole concept of the human evolution, thought as a ladder, with Homo sapiens on top as the most "advanced" form of human, ergo the researches for the "missing link". We all remember that drawing with a monkey on the left, followed by different "homos" (erectus, abilis, Neanderthal, ecc) and homo sapiens on the right. We now know that there's no missing link, there were several human species, many existing even at the same time, and, for some still unknown reasons, Homo sapiens is the one who survived. - The fact that people used to believe the earth was flat until the 16th century, pretty much. No, in Ancient Greece they knew the earth is round, they even calculated its circumference.
I had a teacher tell me that no nukes had been detonated in space and that rockets by the time of the Partial Test Ban Treaty in 1963 weren't strong enough to put nukes in space. Note there were at least 5 US and 4 Soviet tests above the Karman line (100km). This was during a time with nuclear artillery shells, people had been to space, probes sent to other planets, and ICBMs capable of sending their payloads over 1000km into space before they came back down. In fact the first suborbital flight was a test of the V-2 in 1944.
This is the first I've heard of nuclear devices being detonated above 100 km up. If you want a list of nuclear lies taught at school I can think of half a dozen.
Load More Replies... as a child i fell for the "dont swallow gum, it'll stay there for 6 or so years" lol
Ever stopped to ask why we practically worship the Mayflower and Pilgrims as the US's origin story, even though Jamestown was founded first? I learned last year that it was because the peeps at Jamestown expected to hit it rich quickly, and so they didn't even prepare for the long term. Not stocking provisions, not building solid shelter. Just digging holes looking for gold. And the Pilgrims left England because they were extremists. They went to the Netherlands first, but after a while, were unhappy with how liberal things were there, too. So they left for the new world in two ships. One failed before leaving Europe, so they stopped in Plymouth to put everything on one boat, then left from there. Religious extremists and treasure hunters founded the US. Explains so much.
