# History fact check-What were you taught about Alan Turing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 25, 2025, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067 "2025-03-25T00:50:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/1 "2025-03-25T00:50:45Z")
When you went to junior high and/or high school, What (if anything) were you taught about Alan Turing? Were you taught about what he did, or about his sexuality, or about what was done to him. His name was never brought up in History when I went to school-what about you? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/2 "2025-03-25T01:03:10Z")
Never heard of him until much later, maybe college, maybe even after college (1989-1998 were my high school and college years, if useful.) ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/3 "2025-03-25T01:05:20Z")
Turing was barely mentioned in my high school classes and my parents (who lived and fought in WWII) never mentioned him. What little I got in school was there was a code breaking effort and Turing led it as regarded Enigma. No detail to speak of. I had to learn about him on my own later. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/4 "2025-03-25T01:05:33Z")
Nothing whatsoever was taught about him. I went to a pretty liberal high school in the late 80s/early 90s, with a PFLAG chapter and everything, and I don’t think we learned about any historical figure’s non-straightness. We also didn’t learn anything about early computing innovators; and we learned very little about Brits. Turing didn’t stand a chance. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/5 "2025-03-25T01:10:58Z")
I was taught nothing whatsoever about Turing in junior high or high school in the 1960’s. Though admittedly I wasn’t taught very much of anything else that happened after about 1930, either. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/6 "2025-03-25T01:12:24Z")
Nothing. Only read of him in _Omni_ or some other publication in reference to A.I. ---
**Author:** ![Reeses\_Monkey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reeses_monkey/32/2885_2.png) [@Reeses\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeses_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/7 "2025-03-25T01:15:20Z")
I don’t know where I heard of him but it certainly wasn’t in school. My high school to college years were 1983-1991. Both institutes of learning are in Pennsylvania, if that helps. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/8 "2025-03-25T01:15:44Z")
Same for me. First read about Turing in reference to code breaking during WWII. That war didn’t come up in school but we all had a comprehensive background from movies and TV shows, except for Turing. Learning about the history of computers the work of the Brits was usually glossed over in favor of US developments. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/9 "2025-03-25T01:16:20Z")
I was under the impression that Turing’s (and his Bletchley Park colleagues’) role in breaking the Enigma code was kept confidential until much later. So far the only cite I’ve been able to find is [this](https://www.britishlegion.org.uk/get-involved/remembrance/stories/alan-turing-legacy), which says > [@](#): > > Although his impact on computer science was widely acknowledged, it wasn’t until the 1990s that his role in cracking the Enigma code in the Second World War came to light. This would have been after my school years, so it’s not especially surprising that I didn’t hear about him in high school. I’m pretty sure I did encounter his name in some capacity (Turing test? Turing machines?) in college, perhaps in a computer science or cognitive psychology class. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/10 "2025-03-25T01:18:13Z")
I was in college when the big biography of Turing came out. I think my earliest exposure to him was in the works of Douglas Hostadter, which I read somewhat before the biography came out, but I could be wrong ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/11 "2025-03-25T01:20:15Z")
I was never taught anything about world affairs past the mid 1800s (almost entirely as to how it related to the colonization of America), and even with American history they never reached the 20th century. Even as a kid I was pretty sure they were trying to avoid anything relevant to the present as much as they could. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/12 "2025-03-25T01:29:12Z")
Yeah nothing at all (I did my A levels in the UK, the equivalent of senior year of high school, in 1994) I learned a whole bunch at university as I went to his alma mater, the university of Manchester. Neither was his sexuality glossed over as Manchester was famous for it’s LGBT community. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/13 "2025-03-25T01:33:10Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > I was taught nothing whatsoever about Turing in junior high or high school in the 1960’s. It should also be pointed out that no one outside the secret world of GCHQ (Britain’s NSA equivalent) knew about bletchley park and Turing’s part in it until the 1970s, when it was finally leaked to the public. Before that he would be completely unknown outside a handful of computer scientists. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/14 "2025-03-25T01:33:57Z")
What I don’t understand is why leadership of the British government/national security community who knew the importance of what he had done didn’t have a quiet word with the prosecutors to drop the charges against Turing. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/15 "2025-03-25T01:36:41Z")
Gratitude isn’t exactly a hallmark of government bureaucracy. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/16 "2025-03-25T01:36:57Z")
FWIW I was in high school from 1981 - 1985. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/17 "2025-03-25T01:38:39Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > I was never taught anything about world affairs past the mid 1800s (almost entirely as to how it related to the colonization of America), and even with American history they never reached the 20th century. Yikes! That was even worse than I got; we got up to WWI or so. Several times, IIRC, and then it was magically the end of the school year, and also probably of the textbooks we were using. Though it’s certainly true that “world history” was almost entirely the USA and selected portions of Europe, with a brief nod towards there being other continents in existence, mostly in terms of their eventual influence on the above. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/18 "2025-03-25T01:39:27Z")
I’m pretty sure I heard about him here on the Dope. Or maybe in a documentary. Certainly not in the worthless history classes I suffered thru. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/19 "2025-03-25T01:41:54Z")
There was also a major motion picture depicting his story in 2014 called, [“The Imitation Game”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Imitation_Game) with Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley. So, there’s that (although, don’t use Hollywood movies for a history lesson). ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067/20 "2025-03-25T01:42:12Z")
Certainly not in HS or college. I think I first heard of Turing not in connection with code-breaking, but rather his undecidability theorem (no program can detect infallibly which programs terminate.) A mathematician I knew somewhat worked during the war at Bletchly Park and would never, ever, to the end of his life, say a word about what he did there. He had sworn secrecy and obeyed that long after there was any need for secrecy. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/history-fact-check-what-were-you-taught-about-alan-turing/1016067.md?page=2)