The 10 biggest misconceptions we learn in school

October 29, 2009 at 2:34 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

There are some myths which become firmly ensconced in people’s minds, even though they are quite definitely wrong. These ten are are some of the best – though I’m not sure they can all be blamed on the school system. Thanks very much to Manolith, and a post written by a teacher, Paul Jury, whose list they are

1) Einstein got bad grades in school.

Generations of children have been heartened by the thought that this Nobel Prize winner did badly at school, but they’re sadly mistaken. In fact, he did very well at school, especially in science and maths (unsurprisingly). Jury explains this as being down to Americans interpreting Einstein’s 4’s as D’s. Karl Kruszelnicki, however, explains that it was all to do with changes to the system of marking at Einstein’s school (back in1896). Either way, the myth is not true, and children do need to work to succeed. Sorry!

2) Mice like cheese

Dear oh dear. While any young child could tell you this, any mice would (if they could speak rather than squeak) explain otherwise. It appears that mice enjoy food rich in sugar, as explained in the Times, as well as peanut butter and breakfast cereals (things, as Paul Jury points out, that are rich in grains and seeds, which they are used to). So a Snickers bar would go down much better than a lump of cheddar.

3) Napoleon was short.

Ah, the aggressive short man (often called, ironically, the Napoleon) complex. Short men love a hero and Napoleon appears to fit the bill. In fact, it appears that a mistranslation explains why some said he was just 5ft 2. He was actually around 5ft 7, completely average for the 18th/19th century.

4) Thomas Edison invented the light bulb.

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard this one and wanted to point out that it’s just damn wrong! Edison invented a lot of things – in fact he’s one of the most famous inventors of all time – but the light bulb wasn’t one of them. What he did was develop a light bulb at the same time as the British man, Joseph Swan, who came up with it originally…

5) Lemmings throw themselves over cliffs to commit suicide

Why do we have such negative opinions of lemmings? The poor old things are sometimes so desperate for food that they do, according to the BBC “jump over high ground into water”, but they aren’t committing group suicide. Paul Jury blames Disney for showing the lemmings doing this in an early nature film. They’ve been tarnished ever since.

6) Water flushes differently in different hemispheres

No it doesn’t. Sorry!

7) Humans evolved from apes

Darwin didn’t actually say this, but he’s been misreported ever since. What he did say was that we, and apes, and chimpanzees for that matter, had a common ancestor, once, a long, long time ago.

8) Vikings had horns/helmets with horns.

This may upset an awful lot of people, but it’s pure myth. According to the Jorvik Centre, it appears that Vikings may have been buried with their helmets and with drinking horns. When they were dug up by the Victorians, they assumed that the helmets had horns….(I have to say that, until now, I had believed this one!)

9) Columbus believed the earth was flat

He didn’t, you know. He may not have known how big the world was, but he wasn’t worrying about falling off the edge of it. Read Teaching History on this very issue.

10) Different parts of the tongue detect different tastes

You do have different taste buds on your tongue and some are more sensitive than others. But they aren’t divided into perfect, easy-to-teach sections.

Original story here

THE NEWS

Switched-off thieves fooled by fake TV: “Would-be television thieves in Melbourne were left red-faced after they tried to steal a cardboard cut-out in a bungled burglary. Intruders broke into a vacant display home in Arnolds Creek Blvd, Melton West, between 7.30am and midday on Sunday after seeing a large plasma television through a window. After smashing a front door window to gain entry, the thieves received a nasty surprise upon discovering the television set was a cardboard cut-out used for display purposes only. The intruders took out their frustration by messing up a bed. Police said the thieves fled empty-handed, leaving the cardboard cut-out behind. Damage to the front door was estimated at $50.”

Big discovery! Men like curves: “A study has found that men really do prefer ‘normal’-sized women with a few curves to those who are fashionably thin. They find a body like Scarlett Johansson’s or Kate Winslet’s more attractive than the angular frames of Posh Spice and Paris Hilton. The results will be welcomed by the millions of British ladies who are a perfectly healthy size but believe they would be more popular with men if they were thinner. The research from St Andrews University, published in the journal Perception, involved a group of male students. Researchers asked them to rate photographs of female faces for attractiveness. The women in the ‘normal’ weight range were rated as better looking than the skinny ones. Researcher Professor David Perrett said: ‘This sends out a strong message to all the girls out there who believe you have to be underweight to be attractive. ‘The people making judgments in our study were all between the ages of 18 and 26 and they did not rate the underweight girls most attractive. They preferred normal-weight girls.’ Women who weigh too little risk problems with vitality, mental health and fertility and are more likely to die at any given point than someone of normal weight.”

Hit by a Honda at 120km/h, embedded in front of the radiator and dragged for 960km – but lucky Coyote lived: “When a brother and sister struck a coyote they were sure they had killed the animal and drove on – for almost 1000km. Imagine their shock when eight hours and two fuel stops later they discovered the wild animal embedded in their front bumper bar – very much alive. And – as if to prove the point – the wily coyote later escaped from where it was being kept to recover. Daniel and Tevyn East were driving at night along Interstate 80 near the Nevada-Utah border in the United States when they noticed a pack of coyotes near the roadside. When one of the animals ran in front of the car, the impact sounded fatal so the siblings thought there no point in stopping. “Right off the bat, we knew it was bad,” Daniel explained. “We thought the story was over.” [See the pictures here]

Rising Canadian folk star killed by coyotes: “A PROMISING young Canadian musician has been attacked and killed by coyotes while on a tour promoting her new album. Taylor Mitchell, 19, was considered a rising star of the folk music scene, having just earned a Canadian Folk Music Awards nomination. She was hiking alone on the Syline Trail in Cape Breton Highlands National Park when a pair of coyotes attacked her. Tourists rushed to her aid when they heard her screams and found Mitchell bleeding heavily from mulitple wounds “all over her body”, according to The Canadian Press. “She was losing a considerable amount of blood from her wounds,” paramedic Paul Maynard told TCP. One of the animals was later shot by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, but the other got away. Park officials said it was highly unusual for coyotes to be involved in such an aggressive attack. Mitchell was due to play at a concert after her hike and was on her first tour of the Candaian east coast.”

Man, 75, alive after driving into path of train: “A 75-YEAR-OLD man has survived unscathed after driving his car through boom gates and into the path of a train at a north Melbourne level crossing. Police said it appeared the man was blinded by sun glare when he drove into the path of a north-bound train at the Cramer St level crossing at Preston rail station about 7.30am (AEDT) today. Preston police Constable Meredith Grisold said no one was injured in the crash. “Fortunately, he has been able to open his door (and) get out of the car soon after. He’s a very, very lucky man,” she said. The boom gates, lights and warning signals were all operating at the time, Const Grisold said. The man was taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital for observation.”

And don’t forget to catch up with all the Strange Justice before you go.