Some children are taught in school that God created the earth. Some of us were allowed to learn that humans cannot effect climate change, allowed to discuss it openly, and allowed to graduate with that idea without ever being corrected. Children are being taught today that slavery and colonialism were good things for some people.
Racism used to be a problem until Lincoln and MLK fixed it.
The United States operates on the principle of three co-equal branches of government, which check and balance each others power.
This is painful.
That glass is a liquid at room temperature, just a very viscous one so it doesn’t appear to flow. It’s not. It’s not a crystalline solid so it has an internal structure similar to a liquid, but the structure is definitely solid at room temperature because the components are not capable of moving relative to each other like a liquid would.
It’s also not the reason church windows are thicker at the bottom, a common myth that my ex-colleague with a PhD in polymer chemistry(!) somehow bought into
Glass not being a polymer still does suggest they’re talking out of turn
Not a polymer but an amorphous solid like many polymers; I believe she popped that nugget while explaining crystallinity and glass transitions. She was quite knowledgeable otherwise but that little false factoid must have slipped through.
It was false then but my seventh and eighth grade science teacher told us that blood was blue. My mom was a nurse so I knew that it was bullshit but was definitely confused because he was my science teacher.
Trickle down economics are an effective way to redistribute wealth
Did we conclude that, I thought its still heavily debated.
Some argue in the 50s and 60s the US was spending Europe’s gold to build highways and infrastructure, gifting Americans the wealth with a continuation of the new deal, they then defaulted in 1971 as inflation eroded foreign debt owed.
Some feel some form of debt accrual is how we derive such a consumption focused standard of living, which is misallocated capital that ends in someone holding the bag when it can’t realistically be paid back or when population doesn’t grow fast enough like in Japan or most of the developed countries.
The D.A.R.E. program.
We congratulate drugs for winning the war on drugs.
I’m addicted to dopamine, and I’ll take any drug I can to get more of it.
The myth that glass is a very thick liquid. It’s actually much weirder than that. https://gizmodo.com/the-glass-is-a-liquid-myth-has-finally-been-destroyed-496190894
I tried to argue this with a science teacher who chose that specific material for a question about phases, and I assumed she was asking for this tricky reason. She marked me wrong and wouldn’t accept my personal research on the topic as makeup. I was humiliated. I hope she’s dead now.
I have one that was proven false, and then later re-proven true: the existence of the brontosaurus.
When I was in elementary school, we were taught that they existed, they were big, etc. Then, at some point while I was in college, I discovered that actually what we thought was a brontosaur was a brachiosaur or an apatosaur. And then, when my kids went to school and learned about the brontosaur, I discovered that actually, they did exist!
“You need to learn this because you won’t always have a calculator on you!”
That wasn’t so much a “fact” told in school as it was a prediction, and it was true for them. Some people carried pocket calculators, but most people didn’t. Some supermarkets has calculators built into their carts, but most didn’t.
Failing to predict society’s norms in 20 years isn’t the same as teaching a false fact.
Some supermarkets has calculators built into their carts
wat
Tiny photocell powered calculators used to be everywhere. There were “thin” ones to fit in your Costanza sized wallet, Mousepads with them built in, and my wristwatch in 6th grade had one with tiny rubber keys.
It was a magical time till be alive. 5318008
Yep, back in the 90s they were in some places. My local supermarket had one like this, except without the annoying ad on the left side.
The same was told to me even as everybody already had mobile phones with calculators in them or even iPhones
Basic mathematical literacy is a prerequisite to being able to use a calculator.
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I feel have super power by being to calculate accurate tips without needing to crack out my phone.
Yeah but its such a hassle to find, so…
Hear about pluto? Pretty messed up huh?
You know that’s right!
That fluoride and vaccines are bad for you… tbh, I only believed it for 2-3 weeks until I did my own research, but it was a frightening clarification. Didn’t believe that teacher a single word after that.
Fluoride can be bad for you, just at much higher doses than they put in water supply. It can cause issues with bones and neurological development. Again, only in very high doses over a long time. It happens a lot in poorer countries where they can’t treat well water.
I think people underestimate the problems with teeth hygiene. It can cause dimensia, so teeth should be brushed before you eat, though avoid mouth wash.
Yeah, you start seeing the full multiverse. It’s crazy.
