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People go to school to learn things, so it’s not that crazy to expect them to be correct, right? Well, unfortunately, sometimes they might not be. Some ideas, whether coming from peers, other acquaintances there, or even teachers, tend to be far from reality, and quite a few redditors seemingly learned it firsthand.

Members of the ‘Ask Reddit’ community recently shared the facts they were taught to be true in school, but have been disproven in their lifetime. Their answers covered everything from the food pyramid, to calculators, and even George Washington’s teeth, so scroll down to find them on the list below and see what other topics the false information covered.

#1

30 'Facts' People Learned In School That Have Been Disproven In Their Lifetime If you don’t do well you’ll end up being a garbage man. F**k you! Garbage men are awesome and make more that teachers. Also, less likely to get shot on the job.

pi1979 , Katerina Holmes Report

#2

30 'Facts' People Learned In School That Have Been Disproven In Their Lifetime There’s never been a war fought on Australian soil. 1990’s 3rd grade teacher proclaimed it proudly. Indigenous Australians would beg to differ.

FuWaqPJ , Ivan Samkov Report

#3

Not my lifetime, but my Mom's sister was initially forced to write with her right hand, despite being left-handed. Since they went to Catholic school, it was taught, as fact, that being left-handed was something something Devil.

When my Aunt started Grade 1, my Great-Grandfather died a couple weeks into the school year and bequeathed some money to the church and school. The family would not give it to them unless my Aunt was allowed to be left-handed.

Amazingly enough, the Priest, upon prayer and reflection, determined that being left-handed wasn't a problem anymore. Isn't that something? That's how my now 78 year old Aunt changed science at Blessed Sacrament when she was 5 years old.

mollymuppet78 Report

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Corvus
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Prejudice towards left-handed people has even shaped language. The word "sinister" (as a synonym of creepy/ominous) originates from the Latin word for "left hand", whereas "dextrous"/"dexterity" similarly comes from the Latin word for "right hand".

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#4

30 'Facts' People Learned In School That Have Been Disproven In Their Lifetime 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.

Appropriate-Divide64 , Tima Miroshnichenko Report

#5

30 'Facts' People Learned In School That Have Been Disproven In Their Lifetime That I’d fail in life because I was not good at math.

I always had a hard time with math and physics and chemistry.

Turns out I am just not good with numbers, but succeeded with languages. I have a natural talent for languages. I am a translator and conference interpreter. I work with 5 languages.

My math teacher told my mom I’d never amount to anything if I didn’t master math. I was there and her words scarred me for life. I have been terrified of failure ever since.

anon , Yan Krukau Report

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VioletHunter
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

People who are into the sciences and maths tend to think those are the only worthy professions and the humanities are a joke. I'm not surprised this teacher said s**t like that.

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#6

30 'Facts' People Learned In School That Have Been Disproven In Their Lifetime That while being on your period you'll only loose one spoon of blood! That's such a bs

Less-Meringue-1294 , Polina Zimmerman Report

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Nadine Debard
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The average amount is around 50ml, which is 3-4 tablespoons, but it varies a lot between one person's different periods and between individuals.

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#7

30 'Facts' People Learned In School That Have Been Disproven In Their Lifetime Pretty much everything about Christopher Columbus.

02meepmeep , By Sebastiano del Piombo Report

#8

30 'Facts' People Learned In School That Have Been Disproven In Their Lifetime The United States government prevents abuse of power through a well-engineered system of checks and balances.

RookieCards , Karolina Grabowska Report

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Cjo
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

A system to prevent the abuse of power has never existed. It is sort of like someone saying, "Make it idiot proof." Can't be done, there is always an idiot that will find a way to mess something up no matter what you do to prevent it. And there will always be people that find a way to abuse power that they have been given.

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#9

30 'Facts' People Learned In School That Have Been Disproven In Their Lifetime If you study well and have excellent grades, you will end up with a nice job and lots of money.

MyKinkyCountess , Tima Miroshnichenko Report

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Alexandra
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Nope. You can have excellent grades, but if your social skill-set leaves something to be desired, you won't easily land a highly paid job.

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#10

30 'Facts' People Learned In School That Have Been Disproven In Their Lifetime Your permanent record will follow you into adulthood

Darth-Byzantious , RDNE Stock project Report

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Pink Princess
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I wish it did. Someone was bullying my friend and threatening to kill people so I reported them and they got suspended and it won't even affect them when they're an adult

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#11

30 'Facts' People Learned In School That Have Been Disproven In Their Lifetime You won't always have a calculator on you.

Deuteronomy93 , Karolina Grabowska Report

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Corvus
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

While this is true, it is not a valid excuse for being unable to do basic math, just like always having access to autocorrect is not an excuse for being sloppy about your spelling.

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#12

30 'Facts' People Learned In School That Have Been Disproven In Their Lifetime Myers Briggs garbage.

I even fought with my professor about it.

Turns out in the end I was right.

