I don’t ever remember not knowing.
Ooh, mixing wolves and dolphins must be tough. 
That’s what I returned to say, although I didn’t know about that specific example. But I’ve read that it’s not all that uncommon for female mules to get pregnant, if they aren’t kept from males of similar species (which they usually are) and that the fertility of male mules is not well understood because they are almost always castrated as colts.
I knew they were a hybrid very early on, probably around the same time I learned what horses and donkeys were.
I don’t remember when I first learned that they were sterile. I know I first understood why in Jr High biology classes, but I’m pretty sure I knew they were sterile before that.
The fellow was no great shakes as a teacher – often ill-informed, usually not open to engaging in dialogue, and in truth, a good deal less funny and witty than he fancied himself as being. On the Dope, he’d probably have been one of the site’s dimwits and figures of ridicule. After digesting his informational gem; I figured that he must mean it in terms of trying to match mule to mule, and getting no offspring (as per my bolding above) – it did occur to me that “breeding mules” could equally mean the necessary donkey-and-horse getting-together. Any attempt to voice this observation to our would-be comedian Mr. Burrell, would just have been blown off by him: it wouldn’t have been worth trying.
My family used to breed mules- they were out of the game by the time I was around, but one of the old mules was around- so I knew very early they couldn’t have babies. (Though I did know that there were very rare exceptions.)
Breeding the donkey and the mare is a very difficult thing, btw. I’ve never seen it done, but I know it takes some skill, wine, and a lot of Barry White music.
I was about 10 or 11. I believe I was watching the Beverly Hillbillies and Jed Clampett said something about someone buying a pair of breeding mules. My mother found that funny and I asked her why.
Less than 10. I had a couple reading primer type books that were collections of stories and grade-school level science essays. One of them was about horses, donkeys, mules, zebras and other equines.
I must have been 10 and at summer camp. During horseback riding we always had lots of questions for the wranglers and I’m sure donkey and mule parentage came up then. It was when we also learned that when a mule farts half a dozen times in a row that Steve Stolje will laugh hard enough to fall off his horse.
Do you mind my asking, what country are you in? In the UK, “suffragette” is a pretty well-known word – “all over” I think – from the campaigners here a hundred years ago, and their doings (perhaps the film Mary Poppins has also helped with that). Were activists for women’s suffrage in the USA, also called “suffragettes” (I’m just curious)?
Well, I’m 68 and I just learned it. Not many mules in Maine and I don’t think Ronald Reagan ever mentioned it when he narrated for 20 mule team borax!
Heh. It also helps to use a taller than average donkey.
Around 12 - 13, during my standard geeky kid Asimov phase, from the Foundation book Nemo mentioned.
If it weren’t for that I’d probably still assume that mules are some type of donkey. Hey, I didn’t learn that only female mosquitoes bite until a couple of years ago.
In the U.S. “suffrage” is an archaic term that is pretty much reserved only for the women’s vote movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Other right-to-vote movements were called other things, like “enfranchisement” or simply “voting rights.”
Someone daydreaming that day in American History class might have missed hearing the term entirely.
Around 11 or so. I found it quite disconcerting. I thought a mule was a species of animal, just like a donkey or goat or whatever. And that little mules came from mama mules.
I’m American. I knew what women’s suffrage meant from the time I was youngish, but the suffragettes, with the arrests and the force feeding, that was news to me. Really, my knowledge of world history is very spotty, even UK history. Chances are, if it’s not in a movie, I know very little about it. I’ve learned more history from Doctor Who than I ever learned from Mrs. R’s 10th grade history class. Sad, I know.
Anyway, sorry to hijack.
Let’s see, I was in the back room of a dive bar, so I must have been at least 21.
Probably in high school biology
It’s not like I knew anything about mules or donkeys or horses anyway
I never lived on a farm
I think most of us – unless we specialised in history in our senior years at school – learned more history from informal sources, than we ever did in school ! That goes for me, very certainly.
I actually liked history when I was in school. It was my favorite class. But generally speaking all I learned was what was in the course curriculum. It wasn’t until after I had left school that I began reading history books just for pleasure.