Top Ten Lies Your Teachers Told You in School
10. The Peppered Moth
Via bbc.co.uk
Lie Told
The peppered moths of Britain evolved from light to dark because of the pollution caused by the industrial revolution.
Why It Is a Lie
Teachers love this little story because it makes it so easy for students to understand the concept. The image of the light and dark moths on light and dark surfaces is simple to grasp. Too bad the tale is more black and white than the moths.
Peppered moths came in a variety of shades, from light to dark and have existed as such since before the industrial revolution. By oversimplifying the situation, natural selection is painted as a life-or-death situation.
Why It Shouldn’t Change
Middle school students don’t really need to grasp the complexities of natural selection. Further explanation in later grade levels builds on this basic, but not complete concept.
9. Van Gogh’s ear
Lie Told
Crazy Vincent Van Gogh cut off his ear and gave it to a girl as a token of his love. Did we mention that he was crazy?
Why It Is a Lie
While the crazy part is a fact, and the gift giving part may be true, Van Gogh did not cut off his own ear. He actually lost it in a fight with friend and fellow artist, Paul Gauguin.
Why It Should Change
People don’t need to think Van Gogh was crazier than he was.
8. The Scientific Method
Via Sciencebuddies.org
Lie Told
Scientists follow a rigid procedure called the “scientific method” for every experiment conducted.
Why It Is a Lie
There is no one method or procedure. Science isn’t a wash, rinse, repeat kind of thing. While hypothesis-experiment-conclusion is a method used by scientists, it is one of many.
Why It Should Change
By telling such a lie, children are led to believe that there is no creativity or imagination in science.
7. Pocahontas
Lie Told
Pocahontas was an adult Powhattan princess who saved John Smith’s life and later fell in love with him.
Why It Is a Lie
First and foremost, Pocahontas was twelve at the time that John Smith and his crew landed in the New World. That takes care of the adult and, hopefully, the romance pieces of this tale. Furthermore, there were no witnesses to the part about her saving John Smith’s life. Last but not least, John Smith had a well recorded tendency to exaggerate and embellish stories.
Why It Shouldn’t Change
The Disney remake would be far less magical.
6. Salem Witch Trials
Lie Told
Witches were burned at the stake in Salem, MA.
Why It Is a Lie
While many accused witches were burned at the stake in England, British law did not allow the punishment in their colonies. Instead, witches were hanged if they managed to survive death row.
Why It Shouldn’t Change
The method of death is far less important than the reasons for the deaths. While factually inaccurate, the important information about the events doesn’t have to do with the manner of death.
5. The Founding Fathers’ religious beliefs
Via wilsonsalmanac.com
Lie Told
The Founding Fathers were all Christians.
Why It Is a Lie
The Founding Fathers held a wide array of religious beliefs, ranging from Christianity to Deism. Thomas Jefferson rejected the concept of the Trinity and loathed the idea of a national religion. Benjamin Franklin and John Adams were Deists.
Why It Should Change
It is important that the reality of our founding fathers beliefs be understood, but it is most important that the emphasis of the separation of church and state be taught.
4. Ben Franklin and the Kite
Via ushistory.org
Lie Told
Benjamin Franklin discovered electricity by flying a kite in a lightning storm and, subsequently, getting struck by lightning.
Why It Is a Lie
While Benjamin Franklin did propose the idea of a kite experiment, he never actually went through with it. If he had, he would likely have died.
Why It Shouldn’t Change
Children already know being struck by lightning will kill you. They can keep this story.
3. George Washington and the Cherry Tree
Lie Told
Little George Washington chopped down his father’s cherry tree. When called out on it, he confessed to being a pint-sized pain in the butt.
Why It Is a Lie
George Washington’s biographer inserted the made-up story, and other tall tales of the late President, into his two books. He did this, presumably, for his own amusement.
Why It Shouldn’t Change
Ironically, it teaches kids that they shouldn’t lie.
2. Thanksgiving
Lie Told
The Native Americans and Pilgrims had a potluck dinner/lovefest filled with fat turkeys and corn. Everyone lived happily ever after.