And don’t forget to floss! As soon as I learned that my gums don‘t bleed because of the metal thing, but because food between my teeth decays and that decaying decays my gums, turning it all into poop, I started to floss every second day.
Why should I avoid mouth wash though? My routine is floss - mouth wash - brushing
Just the cancer causing it does.
Mouthwash cancer?
A lot of mouthwash uses alcohol, which does cause oral cancer
That I was a republican. The teacher gave out this political alignment quiz that was incredibly biased asking things like “do you like lower taxes or higher taxes?” and “do you like more freedom or less freedom?” All the questions basically lead you to the same answers. So the entire class basically had the same result.
This was in middle school so I wasn’t even politically engaged yet. I didn’t realize how crazy this was until years later.
the quiz:
That’s funny. I had a teacher do something like this but in the other direction. All the questions had answers that pretty much forced you right into the blue. Shit like “do you think homeless people should be given assistance or should homeless people be shot and dumped into the sea?” Or “I think everyone deserves to find love vs gay people are the spawn of Satan”.
It is worth noting that I went to a very left leaning and notoriously “hippy” private school (against my will). I eventually managed to get expelled for smoking weed and not snitching on all my friends.
I don’t think teachers really should be pushing their political or religious agendas no matter what. School is for learning core basics in various categories.
n many countries, including the United states, the core studies are taught through the end of Junior High School. And that’s when mandatory education ends. So you should expect to see a lot more variety in high school.
As a teacher myself, I don’t try to tell students what to believe, but I certainly don’t run away from talking about political issues. If you’re teaching English or science or social studies or foreign language, and you are working hard to avoid politics, you’re doing your students a disservice.
For example, suppose you’re teaching high school economics right now. Would you honestly not talk about the Trump tariffs? That would be the most ludicrous idea imaginable. Clearly the students want to know what’s going on, they hear it on TV, they read it in the newspaper, and you’re the expert so you should be telling them what’s going on. Right? And if you’re going to talk about them, you’re probably going to be critical of them with good reason.
But anyway, I’ve heard people express views similar to yours over the years, and essentially many people with that view think that school could be or should be talked entirely by mindless robots. I don’t think that’s a great way to teach kids, I’m happy I didn’t grow up in such a system, but if that’s what you want then more power to you.
It’s less that I don’t want them mentioning anything that connects to politics and it’s more about wanting them to just present information without any additional spin.
So “Trump has put tarrifs on x countries for x amount” vs “Trump has stupidly put x tarrifs on x countries because he’s a hateful tyrant” or whatever. I think you get what I’m trying to say.
I have absolutely no problem with talking about politics as it’s pretty much impossible to mention anything in history without it, but it can be done so in very different ways. I would prefer that teachers remain as neutral as they can while presenting only factual information on whatever political topics comes up.
Kinda how I wish the news would go back to facts first reporting as opposed to this current “rush the story out before we fact check anything and make the headline as polarizing as we can to generate maximum clicks. Who cares if we have to issue a correction later on page 97 in .5 size font (or at all) we just want clicks!” Type of “news” we have now.
I blame Reagan.
Political alignment tests have a serious case of intentional sampling bias
Ironically, I have read that there was a study that found that the most gullible kids in elementary school grow up to be republican. I’m not kidding.
I don’t think that would surprise anyone. The GOP has been a giant grift since at least Reagan. A loooot of people out there can’t tell when they’re getting scammed.
It’s one reason why educated voters tend to be further left on the political spectrum.
I hated this so much in high school.
There’s essentially no difference between reps and dems tbh
“Essentially no different” is overselling it. “A lot less difference than there should be” is better.
Basically everything I can recall being told in D.A.R.E program classes (war on drugs era propaganda taught in public schools in the USA) was utter nonsense and fabricated bullshit. After actually having personal experience with most of the substances they vilified, none of the effects - good or ill - are what I was taught in that ridiculous program.
On the contrary, some of the fear tactics they used made me curious to investigate on my own. The breathlessly scared rural teacher describing the mind bending effects that “magic mushrooms” was supposed to have sounded fascinating to teenage me. In reality, they are very fun and therapeutic to use, but nothing like the wild Alice in Wonderland mind journey they made it sound like it would be.
Drugs Are Really Excellent?
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I was taught that Pluto is a planet. How could they have been so wrong???
