# Why did they lie to me in school? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 22, 2004, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-they-lie-to-me-in-school/260972 "2004-08-22T15:08:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-they-lie-to-me-in-school/260972/41 "2004-08-23T04:59:19Z")
To my great annoyance, one of the EFL textbooks I teach from contained an article about translation problems in advertising that repeated the [Nova](http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp), [Pepsi](http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/ancestor.asp), and [Gerber](http://www.snopes.com/business/market/babyfood.asp) urban legends. I felt obligated to explain to my students that none of these stories were true, although unfortunately this may not have been the best thing to do as far as English language instruction goes. They were having a difficult enough time understanding the article without being told it was all wrong anyway. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-they-lie-to-me-in-school/260972/42 "2004-08-23T05:09:17Z")
Ha! I made some dangerous enemies correcting teachers in grade school through highschool. I learned eventually that a teacher’s ego was often greater than his desire to fight ignorance, but by then my nickname had become Correcto. This rhymed vaguely with my last name and was initiated by my 7th grade science teacher. You believe that? A teacher urging his students to taunt and ridicule another student. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-they-lie-to-me-in-school/260972/43 "2004-08-23T05:12:01Z")
> [@vivalostwages](#): > > Parents: do the schools still make you take your kids to a mission so they can build one for a project? It happens a lot here. I wonder if any kid has yet built a mission model portraying anything other than the harmonious Natives and Europeans. I’m not a parent, but a relative of mine said that his grandkids had to do a model of a mission. I didn’t get to see the model, just heard about it, so I don’t know how it portrayed the interaction between NA’s and Europeans. ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-they-lie-to-me-in-school/260972/44 "2004-08-23T07:53:48Z")
> [@calm kiwi](#): > > I’m still waiting for the day that algebra will come in handy. You use algebra whenever you buy groceries. “If sturmhauke has $10 to buy milk, and the prices are $4.59 per gallon, $2.89 per half gallon, and $1.79 per quart, what is the maximum amount of milk he can buy?” It’s nothing more than a bunch of rules for applying arithmetic to real problems. ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-they-lie-to-me-in-school/260972/45 "2004-08-23T08:14:20Z")
It is official. I am a maths idiot (well ok just idiot). At least I know why my groceries cost so much now! ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-they-lie-to-me-in-school/260972/46 "2004-08-23T09:58:31Z")
Pricegal’s first grade teacher told her that Martin Luther was Santa Claus. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-they-lie-to-me-in-school/260972/47 "2004-08-23T10:09:10Z")
Goodness. Why accuse the teacher of _lying_? I certainly acknowledge that there is often a competence problem that perpetuates itself. And when that is combined with ego problems, the result is disasterous for children who challenge the teacher. But I doubt seriously that many teachers deliberately _lie_ to their students. > [@](#): > > **ZebraShaSha** : She taught us how to do the math and stuff for the most correct version of the atom but she taught how the atom acted with the outdated form. \ > [@](#): > > It was easier, you see, to teach kids the wrong information than it is to take time and teach them the most correct form. The teacher _wasn’t_ teaching the old way of thinking because it was “easier” to teach. She explained that she was teaching it **because she knew that the state was going to be testing on the old model and not the new.** Maybe she wanted her students to be able to pass the test. Maybe she was required by the state to teach that model. Maybe she was as disgusted with what the state was doing as you were. At least she had the intellectual integrity to let you know that the old model was wrong and how to do the math for the correct version. Of course teachers should be open to correction when they are mistaken. There is no excuse for not being willing to look at contradictory information. Teachers should _encourage_ students to catch them in mistakes. That doesn’t mean that the teacher has to accept every argument to the contrary. (The teacher should have allowed the student to present evidence to the class about the other presidents before Washington and then he or she should have explained how these titles were different from “President _of_ the United States” and then let the class discuss whether the others should be considered. I suspect that the student who was temporarily “expelled” wasn’t ousted because he disagreed with the teacher. After all, he continued to disagree and was allowed to return. Maybe it was _the way_ in which he disagreed. Most likely, the disagreement had become disruptive and rude. A better teacher could have handled it differently. I doubt that the student was perfectly innocent. And certainly the teacher shouldn’t have demanded that he retract his statement. **Pussycow,** my problems with Jane Pittman were just the opposite. I was the teacher who was aware that the movie was not a documentary and that the book was a work of fiction. My students were quite certain that she was a real person because the title of the book was _The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman._ They _knew_ what an autobiography was and therefore it couldn’t be fiction. It was very difficult to convince them that they were mistaken. I think I finally got a copy of the book to show them. I support both competency testing for teachers and high standards for student conduct. Now. You retract that statement about teachers lying or I’ll…I’ll…I’ll just have to suck it up, I guess. Meanwhile, they had a lockdown at my old school last week (the first week of school). Man with a gun in the building. I _assume_ he was out of the building before they locked it. God, I love retirement… ---
**Author:** ![RTA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b4bc9f/32.png) [@RTA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTA)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-they-lie-to-me-in-school/260972/48 "2004-08-23T11:36:35Z")
Wait’ll you hear that the actual line of the song is, “Go see Cal.” Then you’ll _really_ be disappointed. ---
