Help! My grass hath been trampled
July 6, 2015 9:56 AM Subscribe
What was I taught in grades K-12 that's now known to be complete horse-pucky?
I'm in my mid 40s. And I'm fascinated by shifts in what's considered "common knowledge." Things like, "Birds are just Dinosaurs that survived, and most of the ones you drew at 8 years old had feathers"
Your answers will be used to defend "Kids these days" from other old farts who think the world is getting worse, and forget that our parents thought the same thing and their parents, and their parents, ad infinitum.
I'm in my mid 40s. And I'm fascinated by shifts in what's considered "common knowledge." Things like, "Birds are just Dinosaurs that survived, and most of the ones you drew at 8 years old had feathers"
Your answers will be used to defend "Kids these days" from other old farts who think the world is getting worse, and forget that our parents thought the same thing and their parents, and their parents, ad infinitum.
Pluto is no longer considered to be a planet... Rather "there are nine planets in our solar system" is now more complicated and not exactly true, or universally accepted.
posted by slipthought at 10:11 AM on July 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by slipthought at 10:11 AM on July 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
I've heard " 'i' before 'e' except after 'c' " is no longer taught because there are more words that break the rule than keep it. (Ask my weird beige neighbour before we go on a feisty heist!)
posted by quinndexter at 10:12 AM on July 6, 2015 [10 favorites]
posted by quinndexter at 10:12 AM on July 6, 2015 [10 favorites]
When I was a kid, there was such a thing as a brontosaurus. Later they determined that the brontosaurus never existed; it was actually an apatosaurus. Then earlier this year, they determined that the brontosaurus probably really was a brontosaurus and not an apatosaurus after all, although it seems to be up for debate. TEAM BRONTOSAURUS!
posted by erst at 10:14 AM on July 6, 2015 [17 favorites]
posted by erst at 10:14 AM on July 6, 2015 [17 favorites]
Not sure exactly how common-knowledge these are, but here goes:
posted by fifthrider at 10:17 AM on July 6, 2015 [9 favorites]
posted by fifthrider at 10:17 AM on July 6, 2015 [9 favorites]
The pyramids were not built by slave labor.
posted by Morrigan at 10:19 AM on July 6, 2015 [12 favorites]
posted by Morrigan at 10:19 AM on July 6, 2015 [12 favorites]
The old adage about waiting thirty minutes after eating to go swimming has long been proven false.
Well before my time, but how about old nuclear safety drills like "duck and cover"? Absolutely worthless if a bomb were to actually go off.
"640K ought to be enough for anybody." Gates denies saying it, which adds another nice little twist on Things We Once Took to be True.
posted by backseatpilot at 10:20 AM on July 6, 2015 [3 favorites]
Well before my time, but how about old nuclear safety drills like "duck and cover"? Absolutely worthless if a bomb were to actually go off.
"640K ought to be enough for anybody." Gates denies saying it, which adds another nice little twist on Things We Once Took to be True.
posted by backseatpilot at 10:20 AM on July 6, 2015 [3 favorites]
Vikings never wore horned helmets. That particular innovation can be traced back to an opera costumer. Also, they weren't the rootless, marauding hordes that they're made out to be in the popular conception; they had towns and cities, and they were often remarkably well-traveled and cosmopolitan in outlook - notably, a significant number of them found their way to Constantinople, where they helped support the Eastern Roman Empire.
posted by fifthrider at 10:26 AM on July 6, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by fifthrider at 10:26 AM on July 6, 2015 [4 favorites]
You should pick up The Half Life of Facts. It explores this idea in depth, and has lots of examples.
posted by cosmicbandito at 10:28 AM on July 6, 2015 [8 favorites]
posted by cosmicbandito at 10:28 AM on July 6, 2015 [8 favorites]
A college degree is an ironclad guarantee of good employment. Student loan debt is good debt. Real estate is always a good investment. It is always better to buy than rent housing. Adults are always worthy of respect. Teachers always know and give the correct answer.
posted by disconnect at 10:29 AM on July 6, 2015 [12 favorites]
posted by disconnect at 10:29 AM on July 6, 2015 [12 favorites]
We "learned" in grade school that the human body has 214 bones, and 500 muscles.
Oh, how those numbers were drilled into us.
