# Myths you were taught in school **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 12, 2005, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-you-were-taught-in-school/325952 "2005-10-12T20:15:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-you-were-taught-in-school/325952/41 "2005-10-13T03:49:53Z")
In school I learned that during WWII, the King of Denmark wore a yellow star, in protest of Danish Jews being forced to wear the yellow star. I only recently learned this was a myth. This made me a little sad, I liked that story. Apparently Danish Jews weren’t forced to wear the Star of David in the first place, although their lives were certainly in peril, and King Christian took other opportunities to tell the Nazis to shove it, so that’s all good. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-you-were-taught-in-school/325952/42 "2005-10-13T03:51:08Z")
That electrial wires are multi stranded because the electricity flows on the surface, and so lots of thin wires carry more than one thick wire. ---
**Author:** ![GrizzRich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7ba0ec/32.png) [@GrizzRich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrizzRich)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-you-were-taught-in-school/325952/43 "2005-10-13T03:59:23Z")
I’ve mentioned it here before… During the Civil War, the battle of the ironclads took place in Hampton Roads between the _Monitor_ and the _Merrimac_. The _USS Merrimac_ was a ship that was burned by Union troops to prevent it’s inevitable capture by Confederate forces. The ship burned to the water-line. Confederate forces captured it, rebuilt and plated it, and named it the _CSS Virginia_. Worse yet, this teaching took place in Hampton VA. The waters in which the battle took place was within sight of my father’s office. Even worse yet, a bridge-tunnel was built across the James River (oddly, NOT the bridge closest to the battle) and it was originally to be named the _James River Bridge-Tunnel_. Shortly before opening, it was re-named the _Monitor Merrimac Bridge Tunnel_. Would you believe the officials responsible for naming the facility knew the correct names of the ships, yet [named it improperly anyway!](http://www.roadstothefuture.com/I664_VA_MMMBT_Aerial.html) ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-you-were-taught-in-school/325952/44 "2005-10-13T06:39:25Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > That electrial wires are multi stranded because the electricity flows on the surface, and so lots of thin wires carry more than one thick wire. I thought that was true. ☹ One of my teachers complained that she got a raise and her take home pay went down because it put her in a higher tax bracket. My father, an accountant, was really pissed when he heard that and went on to describe marginal tax rate in great detail. I also had a teache who claime that no acid could eat through glass. I asked him why flouric acid was kept in beeswax bottles. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-you-were-taught-in-school/325952/45 "2005-10-13T06:56:18Z")
> [@HubZilla](#): > > That whites went in a kidnapped the slaves from Africa (like in Roots) It’s been years since I saw it, but I believe _Roots_ agrees with you: Kunte Kinte was captured first by African slavers, who later sold him to the white men (IIRC). Regarding the Columbus myth, I always have to point out that while he may not have been the first European to come here, his voyage was still the event that led to a permanent presence of European-descended people, and thence to the founding of virtually all the nation states in the New World. St. Brendan may have been to America in the 7th century, and Leif Erikson came in 1000, but those voyages ultimately amounted to nothing, and diminished almost to the point of myth. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-you-were-taught-in-school/325952/46 "2005-10-13T07:02:12Z")
> [@Millit the Frail](#): > > I had a teacher for third grade who couldn’t read. I corrected her several times, but she always told me she was right. She would insert letters that didn’t belong into words and had little grasp of phonics for figuring out how to say proper names. She prounouced a certain famous book “The **Genius** Book of World Records.” I had an anthropology teacher in my senior year of high school who was something like that. What’s weird about it, however, is that he was actually a very good teacher and the class was almost like a college level course. But with certain words or names he just couldn’t or wouldn’t pronounce all the syllables. So the macaque monkey became a “macque monkey”. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-you-were-taught-in-school/325952/47 "2005-10-13T07:16:49Z")
> [@Millit the Frail](#): > > I had a teacher for third grade who couldn’t read. I corrected her several times, but she always told me she was right. She would insert letters that didn’t belong into words and had little grasp of phonics for figuring out how to say proper names. She prounouced a certain famous book “The **Genius** Book of World Records.” I remember feeling the same way about my 10th grade chemistry teacher. He said more things wrong than right - the only one I remember now was that he changed Democritus’s name to “Democrates.” Made me wonder if he’d even read the textbook. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-you-were-taught-in-school/325952/48 "2005-10-13T08:52:16Z")
