People reveal 10 myths they learned about in school that turned out to be false

Exiting school and confronting reality.

School is an integral part of everybody's lives. We get a basic introduction to many aspects of the world we live in during our school years. But as much as going to school is necessary for every child, not all things we learn on the school premises turn out to be entirely true. As kids grow up and venture into adulthood, they find out that a lot of things they learned about in school are somewhat or entirely not true. u/authorized_join31 asked people what fact they were taught in their educational institutions that turned out to be false in their lifetime. Here are 10 of the best answers people had to offer.

1. Human bodies can't make blood 

My primary school teacher told me our bodies can't make new blood and we're born with all the blood we'll ever have. As someone who got nosebleeds, I knew it was bollocks. When I questioned that adults are obviously bigger so have more blood she said it's watered down. These people teach kids. u/Appropriate-Divide64. Blood is made in bone marrow; which is one of the reasons people who lose legs or are born without them don't live as long. I've had an argument with a person in the medical field about bones clearly being porous as blood needs to flow out of them. Educated people not knowing about the field they are educated in feel like you're being gaslit when arguing with them. u/PAPA_CELL

2. Tongue taste maps 

I learned tongue taste maps at school. Turns out it’s complete nonsense. u/TimmyMTX. I knew it was nonsense when I was in grade whatever and could taste every flavor across my tongue. I actually think it might have been the first thing that truly taught me to be skeptical about the scientific world. I say keep teaching it but modify the lesson to challenge the critical thinking skills of the students. Clarify at the end, and ensure you indicate that the map is BS, but allow them to understand that they can refute evidence and generate their own additional hypothesis that can be proven or rejected. u/PoliteIndecency

3. Strangers will give out free drugs during Halloween

Strangers will give me free drugs on street corners and in Halloween candy. u/Slight-Mess-6615. On top of drugs being expensive, how would the candy giver get any benefit out of it? One, they’d never know if the kid even ate the candy and 2, are they just sitting in their homes thinking “Mwuhahaha, I got that kid f***** up and now their parents can send them to bed tripping balls!” u/Thenidiel9

4. Fat is bad for humans

All fat was bad for you, thus fat-free foods became a thing for a while. u/SpewPewPew. It's tragic. One of the only things humanity's science has managed to really firmly establish about the long-term effects of diet on health is this: high glycemic load is bad for heart health. We know low-fat diets typically have higher glycemic load; I think that the people responsible for pushing this myth on the public are possibly responsible for more loss of life than any other group of individuals in history. u/cthulhubert

5. Painkillers are not addictive 

In pharmacy school around the turn of the century, we were taught that people in legitimate pain don't get addicted to opiates and opioids. u/PayEmmy. Have you seen the show “painkillers” on Netflix? It’s so good and shows how they pushed opioids on the public like it was candy because “it’s not addictive.” I actually remember when I broke my clavicle around the peak of it and they gave me 120 pills of Vicodin with 5 refills. I remember only needing the first bottle for the actual pain. u/TheHappiTree

6. George Washington had wooden teeth 

That George Washington’s teeth were made of wood. No. It’s so much worse. u/alloverbeautiful. The teeth were from dead slaves and attached to wood and almost no one else had anything like it back then, dentures were not the modern technological marvel they are now. Technically he had wooden dentures, not wooden teeth, but try explaining the difference to most 2nd grade kids. u/thetotalslacker

7. The concept of a food pyramid 

The food pyramid. u/CharlesNotManson69. That was such an easy and messed up campaign due to nutritional information not being readily available. Now that we have access to unlimited information, smart people can actually build their own healthy diets. On that note, is there a flat-earther equivalent to nutrition? Just because we have access to information doesn't mean people know what to do with it. u/Nomnomnipotent. Quite possibly the childhood lie responsible for the most amount of death and health issues in the history of mankind once you take into account the follow-up lies about how pharmaceuticals are the only way to treat the illnesses that can all be attributed to the food pyramid. u/chrislstark

8. That Columbus thought the Earth was flat

I once asked one of my elementary school teachers what a rainbow was, and she told me scientists hadn't figured it out. I walked around until my early 20s thinking that. Also, I think it was this same teacher who told me Columbus thought the Earth was flat. They were training teachers differently in the 70s and 80s. It's honestly one of the reasons I'm thankful for the internet because depending on your teacher or an outdated encyclopedia for answers could be a real roll of the dice. Reddit

9. Only cursive writing in high school 

Once you get to high school, nobody will accept papers not written in cursive. u/FridgesArePeopleToo. This was what my grade school teachers said about middle school. "If you turn in an assignment in middle school not written in cursive, they'll give you a zero without looking!" Then when I got to middle school, the first day EVERY single teacher I had declared some variation of "I will give you a zero if you submit an assignment in cursive. I am here to teach you, not decipher your hieroglyphs." u/Mazon_Del

10. You had to memorize by heart everything

“No one is going to wait for you to look up information in the real world, you have to know it,” has to be the most insane thing I ever heard. Reddit. It really depends on the context. In the old business world, it was very true. As an account manager, sales representative, or executive, not knowing was a source of embarrassment and mistrust. Knowledge was treasured but it also meant you relied on what people told you simply based on their position and the internet was only in book form at the library. u/Toshiba1point0