Also:
Kingdom,
Phylum,
Class,
Order,
Family,
Genus,
Species
which is no longer correct. There are additional thingies shoehorned into the order in various places.
"Vikings never wore horned helmets. That particular innovation can be traced back to an opera costumer"
fingers stuck in ears LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA ! /small>
posted by BostonTerrier at 10:30 AM on July 6, 2015 [3 favorites]
Oh, how those numbers were drilled into us.
Also:
Kingdom,
Phylum,
Class,
Order,
Family,
Genus,
Species
which is no longer correct. There are additional thingies shoehorned into the order in various places.
"Vikings never wore horned helmets. That particular innovation can be traced back to an opera costumer"
fingers stuck in ears LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA ! /small>
posted by BostonTerrier at 10:30 AM on July 6, 2015 [3 favorites]
On a related note, the Roman legions weren't consistently pasty-white dudes in shiny armor with red shields. Even Romans hailing from the peninsula proper were more diverse than that, and the core of the Legion was heavily buttressed with forces raised from the outlying provinces of the Empire, who brought a variety of ethnicities, languages, and armaments under the Roman banner.
Similarly, Jesus wasn't white. Some folks are still having a little bit of difficulty accepting that one, though.
And neither Jesus nor the Romans spoke with British accents. (As if it needed to be said.)
posted by fifthrider at 10:30 AM on July 6, 2015 [7 favorites]
Similarly, Jesus wasn't white. Some folks are still having a little bit of difficulty accepting that one, though.
And neither Jesus nor the Romans spoke with British accents. (As if it needed to be said.)
posted by fifthrider at 10:30 AM on July 6, 2015 [7 favorites]
Untrained rescuers are supposed to skip the whole respiration part of CPR now, and only do the chest-compression part, which is also faster than previously recommended.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 10:33 AM on July 6, 2015 [7 favorites]
posted by paper chromatographologist at 10:33 AM on July 6, 2015 [7 favorites]
Speaking of accents, most of us grew up mispronouncing spoken Latin atrociously - the language the Romans spoke had hard 'C's and rounded 'V's.
Also, Shakespeare's English sounded something like a Disney pirate movie.
posted by fifthrider at 10:35 AM on July 6, 2015 [2 favorites]
Also, Shakespeare's English sounded something like a Disney pirate movie.
posted by fifthrider at 10:35 AM on July 6, 2015 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Kingdom,
Phylum,
Class,
Order,
Family,
Genus,
Species
which is no longer correct.
WHAT?!? I made up a mnemonic to remember that... "King Phylus Coughs Out Familiar Green Slime"... All the other 7th graders chanted it at test time.
Also, thank you all. These are great.
I wanted to point out the entirety of the book 1491 was also mind blowing, but I don't think that's really taught in schools yet.
posted by DigDoug at 10:35 AM on July 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
Phylum,
Class,
Order,
Family,
Genus,
Species
which is no longer correct.
WHAT?!? I made up a mnemonic to remember that... "King Phylus Coughs Out Familiar Green Slime"... All the other 7th graders chanted it at test time.
Also, thank you all. These are great.
I wanted to point out the entirety of the book 1491 was also mind blowing, but I don't think that's really taught in schools yet.
posted by DigDoug at 10:35 AM on July 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
Watching any episode of QI would probably supply you with a bounty of these, if it's available wherever you are.
posted by penguin pie at 10:36 AM on July 6, 2015 [7 favorites]
posted by penguin pie at 10:36 AM on July 6, 2015 [7 favorites]
Go to your basement if a tornado is approaching, but don't worry about begin the southwest corner.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 10:36 AM on July 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by paper chromatographologist at 10:36 AM on July 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
Shakespeare did not invent a ton of words. Because he spent time with people from various walks of life, he had a varied vocabulary. He was just one of the first people to write down English words that were popular among people who were not rich.
posted by Chaussette and the Pussy Cats at 10:36 AM on July 6, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by Chaussette and the Pussy Cats at 10:36 AM on July 6, 2015 [5 favorites]
Response by poster: The Half Life of Facts is now in my online bookstore shopping cart.
I already follow The Qi Elves on twitter, but rarely think to listen/watch.
Already own Lies My Teacher Told Me.
posted by DigDoug at 10:39 AM on July 6, 2015
I already follow The Qi Elves on twitter, but rarely think to listen/watch.
