There are a lot of things taught in schools that are not accurate—some more impactful than others. Although many are relatively harmless science misunderstandings such as how tastebuds work. Others are darker and insidious propaganda.
When we were young in elementary school it was taught that when Columbus and the pilgrims came and colonized America that they and the Indigenous societies worked together sitting down to a feast sharing knowledge and meals. Our teachers dressed us up in little offensive costumes to drive the point home. It wasn't true then but we did not know it.
Although most of the answers are a bit more light-hearted, it is important to remember that not everything taught is true.
No_Personality_2723 asked the community:
“What is something they taught you in elementary school that is not true anymore?"
The thread had so many relatable answers—80's/90's babies I'm looking at you!
*Scowls at smart phone*
“You won't always have a calculator on you to work things out!” avamissle
“I was told this in 6th grade in like 2014 by teacher holding her phone in her hand.” krezzaa
In the Wonder years…
High Five White Bread GIFGiphy"’Wonder Bread builds strong bodies in 12 ways.’ The cafeteria only served Wonder Bread and kept this slogan hanging on the wall to remind us ‘why.’ The FTC demanded an ad slogan be withdrawn after Wonder Bread added calcium (the 13th way) and claimed it improved children's brain function and memory.” Back2Bach
Wait…there wasn’t one?
“Any time we got in trouble it would be on our permanent record. And a permanent record.” the_loz3r
*Not* lifesaving advice…
“Running zig zag from an alligator will cause a gator to roll over. Of course, this was taught in Florida. Let me elaborate since I've had some people call BS on this and I'm just answering the topic honestly…"
“ 1. It was 1998. 2. 4th grade in Orlando. 3. The teacher was 65+ years old (I can't remember if she was born and raised in Florida; she had an Irish last name). 4. I am an army brat. We lived in another country prior to moving to Florida when I was in third grade."
“So I took it at face value at the time cause how was I supposed to know they were lying to us. 5. During a conversation with my younger cousins, this "fact" came up and not a single one of them ever heard it (they are 10 years younger than us) so I looked it up and found out we were duped." JukieJukes
“You will have to write everything in cursive one day. Outside of my signature I'm still waiting for the day I have to write anything in cursive!" VenatorDomitor
“For 12+ years I signed Tinker Bell on every single delivery invoice that came into my job. Thousands of them. No one said anything even once." Fun_Recording_4935
Can we agree to just throw the whole rule out?
“I before E except after C. In the UK schools aren't allowed to teach it anymore because there are more exceptions than words that follow it.” LR-II
“Because I agree that we shouldn't leave out words, I took a word list with 370101 words that I use for English language related scripting, and wrote a script to identify words that fit the ‘i before e’ rule and words that do not fit the rule.”
“There are 12816 ‘I before e except after c’ compliant words. There are 4841 non-compliant words. There are 114 words which follow the rule and break the rule.” Asteriad
That’s not how tongues work…
“We were taught that there are different 'zones' on the tongue for different tastes (sweet, salty, bitter etc.). Apparently this is bullsh*t.” smolspooderfriend
So many lies…
“The food pyramid.” Higbee9093
“The whole thing was ridiculous. The bottom of the pyramid recommended 11 servings of bread/cereal/rice/pasta.” blindsniperx
Yeahhhh, don’t do that…
“Look up when your nose is bleeding.” LIFESUCKS145
“Oh I hated being told this. I used to get nosebleeds all the time so it happened often. Like, sure, I'll look up but you should be warned that the blood will trickle down my throat and make me cough blood.” tetrapus—7243
“That animals like bears that go through hibernation are sleeping for weeks and months. They just slow down their metabolism." Heitus
“Bears are just sleepy during the winter to conserve energy, they're not true hibernators. You can wake them up pretty easily. Their heart rate and body temperature drops slightly while they sleep, but that's it."
“Woodchucks, for example, are true hibernators. Their body temperature goes from around 98°F to under 40°F, their heartbeat goes from around 80bpm to 5bpm or lower, and their continually-growing teeth pause their growth."
“They might get up every few weeks to snack and poop, but other than that you can't wake them up at all. Construction crews will sometimes find them, move them aside, and then put them back and re-bury them once they're done working, all without the woodchuck ever waking up." SpySauceSyringe
@trew_808/TikTok
@madisonleanne8/TikTok
@nanaonakawa/TikTok
@llamalexa/TikTok
@hisgirlfriday5/TikTok
@jblair1118/TikTok
@jaylauscher/X
@ChrisPorter22/X