Why It Is a Lie
The entire story is a romanticized version of history. While the Pilgrims and Native Americans did break bread many times, it was never a tradition or annual occurrence.
Why It Should Change
Learning the reality of the relationship between the Pilgrims and the Native Americans would give students a better historical insight into the foundations of America, and the impact of our arrival here on the Native American way of life.
1. Newton and the Apple
Via telegraph.co.uk
Lie Told
Isaac Newton discovered the law of gravity when an apple fell on his head.
Why It Is a Lie
This story was never mentioned by Newton. It didn’t come into existence until around sixty years after it allegedly happened. The lie was first told by John Conduitt, who was most likely using the apple as a literary device. The part about the apple viciously attacking Newton’s noggin was added later.
Why It Shouldn’t Change
It gives children hope that one day they could have that “lightbulb moment” just like one of mankind’s geniuses.
Lie Told
The primary colors are red, yellow, and blue.
Why It Is a Lie
Although this lie is the basis of a classic art lesson in color mixing, the primary colors of pigment are actually cyan, yellow, and magenta. Over 100 years ago, color expert A. H. Munsell mentioned this flawed color mixing lesson in his book “A Color Notation”: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/26054/26054-h/26054-h.htm#appIII
Yet it is still a part of art teacher’s lesson plans to this day.
Why It Should Change
It’s like starting basic arithmetic with the lesson that 1+1=3. I presume the lie persists because it’s an easy demonstration that gets the general idea of color mixing across, and doesn’t use colors that small children are unfamiliar with (cyan and magenta).
The item on Van Gogh is totally false. Van Gogh absolutely did cut off part of his own ear – after having threatened Gauguin earlier. He handed the severed part to a prostitute for “safekeeping”, not as a love offering. He was absolutely suffering from mental illness at this time.
If you’re going to pose as a debunkler of myths you might want to check your facts first.
5. The Founding Fathers’ religious beliefs
While it is true they were not “Christians” by today’s standard, they were Deists (belief in a deity), and believed in a CREATOR, who many call GOD.
Benjamin Franklin started the tradition of opening Congressional sessions with PRAYER to GOD. He was baptized in Boston, Mass. Franklin felt that organized religion was necessary to keep men good to their fellow men, but rarely attended religious services himself.
very interesting .. haha the apple one was hilarious
RE: Primary Colors:
That’s the worst analogy I’ve ever seen.
If I mix blue and yellow = Green. Tada! The basic concept works to teach children. BRY works just fine for children and adults. There’s no huge social consequence for using BRY. Just give it up.
This is NOT like teaching kids 1+1=3.
It’d be more like saying we teach kids: 1/3=.333 and 2/3 = .667. It’s not quite right, but it’s close enough for now. When they get older, we’ll teach them about .333… and .666…
Umm, the founding fathers were largely Christian. Do a quick google search on the subject and you will see that the large majority were in identifiable denominations.
The truth is that nearly everyone misrepresents the founding father’s faiths to make points about what direction we should take the country in today (from atheist to fundamentalist). The first amendment is the important word on the subject.
Actually the scientific method is not a lie and hypothesis driven science is the only way to get funded in the biomedical field. The idea that it takes the creativity and imagination out of science is a lie. The only thing missing is that before the idea is an observation that sparks curiosity, the question and eventual hypothesis. And it should not change because it teaches observation and curiosity as well as a thought out and controlled way of discovering the natural world.
Using a lie to teach children is awful, no matter how good the intention. Peppered moths? Please, if you can’t think of a true example of adaptation to exemplify it, then you shouldn’t be teaching.
And teaching children the separation of church and state? Maybe we can start by teaching that the phrase “separation of church and state” appears no where in the constitution, and where we get this idea is from a relatively recent ruling by the supreme court that interpreted the first amendment, which in part states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”, which is not the same as “separation of church and state”.
Lie: The USA is not a class-based society.
Ample proof for those seeking it that the USA is very class oriented.
One:
“There’s class warfare, all right, Mr. (Warren) Buffett said, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”
What’s with all these crappy posts?
@Matt
What are you, some sort of religious zealot?