Already own Lies My Teacher Told Me.
posted by DigDoug at 10:39 AM on July 6, 2015
The Civil War was about slavery.
Yes, I was very, very specifically taught that it was not.
posted by SLC Mom at 10:46 AM on July 6, 2015 [19 favorites]
Yes, I was very, very specifically taught that it was not.
posted by SLC Mom at 10:46 AM on July 6, 2015 [19 favorites]
Not "lies" but schools now put more emphasis on:
East Asia's roll in writing and other key civilization benchmarks.
WWII in Europe was largely a war between Germany and Russia not Germany and England.
posted by French Fry at 10:47 AM on July 6, 2015 [4 favorites]
East Asia's roll in writing and other key civilization benchmarks.
WWII in Europe was largely a war between Germany and Russia not Germany and England.
posted by French Fry at 10:47 AM on July 6, 2015 [4 favorites]
The different kingdoms of life used in biological classification have changed several times during your lifetime. As a kid you probably learned five kingdoms (monera, protists, plants, fungi, animals). That system has been revised multiple times in the following decades and remains subject to debate among biologists, as a flood of new data from genetics research and field studies continues to come in. Currently they seem to have settled on six, though I learned it as three in the early 2000s.
I don't think this was covered in science class per se but the big scary boogieman of sex ed class for me was HIV/AIDS, then still not terribly well understood by the general public. In the mid-1990s AIDS was the #1 leading cause of death for all Americans ages 25 to 44. The introduction of protease inhibitors and other anti-retroviral drugs starting in 1996 ushered in a revolution in HIV care and those numbers dropped amazingly quickly. The change in mortality is massive (see slide 4 in this PDF). Assuming you have access to care and are compliant with your medication HIV can be managed as a chronic condition. Rapid advancements have also been made in antiviral treatments for other conditions, notably Hepatitis C, influenza, and herpes. (The flip side of this is that many bacterial diseases previously considered "beaten" are evolving antibiotic resistance and becoming increasingly difficult to treat.)
posted by Wretch729 at 10:50 AM on July 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
I don't think this was covered in science class per se but the big scary boogieman of sex ed class for me was HIV/AIDS, then still not terribly well understood by the general public. In the mid-1990s AIDS was the #1 leading cause of death for all Americans ages 25 to 44. The introduction of protease inhibitors and other anti-retroviral drugs starting in 1996 ushered in a revolution in HIV care and those numbers dropped amazingly quickly. The change in mortality is massive (see slide 4 in this PDF). Assuming you have access to care and are compliant with your medication HIV can be managed as a chronic condition. Rapid advancements have also been made in antiviral treatments for other conditions, notably Hepatitis C, influenza, and herpes. (The flip side of this is that many bacterial diseases previously considered "beaten" are evolving antibiotic resistance and becoming increasingly difficult to treat.)
posted by Wretch729 at 10:50 AM on July 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
Another dinosaur/bird one is that two-legged dinos probably walked like birds too--i.e., not dragging their tails on the ground. Someone tell the people who make coloring books.
The way you do long division is probably not the way kids do today. Cursive, likewise, is going out of style. (My husband was once taking notes in reasonably-legible cursive and an undergraduate-aged person sitting next to him asked if he was writing in Arabic.)
posted by tchemgrrl at 10:51 AM on July 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
The way you do long division is probably not the way kids do today. Cursive, likewise, is going out of style. (My husband was once taking notes in reasonably-legible cursive and an undergraduate-aged person sitting next to him asked if he was writing in Arabic.)
posted by tchemgrrl at 10:51 AM on July 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
I'm your age, and this was a biggie for me: "Saturn has 8 rings, and is the only planet to have rings." Totally wrong on both counts.
posted by BlahLaLa at 10:52 AM on July 6, 2015
posted by BlahLaLa at 10:52 AM on July 6, 2015
Oh, another one would be before advances in mapping the genomes of various species it was assumed that more "complex" lifeforms would have more protein-coding genes. This turned out to be hugely, laughably wrong. Water fleas, grape plants, and rice plants all have thousands more than humans, for instance.
posted by Wretch729 at 11:01 AM on July 6, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Wretch729 at 11:01 AM on July 6, 2015 [2 favorites]
Tons of stuff about Thanksgiving and the Pilgrims (they did not wear buckled black hats, for example), some of it mentioned here.
posted by Melismata at 11:02 AM on July 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Melismata at 11:02 AM on July 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
Okay last one I promise: it was a common belief that ulcers and gastritis were caused by stress or spicy foods. By the end of the 90s it had been demonstrated pretty conclusively that the main cause is actually H. pylori bacteria.
posted by Wretch729 at 11:10 AM on July 6, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by Wretch729 at 11:10 AM on July 6, 2015 [5 favorites]
These are all recent finds in archeology, so I hope that fits within the scope of answers you were looking for.
