In ninth-grade journalism (English) units, students are often given factually incorrect statements and pictures to study propaganda.
I have no problem with that, as long as the statements are within the students' ability to check and reason about.
But when someone asserts from a position of authority that there is a scientific controversy over the lack of transitional fossils, that is both factually incorrect and insidious. When someone asserts from a position of authority that the lack of detailed knowledge of a historical incident is equivalent to challenging a theoretical framework, then that is just educational incompetence. It is the opposite of critical thinking.