**Author:** ![PussyCow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/22d042/32.png) [@PussyCow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PussyCow)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-they-lie-to-me-in-school/260972/49 "2004-08-23T13:20:27Z")
> [@RTA](#): > > Wait’ll you hear that the actual line of the song is, “Go see Cal.” > > Then you’ll _really_ be disappointed. Oh! Tell me about it!! I only learned the truth about that one last month!! I guess my beef is not with teachers, it’s with the books. The books are supposed to be written by experts and are supposed to be accurate (propoganda not withstanding). The teachers \*should[/] know, but if they were taught misinformation, then of course they’re not gonna get it right either. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-they-lie-to-me-in-school/260972/50 "2004-08-23T14:03:21Z")
> [@emekthian](#): > > We got it off in grade school, only it was called Indigenous People’s Day, and it went along with lessons about how the Europeans oppressed the native peoples and such. What the hey, a day off’s a day off. No kidding! Me, too! By any chance, did you grow up in Berkeley? ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Ashtar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-they-lie-to-me-in-school/260972/51 "2004-08-23T15:46:13Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > Training for when you grow up and start voting. Dammit! **Lib** beat me to it! ---
**Author:** ![av8rmike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/edb3f5/32.png) [@av8rmike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/av8rmike)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-they-lie-to-me-in-school/260972/52 "2004-08-23T17:14:18Z")
> [@norinew](#): > > Me, I’ve taught my kids to not to take anything as fact, just because someone in authority says it. [Devil’s advocate] And yet, most of us are here because we believe what Cecil says, hook, line, and sinker. Or does he not count as “authority”? [/DA] ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-they-lie-to-me-in-school/260972/53 "2004-08-23T18:46:52Z")
> [@av8rmike](#): > > [Devil’s advocate] > And yet, most of us are here because we believe what Cecil says, hook, line, and sinker. Or does he not count as “authority”? > [/DA] No, when Cecil says something that sounds like it might be totally or partially wrong, I’ll check that out, too. But he’s right so often that I don’t feel too bad about just accepting most of what he says on faith. And if one of my kids had a teacher that was right 99% of the time, I guess they’d pretty much trust that teacher, too. After all, you can’t be a cynic _all_ the time; you wouldn’t have enough time left over to drink coffee 🙂 . ---
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-they-lie-to-me-in-school/260972/54 "2004-08-23T18:54:45Z")
> [@norinew](#): > > … you can’t be a cynic _all_ the time; you wouldn’t have enough time left over to drink coffee 🙂 . Words of wisdom. :: ssssssip :: Aaaaah. ---
**Author:** ![Trigonal\_Planar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/0ea827/32.png) [@Trigonal\_Planar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trigonal_Planar)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-they-lie-to-me-in-school/260972/55 "2004-08-23T19:07:57Z")
Sometimes we students are successful in educating our teachers. Back in grade 9 science class we were doing a unit on astronomy. We had this activity sheet that showed the life cycle of the sun. It had entirely skipped the red giant phase of stellar life, showing just the sun as a black dwarf. I pointed this out to the teacher and she asked me if I had some cites. The next day I brought in a couple of my astronomy books, she looked at them and concluded that I was indeed correct and that the sheets are in error. In the next lesson, she stated that the sun would turn into a red giant and engulf the earth and that she had no idea how they missed that on the activity sheets. We got along pretty well and I knew she had a real interest in science, so I suspect that’s why she was so good about it. ---
**Author:** ![Trigonal\_Planar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/0ea827/32.png) [@Trigonal\_Planar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trigonal_Planar)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-they-lie-to-me-in-school/260972/56 "2004-08-23T19:09:46Z")
Oh, and at least in my in highschool, we were taught the “proper” model of the atom. The teacher actually started off by saying “many times in school you are taught things that aren’t quite correct…here is one of those cases…” 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![JoeSki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b487fb/32.png) [@JoeSki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoeSki)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-they-lie-to-me-in-school/260972/57 "2004-08-23T19:16:15Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Get ahold of a copy of _Lies My Teachers Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong._ Rather leftist approach to the subject, but a fascinating look at what is glossed over or outright ignored in textbooks. I just borrowed this from a friend yesterday. Ever read A differetn Kind of Teacher by John Taylor Gatto, or any other books essays of his? It makes a point of how the purpose of public schools isn’t to educate us, but to dumb us down and make the masses easier to control. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-they-lie-to-me-in-school/260972/58 "2004-08-23T19:24:45Z")
Oh, I always thought it was “Pussycow” too! DangerDad, who can sing many Cal Worthington lyrics, finally cleared it up for me. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-they-lie-to-me-in-school/260972/59 "2004-08-23T19:54:52Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > I learned eventually that a teacher’s ego was often greater than his desire to fight ignorance, but by then my nickname had become Correcto. This rhymed vaguely with my last name and was initiated by my 7th grade science teacher. Wait, lemme guess…you kept badgering that teacher about what constitutes scientific discovery and what doesn’t? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2004, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-they-lie-to-me-in-school/260972/60 "2004-08-24T01:11:41Z")
> [@av8rmike](#): > > [Devil’s advocate] > And yet, most of us are here because we believe what Cecil says, hook, line, and sinker. Or does he not count as “authority”? > [/DA] I agree we may go over the top, but I think the idea is that we trust him because when we check he’s generally right, he seems to retract or explain when disargeed with, and don’t follow him blindly – he explains how he found something, and if you want to you can check it out for yourself. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-they-lie-to-me-in-school/260972.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-they-lie-to-me-in-school/260972.md?page=4)