The Indus River Valley Civilisation is a fairly recent discovery. The first excavations were in the 1920's, but important new breakthroughs happened in the 90's.
They had a natural form of air conditioning and a very advanced sewage/plumbing system. It's also a civilisation that has absolutely no sign of any military activity at all.
There's also the findings in the West Turkana Gorge in Kenya that show the use of stone tools at least a million years before previously believed.
Oh, and then there's the Dispilio tablet, which shows a form of writing that predates most of the early writing systems like hieroglyphics and cuneiform. Here's a reddit thread about it.
posted by guster4lovers at 11:16 AM on July 6, 2015 [4 favorites]
The Indus River Valley Civilisation is a fairly recent discovery. The first excavations were in the 1920's, but important new breakthroughs happened in the 90's.
They had a natural form of air conditioning and a very advanced sewage/plumbing system. It's also a civilisation that has absolutely no sign of any military activity at all.
There's also the findings in the West Turkana Gorge in Kenya that show the use of stone tools at least a million years before previously believed.
Oh, and then there's the Dispilio tablet, which shows a form of writing that predates most of the early writing systems like hieroglyphics and cuneiform. Here's a reddit thread about it.
posted by guster4lovers at 11:16 AM on July 6, 2015 [4 favorites]
There have been huge advances in science on all fronts, but that's not really what the OP is asking. Still, when I was in HS (early 1960s), no one knew why the nucleus of an atom didn't fly apart with all those protons packed in there.
I think the area of the most revisionism is nutrition. Eat this. No don't. Butter is bad for you, use margarine; margarine is bad for you eat butter. Cut down on fats. No, watch what fats you eat. In my youth, whole milk was the thing; now the advice is to drink skim.
Also baby care. Sleep on their back, sleep on their tummy, sleep on their back.
posted by SemiSalt at 11:22 AM on July 6, 2015 [3 favorites]
I think the area of the most revisionism is nutrition. Eat this. No don't. Butter is bad for you, use margarine; margarine is bad for you eat butter. Cut down on fats. No, watch what fats you eat. In my youth, whole milk was the thing; now the advice is to drink skim.
Also baby care. Sleep on their back, sleep on their tummy, sleep on their back.
posted by SemiSalt at 11:22 AM on July 6, 2015 [3 favorites]
> Well before my time, but how about old nuclear safety drills like "duck and cover"? Absolutely worthless if a bomb were to actually go off.
Not true. For every bomb that hits over a city or other target, there is of course a lethal blast region close to ground zero. Outside of that radius, there's a huge area affected by the blast but which is still very much survivable, mostly depending on how well you're sheltered (read: protected from flying crap) and direct radiation exposure (heat, X-rays, and everything in between). Duck and Cover will probably save your bacon when all the windows getting blasted in, it'll have you under a desk when the building is most vulnerable. Whenever medical support does come in, it's best for all concerned if it isn't instantly overwhelmed with a huge number of flying-glass injuries.
Duck and Cover would save many many lives, though it probably would've worked better in the 1950s than it would now considering the changes in bombs and methods of attack.
But nuclear weapons don't magically transmit death: they create a huge hot blast wave, followed by irradiating everything in a certain limited range, followed by raining more radioactive crap downwind as the stuff that was vaporized in the first blast condenses back into a solid and rains out of the sky. The affects of these are pretty well understood and there are places you can be where most of the harm will just go somewhere else.