That red is the hottest colour. That Hitler would have gone on to kill Asians if he ever managed to finish with the Jews. That “artist” isn’t a _real_ job (the teacher said all artists actually had office jobs and just drew in their spare time) Nothing too scandalous. Maybe we live in enlightened times. ---
**Author:** ![Nilor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a4c791/32.png) [@Nilor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nilor)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-you-were-taught-in-school/325952/49 "2005-10-13T10:09:20Z")
> [@](#): > > We were taught that Bernoulli’s principle was the main reason that airplanes fly…because of lift. If anyone happens to be interested in more information about this (heh) there is quite a lengthy description of it here: [Coanda Effect](http://jef.raskincenter.org/published/coanda_effect.html) And the reason isn’t angle of attack, though it’s important. Pertaining to the topic…hmm Ah, who am I kidding, I don’t remember anything of what I was taught…I tend to block that out 😉 ---
**Author:** ![AngelicGemma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/439d5e/32.png) [@AngelicGemma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelicGemma)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-you-were-taught-in-school/325952/50 "2005-10-13T10:21:09Z")
I went to a Church of England primary school. So the myth I was taught was that whole “God” thing. Of course, that’s always up for debate. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Fortean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/96bed5/32.png) [@Fortean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fortean)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-you-were-taught-in-school/325952/51 "2005-10-13T10:44:33Z")
The whole thing about how haemoglobin is blue, and turns red when it comes into contact with oxygen, so you bleed red, and veins going to the heart are blue, while aorta coming from the heart are red, because they have picked up oxygen along the way. Actually, now I write that, I’m confused. Is that the real explanation or the myth? Somebody help me out here! ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-you-were-taught-in-school/325952/52 "2005-10-13T11:12:23Z")
We were told in 7th grade, by Sister Patricia Marie no less, that you could become pregnant if you held hands with a boy. My then-best friend - the youngest of 15 - and I eyed each other and she said, " I don’t think that’s how it works." ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-you-were-taught-in-school/325952/53 "2005-10-13T12:05:05Z")
I learned not to trust my grammar-school science teachers, who obviously had no idea what they were talking about: 1.) Robins have red breasts because their blood shows through their skin 2.) You get malaria from mosquitos laying their eggs in youer blood 3.) Airplanes don’t flu because of Bernoulli’s Principle, or any highfalutin’ “angle of attack” stuff. They float on a cushion of air. Even at the time I knew better than that. I learned to just ignore them. In addition, they tried to tell us tha George Washington threw a dollar across the Potomac. we knew that it wouldn’t really get very far, unless you folded it into a paper airplane! ---
**Author:** ![Taran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@Taran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taran)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-you-were-taught-in-school/325952/54 "2005-10-13T13:46:03Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > In addition, they tried to tell us tha George Washington threw a dollar across the Potomac. we knew that it wouldn’t really get very far, unless you folded it into a paper airplane! I’ve heard of this myth a few times, but never been taught it. Why would George Washington want to throw a dollar across the Potomac in the first place? ---
**Author:** ![TwoTrouts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a9adbd/32.png) [@TwoTrouts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwoTrouts)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-you-were-taught-in-school/325952/55 "2005-10-13T14:19:44Z")
That the Pilgrims were a gentle, wrongly persecuted people who, upon landing at Plymouth Rock, set up a society that would become the modern USA. Oh, and they were freinds with the Native Americans. Turns out that they were a dour, cold group of cultists who would be barely tolerated in today’s society. They did not celebrate Christmas, they stole from the Indians, and the first thanksgiving occured years earlier at Jamestown. I have since always considered Jamestown as the start of the USA. ---