Lie Told:
1) George W Bush was a horrible president
2) Obama will save us all
Why it’s a lie:
They both aren’t that great, but are trying their best with the mess they were handed them
“The Founding Fathers held a wide array of religious beliefs, ranging from Christianity to Deism.”
My research on this showed that as far as can be told they were all either Christians or Deists — roughly 90% Christian and 10% Deists (being very generous with the Deists there.) So to say the Founding Fathers were all Christians certainly is not true. However it is a pretty accurate generalization since the overwhelming majority were. And they were all united on preventing another “Church of England” debacle from happening in their new country.
The scientific method works fine for hard science, just not social science. People just want to publish their own beliefs and select a sample that will produce those results. They often support their own theses by taking quotes out of context to prove their point,even if the overall conclusion of the original is completely against what they are trying to prove. I’m not saying that this doesn’t happen in hard sciences, but you can track the lie down pretty quick by repeating the experiment. I guess it is like quantum physics in that even trying to measure something will skew the results lol.
They should all be changed. It is a disgusting thing to teach anyone lies. I strongly protest your condoning some of these lies.
Uhm, the peppered moth story is not a lie. None of my teachers ever claimed that darker moths magically appeared due to evolution. Rather, they used it as a clear example of what evolution is — the change of a gene frequency in a population. In areas where industrial pollution darkened trees, populations of darker moths increased, because they were more likely to leave offspring. We were never told the moths “evolved” from light to dark or vice versa; we were taught that this was an observed example of one of the predictions of evolution, that if a trait is advantageous, it tends to spread.
It is oversimplified because it is rare traits are so boolean and there are often multiple overlapping factors determining survival, but it’s in no way false or deceptive.
The information you presented as a fact about Van Gogh’s ear is not conclusive. Please see this article:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103990820
Primary colors are red, green, and blue. RGB.
is Christians and deists really that “wide an array”
How about the teacher’s lie that any theory or belief is just as valid as any other?
“Relativity applies to Physics, not Ethics” — Albert Einstein
In regards to Ben Franklin being a Deist, he was throughout most of his life but towards his last few years he became extremely religious and like “Ura dumbfark” (haha, great name) said, he promoted the idea of having a pastor come in and pray before every meeting. However, this idea was discarded then because of the expenses of hiring said preacher.
There is no excuse for ever teaching children something that is false in school.
My teacher didn’t outright lie, but he did skip the end of the vietnam and korean wars so he didn’t have to say the US retreated. But he did say the Confederate army didn’t lose….
To commenter above, yes there is a major distinction between Deist and Christian. Deists reject all religious dogma, merely accepting that the idea of a creator is possible, as opposed to the universe itself being infinite and eternal (atheism). Deists also believe that said ‘possible’ creator has no involvement in our lives in the form of miracles, laws, morals, and salvation. So yea… major distinction.
It’s not taught that they peppered moths ‘evolved’, it’s that natural selection occurred when the environment changed. Everything became darker as a result of pollution, and so the darker moths (which HAD been there the whole time) were better camouflaged than the lighter ones.
Also, even if it isn’t directly mentioned in the constitution, separation of church and state is something every country should strive for.
The peppered moth is actually an accurate portrayal of natural selection. You don’t understand how evolution works if you think that the statement “Peppered moths came in a variety of shades, from light to dark and have existed as such since before the industrial revolution” debunks anything but your own intelligence.
There are different sets of primary colors, depending upon the application, and whether they are additive or subtractive. The traditional set of red, yellow, blue was the basis in art, predating printing presses and far predating illuminated digital imaging. After technology came into its own, different sets came about – CMY(K), RYB, RGB. Early photography used orange, green, violet, with a certain negative amounts of those allowed for greater range.
The truth is that there is no “One” set any longer. It depends upon the application.
There is no excuse for letting lies persist. Teach kids some other way.
No witches were burned at the stake in England.This is just a reversal of the original lie that it happened at Salem started – like many others – by a dislike of the colonials breaking away from the Crown. Swapping the locations doesn’t make it any more true than the original.
There were boilings and suchlike in Europe (which is where all the voodoo crap csme from) but not England.