On that note, they no longer recommend getting into a doorframe during earthquakes-- interior doorframe are often weak partitions these days, not proper walls. Get under a desk or table.
posted by Sunburnt at 11:29 AM on July 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
Not true. For every bomb that hits over a city or other target, there is of course a lethal blast region close to ground zero. Outside of that radius, there's a huge area affected by the blast but which is still very much survivable, mostly depending on how well you're sheltered (read: protected from flying crap) and direct radiation exposure (heat, X-rays, and everything in between). Duck and Cover will probably save your bacon when all the windows getting blasted in, it'll have you under a desk when the building is most vulnerable. Whenever medical support does come in, it's best for all concerned if it isn't instantly overwhelmed with a huge number of flying-glass injuries.
Duck and Cover would save many many lives, though it probably would've worked better in the 1950s than it would now considering the changes in bombs and methods of attack.
But nuclear weapons don't magically transmit death: they create a huge hot blast wave, followed by irradiating everything in a certain limited range, followed by raining more radioactive crap downwind as the stuff that was vaporized in the first blast condenses back into a solid and rains out of the sky. The affects of these are pretty well understood and there are places you can be where most of the harm will just go somewhere else.
On that note, they no longer recommend getting into a doorframe during earthquakes-- interior doorframe are often weak partitions these days, not proper walls. Get under a desk or table.
posted by Sunburnt at 11:29 AM on July 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
One really big one is that the cat is really out of the bag on the problematic aspects of US history. How it's taught varies depending on the area, I believe, but I was shocked to discover that a particularly incurious teenager I know, who doesn't pay much attention at school and is really only interested in video games and anime, thought of Columbus as a straight up bad guy, and was even glancingly familiar with things like Indian Schools and Jim Crow laws.
He actually seemed surprised that they used to teach such whitewashed versions of US history to kids. Some districts are trying to keep the lessons that way, but at this point, kids know that version is bullshit.
Also, yeah, I don't think many places still teach cursive, and if they do, most kids forget it pretty quickly. I know very few young people who write cursive comfortably. Mark my words: Cursive writing is well on its way to being considered a hipster thing.
On the other hand, I am pretty sure they'd laugh at the notion of taking typing classes, especially in high school.
posted by ernielundquist at 11:29 AM on July 6, 2015 [2 favorites]
He actually seemed surprised that they used to teach such whitewashed versions of US history to kids. Some districts are trying to keep the lessons that way, but at this point, kids know that version is bullshit.
Also, yeah, I don't think many places still teach cursive, and if they do, most kids forget it pretty quickly. I know very few young people who write cursive comfortably. Mark my words: Cursive writing is well on its way to being considered a hipster thing.
On the other hand, I am pretty sure they'd laugh at the notion of taking typing classes, especially in high school.
posted by ernielundquist at 11:29 AM on July 6, 2015 [2 favorites]
Actually I'm a big liar I have another one because I realized there's another tack to take when arguing against the everything is betting worse/kids these days mentality than just listing new scientific discoveries/reversals.
Violent crime in the US has decreased every year since 1991 and has on average decreased consistently since colonial times.
See also some great resources for teachers from Hans Rosling's Gapminder foundation. Rosling (perhaps best known for his TED talks though unlike a lot of TED speakers his work as a medical doctor and statistician can stand on its own) has consistently argued that cynicism and ignorance have blinded us to massive improvements in many development statistics worldwide.
posted by Wretch729 at 11:37 AM on July 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
Violent crime in the US has decreased every year since 1991 and has on average decreased consistently since colonial times.
See also some great resources for teachers from Hans Rosling's Gapminder foundation. Rosling (perhaps best known for his TED talks though unlike a lot of TED speakers his work as a medical doctor and statistician can stand on its own) has consistently argued that cynicism and ignorance have blinded us to massive improvements in many development statistics worldwide.
posted by Wretch729 at 11:37 AM on July 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
It kinda blew me away when they announced that Greek sculptures were originally painted very brightly.
And the withdrawal method is nearly as effective as using condoms.
posted by veery at 11:49 AM on July 6, 2015 [5 favorites]
And the withdrawal method is nearly as effective as using condoms.
posted by veery at 11:49 AM on July 6, 2015 [5 favorites]
Yet another dinosaur-related fact: Dimetrodon was not a dinosaur. It didn't even live in the same freaking era, having gone extinct about 40 million years before dinosaurs showed up.
