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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

Posted on 01/25/2023 9:48:43 PM PST by 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!'"

(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: arth; education; school
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To: grundle

I taught high school engineering drawing topics for sixteen years. I was usually able to convince Freshmen that ice is not frozen water - it’s a vegetable that grows on water in the Winter to keep it from freezing.

I’m pretty sure I had read that in Mad Magazine long ago.


21 posted on 01/25/2023 10:15:29 PM PST by budj (Combat vet, second of three generations.)
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To: grundle

Had a college professor who took me to task because I had used the word “transpired” instead of “happened.” He did not think the two words were synonyms. Did not argue for the sake of my grade.


22 posted on 01/25/2023 10:15:51 PM PST by DennisR (Look around - God gives countless clues that He does, indeed, exist.)
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To: lee martell

Gone, Just like writing Cursive.

The dumming down of the general populace continues unimpeded.


23 posted on 01/25/2023 10:18:03 PM PST by SPDSHDW (Ya’ll knew he was installed via fraud, and chose to do nothing. Enjoy the roller coaster ride.)
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To: Right Brother

It is hard to loose face to someone who is 12 or younger when you is a univesity gradieutte.

My fourth grade teacher insisted that only red blood cells were made in bone marrow because that was what the answer key said. She refused to look in the text book. I didn’t back down from wanting her to look in the text book, and she sent me to the Principal’s office. while the Principal didn’t explicitly back me against the teacher, at least in front o fthe teacher, I ended up being given a book to read.

Unwittingly, the teacher taught me an extremely valuable lesson: don’t accept what a teacher says merely because a teacher says it. At some point, years later, I realized what she had taught me, and became grateful for the experience.

The cursive thing and the “no late papers thing” are both things that I have more or less seen.


24 posted on 01/25/2023 10:18:57 PM PST by Hieronymus
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To: SaxxonWoods

Laurasia and Godwana were the two continents whose breakup at the end of the Permian caused the greatest mass extinction. Later S America split from Africa several millions of y ears before the Chicxulub meteor wiped out the dinosaurs and other life forms. A survivor of the Chicxulub meteor was a primate, curiously named Purgatorious, supposedly a Human ancestor, 67.3 million years ago


25 posted on 01/25/2023 10:20:40 PM PST by BigEdLB (Let’s go Brandon!)
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To: 9YearLurker

I am as disgusted as anyone over the current state of education, but these examples sound ridiculous, and therefore, fishy. Unprovable anecdotal claims.


26 posted on 01/25/2023 10:21:46 PM PST by Right Brother
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To: grundle

I had a teacher who took the time to teach me the definition of the word “plethora”. It meant a lot to me.


27 posted on 01/25/2023 10:23:29 PM PST by CtBigPat (The time of Crisis is ending. Now comes Normalization.)
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To: Right Brother

Maybe you were just blessed by better teachers than many have had.

They sound both plausible and memorable — and indeed were remembered.


28 posted on 01/25/2023 10:23:39 PM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: SaxxonWoods

That’s still a theory... What’s under the oceans? Land covered by water.


29 posted on 01/25/2023 10:24:16 PM PST by Pocketdoor
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To: Right Brother

Same here.


30 posted on 01/25/2023 10:32:41 PM PST by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: grundle
Some of it is because the science wasn't understood well enough yet. I remember being told in school that the northern lights were caused by sunlight reflecting off of icebergs floating around the north pole. And sometimes the teacher just didn't understand how things worked. I remember one discussion about how astronauts in space could use radio to communicate through the vacuum of space. As it is understood that radio waves are a type of vibration, and vibrations can't travel in a vacuum, we were told that every time someone in space used a radio, a little air came out as well to allow the vibrations to propagate. :) This was in the 60’s.

In the 70’s they said that the world was entering another glacial period. Now they say the opposite, and I suspect in another decade or so they will be teaching global cooling again.

31 posted on 01/25/2023 10:38:12 PM PST by MRadtke (Light a candle or curse the darkness?)
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To: steve86
It’s always been like that. I argued with third-grade teacher about moon’s gravity. She insisted there was none. This went on for a whole quarter or whatever it was.

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."

Regards,

32 posted on 01/25/2023 10:50:39 PM PST by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
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To: Right Brother

I noticed the puzzle fit of Africa and South America in second grade, but teachers back then taught reading and writing, not continental drift.

Gondwanaland.


33 posted on 01/25/2023 10:51:45 PM PST by heartwood (Someone has to play devil's advocate.)
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To: BigEdLB
I had an incompetent history teacher say women could only vote in wyoming before 1920.

So the teacher claimed that, in Wyoming before 1920, women were allowed only to vote; they weren't allowed to, e.g., go swimming or bake cakes?

Or did the teacher claim that only in Wyoming were women allowed to vote prior to 1920?

Regards,

34 posted on 01/25/2023 10:55:05 PM PST by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
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To: BigEdLB

Good thing he didn’t use “niggardly.”


35 posted on 01/25/2023 10:55:17 PM PST by Hootowl
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To: grundle

There was the math teacher who wouldn’t let me ask about non-coplanar, non-parallel lines, told me they were parallel because they don’t intersect, now be quiet.

She knew what skew lines were, she just didn’t want to confuse the class.


36 posted on 01/25/2023 10:59:19 PM PST by heartwood (Someone has to play devil's advocate.)
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To: Pocketdoor
That’s still a theory... What’s under the oceans? Land covered by water.

No, that is a gross oversimplification / distortion of the truth.

The ocean floors do not simply represent submerged continental land.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seafloor_spreading

Regards,

37 posted on 01/25/2023 11:03:29 PM PST by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
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To: grundle

Buzzfeed, lifted directly from askreddit. A common practice for them.


38 posted on 01/25/2023 11:05:08 PM PST by Dr. Zzyzx
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To: Hieronymus
It is hard to loose lose face to someone who is 12 or younger when you is are a univesity gradieutte university graduate.

True, that!

Regards,

39 posted on 01/25/2023 11:06:19 PM PST by alexander_busek (Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.)
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To: grundle

” Lift up your feet, when you reach the end of an escalator you will be sliced up like Bologna”

My Dad...


40 posted on 01/25/2023 11:06:38 PM PST by Vendome (I've Gotta Be Me https://youtu.be/wH-pk2vZG2M)
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