Oh, and America is named after Robert Ameryck, a Bristolian merchant, not Amerigo Vespucci, a lowly cartographer of limited skill.
Mohicans didn’t have that hairstyle, Confederate soldiers started the whole scalping thing, crucifixion was used by ancient Egyptians (and, possibly independently, Mongolians), etc., etc..
Also on the Salem witch trials, the parents of the girls making the accusations had land disputes with the people being accused…it was about greed.
For additive combination of colors, as in overlapping projected lights or in CRT displays, the primary colors normally used are red, green, and blue. For subtractive combination of colors, as in mixing of pigments or dyes, such as in printing, the primaries normally used are cyan, magenta, and yellow, though the set of red, yellow, blue is popular among artists.
The peppered moth is an example of natural selection in action, pure and simple. It doesn’t prove evolution and shouldn’t be used in an attempt to do so, but it does prove natural selection–though pretty much everyone knows that natural selection is real (evolution is what the religious folks have a problem with, not natural selection. Natural selection doesn’t explain, by itself, how one species can evolve into a genetically incompatible one.)
Alright… Pocahontas… 12 years old was of marrying age back then. Try reading Little House on the Prarie if you need lower lvl reading to help you learn.
Also, John Smith ordered Pocahontas kidnapped and used her as a leverage to bargain corn with the natives. :-)
Yesterday I saw a dead groundhog at the side of I69 in rural Indiana It was totally black … Err there is NO polluting homogenistic global climate change type industry within 150 miles So smoke causes ? what ?
Geez people. Green is not now, nor has it ever been a PRIMARY color. Primary colors are not made of other colors. Green is a composite of blue and yellow. Blue is blue. It is only made of blue, which makes it primary. Red is red and yellow is yellow. You could argue that Black and White are also primary but you’d be wrong, as black is the absence of all color, and white (light) is the composite all colors of the spectrum.
Rainbows go from absence of color to all color, which is why after white, the first color is red (Primary) then orange because it is transitioning to yellow (Orange being made of red and yellow) then from yellow to green (yup a composite) to blue! then blue to indigo, which is blue getting darker as it collects all the other colors, and lands on black.
Is that so hard to understand?
I am an elementary school teacher and a Master’s student. It’s funny that this article comes up because we were just talking about the scientific method in my research methods course. As part of my degree, I have to conduct research, and the fist thing my professor said is, “Remember all that stuff you learned about the scientific method in High School? It’s crap!” Obviously, the scientific method as we were taught is legitimate, but it is just one of many ways that research is conducted.
The other things I more or less knew, especially the one about Pocahontas.
what about christopher columbus discovered America and gutemberg invented printing ? that would be my number 1 and 2
Lying isn’t bad. I lie to my kids about Santa. I lie to them when I want to protect or inspire them. The difference is that I’m lie not for me, but for them.
For those who consider the founding fathers religious, here are some quotes.
Lighthouses are more helpful than churches – Ben Franklin
Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity – Thomas Jefferson
Let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religions – George Washington
If they were religious, they sure didn’t show it.
Not that big a difference between Deists and Christians? They’re as different as Jew and Christian, Muslem and Christian, or Christian and Hindu. They don’t believe in Christ as God. They don’t believe in organized prayer, doctrine, or religious establishments. And maybe you feel comfortable today lumping the Baptists, Protestants, Anglicans, and Catholics all into the same broad category of Christianity. Rest assured these people were coming from a place where identifying yourself as a believer in one sect of Christianity could have the same effect as proclaiming yourself a Muslim in Jerusalem today.
The idea that “separation of church and state” is a modern phrase created by the Supreme Court comes from someone that never read that ruling and learned that they were quoting Thomas Jefferson and that his wording was inspired by James Madison’s recorded statements in the House of Representatives during the debate of the drafting of the First Amendment. So what if the words never appear in the Constitution or Bill of Rights, we can document the INTENT of the Amendment was clearly to create a “wall of separation between church and state”.
And primary colors RYB, CMYK, or RGB? It all depends on what you are discussing, additive or primary, traditional or modern four color subtractive.