...oh, snap, pterosaurs and ichthyosaurs aren't dinosaurs either!
posted by Metroid Baby at 11:59 AM on July 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
...oh, snap, pterosaurs and ichthyosaurs aren't dinosaurs either!
posted by Metroid Baby at 11:59 AM on July 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
I'm 31. If I write a note for someone five years younger (or more) than me at work, I have to print because there is a strong likelihood that they can't read cursive and will call me at home for an interpretation if nobody else is there who can read old-timer writing.
I was also specifically taught that the Civil War was about state's rights, of which slavery was only a small component. The US won both WW1 and WW2 with no help, and played a much bigger role in U-boat interception in the Atlantic than the British (no, really. Unfortunately I no longer have that textbook.) Walt Whitman never married, and nobody knows why. War bonds were very important, and paper drives and so forth won the war (turns out they were in many cases just a morale thing.) The US did a good thing by waging war against communism in Vietnam, and we can consider it a qualified win. There were no interesting developments between Civil Rights in the 60s (which solved that problem, thank goodness) and the present day.
I was taught to type on a typewriter for a couple weeks until computers were installed (we debated whether two spaces after a period were really necessary many times); we were assured nobody would ever need more than 60 WPM and that typing was key to a good job. I was also present for the transition from card catalogs to OPACs, and learned how to research and write citations manually vs with a computer.
In sex ed, I was taught that nonoxynyl-9 should be a component of every condom; this is not necessarily the case, as it can irritate the tissues more than it helps (particularly useless if neither party has sperm, but I am pretty sure sex ed today still has no content for non-hetero people, depending on where you are.)
You must have a complete protein at every meal, which is not true for everyone every time, and as mentioned above, the food pyramid guidelines have changed several times. Burnt toast can cause cancer. Smoking a pipe is safer than cigarettes or cigars, which I learned in health class. More than two ear piercings will make you unemployable.
posted by blnkfrnk at 12:07 PM on July 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
I was also specifically taught that the Civil War was about state's rights, of which slavery was only a small component. The US won both WW1 and WW2 with no help, and played a much bigger role in U-boat interception in the Atlantic than the British (no, really. Unfortunately I no longer have that textbook.) Walt Whitman never married, and nobody knows why. War bonds were very important, and paper drives and so forth won the war (turns out they were in many cases just a morale thing.) The US did a good thing by waging war against communism in Vietnam, and we can consider it a qualified win. There were no interesting developments between Civil Rights in the 60s (which solved that problem, thank goodness) and the present day.
I was taught to type on a typewriter for a couple weeks until computers were installed (we debated whether two spaces after a period were really necessary many times); we were assured nobody would ever need more than 60 WPM and that typing was key to a good job. I was also present for the transition from card catalogs to OPACs, and learned how to research and write citations manually vs with a computer.
In sex ed, I was taught that nonoxynyl-9 should be a component of every condom; this is not necessarily the case, as it can irritate the tissues more than it helps (particularly useless if neither party has sperm, but I am pretty sure sex ed today still has no content for non-hetero people, depending on where you are.)
You must have a complete protein at every meal, which is not true for everyone every time, and as mentioned above, the food pyramid guidelines have changed several times. Burnt toast can cause cancer. Smoking a pipe is safer than cigarettes or cigars, which I learned in health class. More than two ear piercings will make you unemployable.
posted by blnkfrnk at 12:07 PM on July 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
Hmm... the kids I know in late elementary/middle school write in cursive so maybe it made a comeback?
Also, TEAM PLUTO!
posted by TWinbrook8 at 12:38 PM on July 6, 2015
Also, TEAM PLUTO!
posted by TWinbrook8 at 12:38 PM on July 6, 2015
I was very disappointed to learn when I was an adult that "Ring Around the Rosy" was not, in fact, actually about the Black Death.
posted by holborne at 12:38 PM on July 6, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by holborne at 12:38 PM on July 6, 2015 [4 favorites]
There are at least four states of matter: solid, liquid, gas and plasma.
The tongue is not really divided up neatly into different taste sections.
Humans have more than five senses e.g. balance.
posted by NailsTheCat at 12:42 PM on July 6, 2015
The tongue is not really divided up neatly into different taste sections.