**Author:** ![cowgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@cowgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cowgirl)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-you-were-taught-in-school/325952/56 "2005-10-13T14:27:25Z")
I was taught about the experiment involving industrial melanism and the peppered moth - “evolution in action” - numerous times in high school and university (!) biology. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-you-were-taught-in-school/325952/57 "2005-10-13T14:30:01Z")
**taran** writes: > [@](#): > > I’ve heard of this myth a few times, but never been taught it. Why would George Washington want to throw a dollar across the Potomac in the first place? See here, at the end of the second paragraph: > **[George Washington](https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/)** > > Victorious general of the American Revolution, the first President of the United States, successful planter and entrepreneur. Explore the life and legacies of George Washington. > [@](#): > > The story that Washington threw a silver dollar across the Potomac River – an impossible feat – had its origins in the recollections of a cousin that George could throw a stone across the much narrower Rappahannock River. What we wanted to know was how he could throw a piece of paper across the river that had his picture on it. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-you-were-taught-in-school/325952/58 "2005-10-13T14:39:50Z")
**Cowgirl** writes: > [@](#): > > I was taught about the experiment involving industrial melanism and the peppered moth - “evolution in action” - numerous times in high school and university (!) biology. My understanding is that the jury was still out on that. In fact, here’s a scarily complete page on it: [http://wiki.cotch.net/index.php/Peppered\_moth](http://wiki.cotch.net/index.php/Peppered_moth) The author of the most recent book on the topic, who has raised the moths himself, wholeheartedly supports the “evolution” interpretation: > [@](#): > > Here is what the aforementioned Michael Majerus, whose 1998 book Melanism sparked the blaze, wrote in his 2002 book Moths: > > [E]very scientist I know who has worked on melanism in the Peppered moth in the field still regards differential predation of the morphs in different habitats as of prime importance in the case. The critics of work on this case and those who cast doubt on its validity are, without exception, persons who have, as far as I know, never bred the moth and never conducted an experiment on it. In most cases they have probably never seen a live Peppered moth in the wild. Perhaps those who have the most intimate knowledge of this moth are the scientists who have bred it, watched it and studied it, in both the laboratory and the wild. These include, among others, the late Sir Cyril Clarke, Professors Paul Brakefield, Laurence Cook, Bruce Grant, K. Mikkola, Drs Rory Howlett, Carys Jones, David Lees, John Muggleton and myself. I believe that, without exception, it is our view that the case of melanism in the Peppered moth still stands as one of the best examples of evolution, by natural selection, in action. (Majerus 2002, p. 252) ---
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-you-were-taught-in-school/325952/59 "2005-10-13T14:44:27Z")
> [@cowgirl](#): > > I was taught about the experiment involving industrial melanism and the peppered moth - “evolution in action” - numerous times in high school and university (!) biology. Just out of curiosity, what do you mean by this? By all accounts it doesn’t appear that it is wrong: Cite: [http://www.millerandlevine.com/km/evol/Moths/moths.html](http://www.millerandlevine.com/km/evol/Moths/moths.html) > [@](#): > > ``` > These criticisms have led some critics of evolution to charge that the peppered moth story is "faked," or is "known to be wrong." > > ``` > > Neither is true. In fact, the basic elements of the peppered moth story are quite correct. The population of dark moths rose and fell in parallel to industrial pollution, and the percentage of dark moths in the population was clearly highest in regions of the countryside that were most polluted. > > … > > What we do know is that the rise and fall of dark-colored moths, a phenomenon known as “industrial melanism,” remains a striking and persuasive example of natural selection in action. What we have to be cautious about is attributing 100% of the work of natural selection in this case to the camouflage of the moths and their direct visibility to birds. Now, I realize there are cites out there that disagree, and all of them appear to be religious-orientated sites, so they are obviously biased and likely lying. If you can provide a reliable cite in contrary, I might be more inclined to believe your statement. (If I am reading the statement right anyhow) ---
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2005, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-you-were-taught-in-school/325952/60 "2005-10-13T14:47:14Z")
Gah, beat me to it! 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-you-were-taught-in-school/325952.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/myths-you-were-taught-in-school/325952.md?page=4)