Read well-researched work to learn facts, not garbage on Yahoo that does not cite any sources. Van Gogh certainly did cut off his own ear. George and the cherry tree is folklore, as is Franklin and the kite. They are stories used to illustrate a point, not lies to deceive the public for some nefarious reson. The scientific method is used all the time. Ridiculous. Who writes this crap?
Ben Franklin was a deist, John Adams was a full blown Christian. Of this, there can be no doubt.
Speaking of lies….
Here’s the biggest lie in modern times.
“Fox News is Fair & Balanced”
I must have missed all these lies or I had very honest teachers that actually taught and gave one the opprotunity to have a good education. I have heard all of these stories but never from any educator. The problem with todays world is that if they revamped the educational system back to the 40′s, 50′s, or 60′s it would take it twenty years to catch on that most of the educated idiots graduating today don’t know shit! Colleges inflate the grading system. The “No Child Left Behind” project gives a child a education that he/she can screw off and yet graduate. What amazes me is no mental math, spelling (just check on here and we all have a spell-check), the sciences, basically just the three “R’s” are a thing of the past and this country and a lot of it’s citizens shows it. How do I come to these conclusions? I worked for a school district, taught at a college, and have lived it. Higher education at work? Look at the shape our country is in. So much for higher education! Most parents and educators have lost control. Not only for the childs welfare and education but for future generations to come. Hell! Does anyone out there remember a book?
You forgot an important lie – that slavery was more about race than economic class.
In fact:
There were 4 white slaves for every black 1 in the American colonies – “White Cargo: The Forgotten History of Britain’s White Slaves in America” by Don Jordan and Michael Walsh;
“Eighteenth-Century White Slaves: Fugitive Notices; Volume I, Pennsylvania, 1729-1760 (Documentary Reference Collections)” by Daniel Meaders
Half of all indentured servants never lived to see their freedom – “They Were White and They Were Slaves: The Untold History of the Enslavement of Whites in Early America” by Michael A. Hoffman II
Africans enslaved Europeans first – “Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast and Italy, 1500-1800 (Early Modern History)” by Robert C. Davis;
“White Slaves, African Masters: An Anthology of American Barbary Captivity Narratives” by Paul Baepler
The word “slave” comes from the word “Slav”, a group of whites more enslaved throughout history than any other people – The Dictionary
Death: Humans need fantasy to *be* human. To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape.
Susan: With tooth fairies? Hogfathers?
Death: Yes. As practice, you have to start out learning to believe the little lies.
Susan: So we can believe the big ones?
Death: Yes. Justice, mercy, duty. That sort of thing.
Susan: They’re not the same at all.
Death: You think so? Then take the universe and grind it down to the finest powder, and sieve it through the finest sieve, and then show me one atom of justice, one molecule of mercy. And yet, you try to act as if there is some ideal order in the world. As if there is some, some rightness in the universe, by which it may be judged.
Susan: But people have got to believe that, or what’s the point?
Death: You need to believe in things that aren’t true. How else can they become?
Ghoti: “pigment” is not the same as the color of Light. It is the color of Light that gives us the RBG color wheel. Pigment is, in fact, Red Blue Yellow, as anyone with a set of paints can tell you.
The biggest lie is about the US and the VietNam war. The US lost. Get used to it.
“Lies make baby Jesus cry”
- Todd Flanders
“[The story of Newton and the apple] gives children hope that one day they could have that “lightbulb moment” just like one of mankind’s geniuses.”
That’s a terrible lesson to teach, because it gives the wrong idea of how great ideas form. Real genius doesn’t happen like in the movies, where someone is staring into space and suddenly a solution pops into their head fully formed. Geniuses work hard, learn everything about their subject until they understand it inside out, and eventually can distill some new insight. Giving kids the idea that great ideas are a matter of luck, or of some special quality that smart people inherently have, promotes laziness. It discourages them from putting in the effort that could actually lead to progress.
The problem with the Newton story isn’t that he didn’t get hit on the head, it’s that there was no “light bulb moment”. Newton worked on the problem of universal gravitation for more than 20 years before he was able to show that the same force that pulled apples to the ground was sufficient to explain the orbit of the moon and planets.