Humans have more than five senses e.g. balance.
posted by NailsTheCat at 12:42 PM on July 6, 2015
Around here in kindergarten they teach "Christopher Columbus was a bad man who was mean to the Indians."
posted by Andrhia at 1:18 PM on July 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Andrhia at 1:18 PM on July 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
My daughter began learning cursive in third grade this past year. So no, it's not totally gone.
posted by neilbert at 1:26 PM on July 6, 2015
posted by neilbert at 1:26 PM on July 6, 2015
My personal favs are "Columbus was a hero" and "We HAD to put the Japanese people in internment camps, and it all turned out okay in the end, didn't it?"
posted by Hermione Granger at 1:27 PM on July 6, 2015
posted by Hermione Granger at 1:27 PM on July 6, 2015
Fun facts from the human genome project: humans have roughly the same #genes as the fruit fly but 5x the #proteins because lots of our genes can make more than one protein.
We can turn genes "off" or "on" in our cells without altering the sequence, and those changes can be passed on to offspring, further muddying nature vs. nurture. On average more of your dad's genes are turned on and more of your mom's are turned off.
posted by estelahe at 2:28 PM on July 6, 2015
We can turn genes "off" or "on" in our cells without altering the sequence, and those changes can be passed on to offspring, further muddying nature vs. nurture. On average more of your dad's genes are turned on and more of your mom's are turned off.
posted by estelahe at 2:28 PM on July 6, 2015
These are a few things I learned in school that have been proven wrong (or questionable):
-Neanderthals pre-dated modern humans. Wrong! They actually co-existed and sometimes mated. Also I think it's Neandertal now, not -thal.
-The Clovis were the first to occupy the Americas. Wrong! The Americas were populated hundreds (maybe thousands?) of years before Clovis got here. BTW, watch PBS' new show "First Peoples" for more fun facts about early humans all over the world.
-Vincent Van Gogh committed suicide. Possibly wrong! Evidence suggests he was murdered.
And, yes, I agree about the book '1491' being full of interesting new info. My fave is that a few of the indigenous people that met the Pilgrims spoke English. One of them had even been to England!
posted by Soda-Da at 2:31 PM on July 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
-Neanderthals pre-dated modern humans. Wrong! They actually co-existed and sometimes mated. Also I think it's Neandertal now, not -thal.
-The Clovis were the first to occupy the Americas. Wrong! The Americas were populated hundreds (maybe thousands?) of years before Clovis got here. BTW, watch PBS' new show "First Peoples" for more fun facts about early humans all over the world.
-Vincent Van Gogh committed suicide. Possibly wrong! Evidence suggests he was murdered.
And, yes, I agree about the book '1491' being full of interesting new info. My fave is that a few of the indigenous people that met the Pilgrims spoke English. One of them had even been to England!
posted by Soda-Da at 2:31 PM on July 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
*Domain,* Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species is still correct. I now teach "Dear King Phillip Cried Out For Good Sex" to my university students. There have always been sub- or super-groups but things got switched around a bit as to what fits in which box. Most of the reorganization was because genetic sequencing got cheap.
Domain has three divisions. One is multicellular, the other two are microbes. One group we didn't realize existed up until a few decades ago because we didn't think life could exist in their normal operating conditions.
We still have no idea where to put viruses or indeed if we should even call them "alive."
posted by estelahe at 2:50 PM on July 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
Domain has three divisions. One is multicellular, the other two are microbes. One group we didn't realize existed up until a few decades ago because we didn't think life could exist in their normal operating conditions.
We still have no idea where to put viruses or indeed if we should even call them "alive."
posted by estelahe at 2:50 PM on July 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
About the Romans: my mother, a Geordie, was tickled later in life by the theory that pease pudden and stottie cake, those Geordie stalwarts, may have developed from proto humus and flat bread brought to Hadrian's Wall by Syrian legionaries.
Society progresses all the time and we're going to conquer world hunger, establish world peace, develop fair trade and live in a technological Utopia.
Humans, or at least men, are rational.
Emotions aren't scientific enough for a rational person to be swayed by. Actually I think this is a big one because I think research has shown decisions are only possible through the workings of emotion, or something.
posted by glasseyes at 4:21 PM on July 6, 2015 [2 favorites]
Society progresses all the time and we're going to conquer world hunger, establish world peace, develop fair trade and live in a technological Utopia.
Humans, or at least men, are rational.
Emotions aren't scientific enough for a rational person to be swayed by. Actually I think this is a big one because I think research has shown decisions are only possible through the workings of emotion, or something.
posted by glasseyes at 4:21 PM on July 6, 2015 [2 favorites]
What was I taught in grades K-12 that's now known to be complete horse-pucky?
