What were you taught in school that has become disproven in your lifetime? Several teachings from my schooling are no longer valid. Here are 18 big ones. Do you already know these, or are you learning some of them for the first time? I’ll admit there were some on this list that I didn’t realize were false.
1. Running Out of Oil
Do you remember when 1970s experts predicted we would run out by 2000? It’s 2023, and it’s safe to say that the prediction didn’t pan out. To be fair, they thought we had reached peak oil. However, technological advances allowed them to find many more oil fields.
2. Lemmings Offing Themselves
Walt Disney’s 1958 White Wilderness has scenes depicting lemmings jumping off cliffs in masses, ultimately ending their lives. However, the lemmings’ scenes were faked!
Disney filmmakers couldn’t replicate the supposed real-life behavior of lemmings, so they threw them off the cliff to capture the epic “lemming migration” scenes! The nature documentary most certainly perpetuated this myth that people heard even in schools.
3. Nobody Is Above the Law
Did you grow up hearing that nobody is above the law? Power, money, badges, and politics proved that to be a falsehood, we all learn in adulthood. They still teach that nobody is above the laws of our “Great nation,” but it’s clear that’s not true.
4. Canadian Slavery
If you are a product of the American public school system, you may have grown up hearing that enslaved people in the U.S. fled to Canada. That way, they were outside America’s jurisdiction of recapturing and enslaving them. This helped to propagate the myth that Canadians didn’t enslave people on America’s end.
However, Canadians in the thread suggest it’s glossed over in their school system due to a technicality. Canada wasn’t a nation until 1867. Nevertheless, it was still the regions we know as Canada today.
5. The Food Pyramid
The USDA Food Pyramid they taught in schools isn’t accurate. I don’t know what would happen if we all ate 6-11 servings of pasta and whole grains daily. They altered the pyramid a couple of times before settling on the “new truth” called My Plate.
6. Devilish Left-Handed People
Have you ever heard that left-handedness is something of the devil? I have not, but it was indeed believed and taught as such. Time reports on an archived article: “In the Middle Ages, for instance, the left-hander lived in danger of being accused of practicing witchcraft,” the article explained.
“The Devil himself was considered a southpaw, and he and other evil spirits were always conjured up by left-handed gestures.” This meant that left-handed children were being forced to write with their right hands.
7. A Nine Planet Solar System
Did you grow up believing we lived in a nine-planet solar system that included Pluto? I did. Furthermore, sometimes it was the 9th, and sometimes it was the 8th planet, rotating with Uranus for those spots. This isn’t an entirely disproven teaching, as Pluto exists as a dwarf planet.
8. Civil War Bologna
Despite being taught that the Civil War was about States’ rights and not slavery, we’ve come to learn otherwise. It was about their rights. Their right to own enslaved people. Still, we live in a nation full of people who refuse to acknowledge the hate of the flag they swear is about their “culture.” Yeah. The culture of racism and losing.
9. Cold-Blooded Dinosaurs
Wow, I learned something new today. I grew up learning that dinosaurs were cold-blooded. Did you? The scientific consensus is now that most of them were warm-blooded. Learn something new every day.
10. Blue Blood
Many of us grew up being taught that our blood is blue until exposed to oxygen, where it then turns red. The veins in your body may appear deep blue or purple on your skin’s surface. But that’s not an indication of the color of the blood inside your veins.
11. Checks and Balances
Did you learn that the United States government prevents abuse of power through a well-engineered system of checks and balances? HA! Oh, they still teach that there are checks and balances in government that prevent autocratic gestures from presidents or Congress. But it’s complete bologna. They do as they please.
12. Cursive Writing
There was a time when they convinced us we would all need to know cursive writing. Even that print would be obsolete. However, technological advances took priority, and now many districts opt not to teach it all.
13. Five Senses
What? I’m feeling old. Like many of you reading, I was taught that we had five senses: Sight (Vision), Hearing (Auditory), Smell (Olfactory), Taste (Gustatory), and Touch (Tactile). However, it’s evolved to eight to twelve. According to USCDornsife, “Many philosophers and neuroscientists are debating whether we may have anywhere from 22 to 33 different senses.”
14. Tongue Taste Maps
YES! Do you remember the tongue taste maps? They informed us that different parts of your tongue were five different taste regions: Bitter, sour, umami, salty, and sweet. Turns out that’s not true. All tongue regions that detect taste respond to all five taste qualities.
15. Bad Fat
Remember when fat was deemed public enemy number one, and food manufacturers began making everything low-fat and non-fat? The New York Times reports: “The sugar industry paid scientists in the 1960s to play down the link between sugar and heart disease and promote saturated fat as the culprit instead.” Now, everything is filled with sugar, the real offender.
16. Permanent Records
How many of us were terrified that our permanent records would follow us into adulthood? Do they still teach kids this? It’s true that for college admissions, a record is important. But they had us believing we wouldn’t get jobs or buy houses if our name was put on the blackboard too many times!
17. George Washington’s Teeth
George Washington having wood teeth (dentures) is a myth still circulating today. However, it’s much worse. His dentures were made from carved hippopotamus ivory, human teeth, and brass nails. Not just human teeth. He took the teeth of some of his enslaved people.
18. Christopher Columbus Discovered the New World
They painted Christopher Columbus as some godlike explorer who discovered the “New World.” However, it’s the consensus of scholars that Leif Erickson first came from overseas to America. Columbus wasn’t even the first European to discover what we know as the Americas.
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Elizabeth Ervin is the owner of Sober Healing. She is a freelance writer passionate about opioid recovery and has celebrated breaking free since 09-27-2013. She advocates for mental health awareness and encourages others to embrace healing, recovery, and Jesus.