People Are Sharing Things That Elementary School Teachers Told Them That Were Totally Wrong, And I Can't Believe Some Of These

Buzzfeed via Yahoo ^ | January 25, 2023

[grundle]

1."In 4th grade we were learning about bats. And the teacher asked the class to name as many different types of bats as we could. I raised my hand and said 'Vampire Bats,' and he said 'Name only real ones please.' They are real, and I knew it. But he made me feel like an ass."

2."I got sent to the principal's office for using the word 'plethora.' The teacher thought it was a swear word. So did the principal."

7."That the moon emits light, just like the sun. As a nerdy kid interested in space I told her that it’s actually reflecting the light of the sun, but she did not believe me."

12."That Abraham Lincoln was the first American president. I told her she was wrong, it was George Washington, and she snapped, saying, ‘Well why do you know so much about American politics it is pathetic.’ And all the other kids in my class started making fun of me for being stupid."

13."I was told in no uncertain terms that the match in shape between Africa and South America was coincidental...That is to say: The match between the Western coastline of Africa and the Eastern coastline of South America."

14."Middle school not elementary, but my sixth grade science teacher told the class that sound travels faster than light because 'If a plane is flying overhead, you hear it before you see it!'"

[NorthMountain]

OK ... were your engineering profs idiots?

[Hiddigeigei]

'I was told in no uncertain terms that the match in shape between Africa and South America was coincidental."
In early 1950s, I took several geology courses (physical, historic, vulcanism) in college. Wegener's continental drift theory was mentioned, but dismissed by the instructor (Professor?) as some sort of wild theory. I didn't argue, but at the time I thought it a pretty unlikely coincident that the coasts of Africa and South America fitted so neatly. Something that has puzzled me before from just looking at a world map.

[GingisK]

My son was ridiculed in the third grade because he called that grey-looking cloth tape “duct tape”. The teacher knew for a fact that is “duck tape”.

[ExGeeEye]

:)

In 1974 I lived in University Place.

Then my Dad came home from Thailand and the Air Force took us to Utah.

In 1978 we crossed the Mississippi, eastbound, for the last time as a family...

[ExGeeEye]

...or when saying as "a", as in "neighbor" and "weigh".

[GingisK]

I had a ninth grade science teacher INSIST that a small diameter wire presented less electrical resistance than a large diameter wire of the same material because the resistance was directly proportional to the cross sectional area of the wire. I could never convince her that she seemed to have missed that pesky “inversely” modifier.

[Waverunner]

Like the Hariausosuarus?

[lepton]

I’ve got my own list. Multiple accusations of making up words, some of which aren’t particularly uncommon. One of my middle school science teachers was stupid enough to demonstrate that she couldn’t pass the tests she gave us.

[lepton]

The classes we taught basket weavers was incredibly more difficult than the ones we taught education majors.

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Yep. Those courses are generally not worth credits in any other degree program. Even at the Masters level.

[lepton]

The classes we taught basket weavers was incredibly more difficult than the ones we taught education majors.

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Yep. Those courses are generally not worth credits in any other degree program. Even at the Masters level.

I had an argument with a recently graduated Math Education major (just short of honors) that you really could calculate the rectangular area of a set of 1 foot squares on linoleum by multiplying length by width. She understood that you could do it abstractly, but couldn’t wrap her head around that it applied to the area on the floor.

[lepton]

My geography instructor at the university told the class that things are lighter on the Moon because there’s no atmosphere to “hold things down.” The dumbass actually thought that it was air pressure that “holds things down.”

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How do you reach the ground again when you jump?

[lepton]

There are several areas of ocean which are submerged land - Doggerland and Dogger Bank represent a relatively recently submerged area - but there are also large areas that do not.

[lepton]

Yeah. I had a Tennesseean friend who pronounced ‘pitcher’ and ‘picture’ the same, and even insisted they were pronounced exactly the same. Some folks from Indiana pronounce ‘Idea’ and ‘Ideal’ the same, though they’re not the ones that add the ‘r’ onto ‘idea’.

[FamiliarFace]

I’ll have to listen out for the idea vs ideal pronunciation here. I’m originally from the South, so I have a hint of Southern mixed in the my accent.

[lepton]

in 1915 when Alfred Wegener proposed his theory of “continental drift.” ...

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He died in 1930, on a trip to gather evidence for his ideas, as well as polar weather (the jet stream was not yet known of), his suggestion unproven. Only in the 1950s with paleo magnetism, and then with the discovery at the end of the decade, of the existence not only of the mid-Atlantic ridge, but the valley within and but interconnected ridges through all of the oceans, did his suggestion become widely accepted.

Wegener was a brilliant man who made contributions in several areas of research...but in the end died from a counting error by an expedition team-member.

https://publish.illinois.edu/alfredwegener/files/2014/12/alfred-fossil-over.jpg

[Reily]

Gonwannayougonado?

[Political Junkie Too]

I was told in no uncertain terms that the match in shape between Africa and South America was coincidental...

Oil companies will tell you that Africa and South America share the same mineral and oil characteristics, so they were likely formed from the same land mass.

-PJ

[Reily]

I had a structural geology professor who dismissed continental drift. I can’t even remember his explanation for mountain building etc. now.

[lepton]

My son was ridiculed in the third grade because he called that grey-looking cloth tape “duct tape”. The teacher knew for a fact that is “duck tape”.

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The cloth backing for the original was called ‘duck cloth’, and the tape was called ‘duck tape’ for decades during the first half of the 20th century. Around the 1950s ‘duct tape’ came to be, as a modified and improved duck tape commonly used for ducts, which replaced the earlier usage. In the 1970s, a company marketed their tape as ‘duck tape’.

[lepton]

And stripes of the same fossils. Same with India and Africa.