That facts are facts, that right is right and wrong is wrong.
The most important thing you can teach kids about "the truth" is that it is fluid, as you can illustrate with most of the simple examples above. Things are not black and white. We learn something new and suddenly what we thought true seems false, and then true again as we learn yet another thing, and so on. What we know as absolute fact today may turn out to be a silly misunderstanding. We just do our best based on what we think we know at the time. History is particularly adjustable in this regard. We will always need a new crop of historians to write histories that suit their generation. The best (kindest, fairest, bravest, most generous) people in the world in 1940 would be judged harshly by today's generation, who will in term be judged harshly by later generations.
posted by pracowity at 2:42 AM on July 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
That facts are facts, that right is right and wrong is wrong.
The most important thing you can teach kids about "the truth" is that it is fluid, as you can illustrate with most of the simple examples above. Things are not black and white. We learn something new and suddenly what we thought true seems false, and then true again as we learn yet another thing, and so on. What we know as absolute fact today may turn out to be a silly misunderstanding. We just do our best based on what we think we know at the time. History is particularly adjustable in this regard. We will always need a new crop of historians to write histories that suit their generation. The best (kindest, fairest, bravest, most generous) people in the world in 1940 would be judged harshly by today's generation, who will in term be judged harshly by later generations.
posted by pracowity at 2:42 AM on July 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
That eye color is based on a simple genetic formula so that two green-eyes will almost always have green eye babies or two brown-eyes can't have a blue-eye - not true.
That girls and boys brains are exactly the same.
posted by RoadScholar at 5:33 AM on July 7, 2015
That girls and boys brains are exactly the same.
posted by RoadScholar at 5:33 AM on July 7, 2015
Watson and Crick took far more credit than they deserved for the discovery of the double-helix stucture of DNA: they cribbed a lot of their work from Rosalind Franklin, then set about defaming her after her death.
To my knowledge, it was only Watson who (famously) defamed Franklin in his book The Double Helix...... and beyond, illustrating up a pattern of paternalistic sexism that he's exhibited to this day (I know one of his old personal assistants!). In Crick’s objections, “The book was misleading and in bad taste. It doesn’t illuminate the process of science, rather distorts it.”
posted by lalochezia at 7:31 AM on July 7, 2015
Seasons are due to the distance of the Earth from the sun. Not. It's more from the tilt.
posted by plinth at 8:10 AM on July 7, 2015
posted by plinth at 8:10 AM on July 7, 2015
Besides Neanderthals, in the last decade archaeological evidence has been uncovered of what may be up to three other species of humans that co-existed with Homo sapiens sapiens (us): the Denisovans, the Red Deer Cave people, and Homo floresiensis. Neanderthals and Denisovans appear to have interbred with modern humans, with some people still carrying their genes today.
posted by XMLicious at 8:45 AM on July 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by XMLicious at 8:45 AM on July 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
How about the Rutherford-Bohr and Bohr-Sommerfeld models of the atom?
(Those are the ones that have the electrons as little balls in -- respectively -- circular or elliptical orbits around the nucleus. The iconic 1950s cartoon atom is based on this model.)
posted by sourcequench at 10:23 AM on July 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
(Those are the ones that have the electrons as little balls in -- respectively -- circular or elliptical orbits around the nucleus. The iconic 1950s cartoon atom is based on this model.)
posted by sourcequench at 10:23 AM on July 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
According to the very final piece in this episode of the BBC Radio programme Inside Science, to the extent the term "monkey" has any scientific meaning, under modern cladistics apes are monkeys. (As the host mentions, a common "gotcha" is to contradict anyone who refers to an ape as a monkey.)
posted by XMLicious at 3:37 AM on July 20, 2015
posted by XMLicious at 3:37 AM on July 20, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
- Pluto is no longer a planet.
- The food pyramid image has since been updated.
- Taste buds were divided into four or five regions on the tongue. Certain regions were responsible for tasting certain things.
Those are the big ones that immediately jumped into my mind.
Edit: Are kids even taught cursive writing anymore? Learning cursive was a Big Deal back in the day.
posted by Diskeater at 10:10 AM on July 6, 2015 [4 favorites]