Canadianingermany , Yan Krukau Report

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shanila.pheonix_
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

i took one look at myers briggs and i thought, "hey isnt that just zodiac signs but more complicated?" lolol

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#13

30 'Facts' People Learned In School That Have Been Disproven In Their Lifetime 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.

PayEmmy , MART PRODUCTION Report

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Ace
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There's an element of truth to this. Sadly the current opioid crisis in the US has lead people to believe that addiction is inevitable, but that's not true either. I used morphine for several months following a major trauma, but slowly reduced the dosage as the pain levels diminished. Not because I was worried about addiction, but because as the pain reduced the feelings it brought of simply not giving a shot about anything are not something I was comfortable with. I knew deep down that I really _should_ give a shot. Some people apparently like this feeling, others like me absolutely do not.

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#14

30 'Facts' People Learned In School That Have Been Disproven In Their Lifetime All fat was bad for you, thus fat free foods became a thing for a while.

SpewPewPew , RDNE Stock project Report

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Cjo
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yeah, and guess what replaced it in most foods? *Yep, sugar* (which is "fat free").

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#15

30 'Facts' People Learned In School That Have Been Disproven In Their Lifetime That George Washington’s teeth were made of wood. No. It’s so much worse

alloverbeautiful , Gilbert Stuart Report

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The Scout
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Made from then teeth of dead soldiers, probably - as was the usual method for high quality toothwork at the time.

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#16

30 'Facts' People Learned In School That Have Been Disproven In Their Lifetime Surgery can be performed on very small infants without anesthesia because pain reception isn't developed yet.

qpgmr , Nhia Moua Report

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iseefractals
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I've covered this on here before. While that may be the outward explanation given....we still, to this day do not understand HOW anesthesia functions. We just know that it does, and the line between "working properly" and "no longer breathing" is very, very fine even in ideal circumstances. An infant, is about as far removed from ideal as you can get, and an infant that REQUIRES surgery is even further removed. At the time, the risk of using anesthesia on an infant, was greater than performing surgery without....but the average person, let alone parent probably isn't going to accept this. Nor would they accept the more blunt rational of "it doesn't matter if they feel it, because they are never, ever going to remember it" Medicine is about risk assessment. All of it comes with risk, always, you could be the 1 in 1,000,000 allergic to that popular OTC med....doctors have the job of finding the LEAST RISKY course of action.

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#17

The system/time will take care of putting “bad guys” where they belong.

Regular-Quality3143 Report

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#18

Carrots are good for night vision.

This was a lie the British used to explain how they could spot German bombers during WWII. The truth, that they had broken the German Enigma machine and were decoding secret messages, was kept a secret for decades. The full story was not told until the 1990s.

I consider the Enigma coverup to be the best kept secret in human history.

dylans-alias Report

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Ace
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

TBF the push to eat more carrots was real; with most foods rationed they were in plentiful supply and were pushed almost as a sugar substitute. The 'good for the eyes thing was not pure invention, but was picked up and exaggerated by the RAF to possibly help hide the fact that some British planes were starting to be equipped with radar. Carrot cake anyone?

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#19

30 'Facts' People Learned In School That Have Been Disproven In Their Lifetime 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 a different kind of way 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.

UhOhFeministOnReddit , Sinitta Leunen Report

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Corvus
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If Columbus had truly believed that, he would have never sailed west.

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#20

30 'Facts' People Learned In School That Have Been Disproven In Their Lifetime You only use 10% of your brain each day.

E8inches2Short , Julia M Cameron Report

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JessieJ&LilyLovebug
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is a misconception, but not entirely inaccurate. The true statement is that we typically only use 10% of out brain at a time, but the parts of our brain used changes depending on what we are doing. Essentially, we use all of our brain, just not all of it at the same time.

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#21

30 'Facts' People Learned In School That Have Been Disproven In Their Lifetime In grade school they told us that the Titanic would never be found. Not exactly a disproven “fact,” but still amusing that technology has advanced so far in such a relatively short amount of time.

fanchettes , Thirdman Report

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Corvus
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Not only was the Titanic found, but it also serves as bait for rich fools.

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#22

Dinosaurs being cold blooded.

ulcers were from stress (most are from bacteria)

Neanderthals were a less evolved human ancestor

Sugar makes kids hyper

Konocti Report

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Strawberry Pizza
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

But wouldn't stress weaken your immune system, making it easier for harmful bacteria to grow in your body?

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#23

30 'Facts' People Learned In School That Have Been Disproven In Their Lifetime It takes 7 years to digest gum

OhMyGodItsMegan , cottonbro studio Report

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#25

30 'Facts' People Learned In School That Have Been Disproven In Their Lifetime Blood is blue until exposed to oxygen, then it turns red.

LazerShark1313 , Mikhail Nilov Report

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Cjo
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Everyone knows that blood is blue just look at your veins. LOL. A variation of this I have heard is it is red going away from the heart because it is oxygen rich, and blue when returning to the heart because the oxygen has been used up. Nonsense of course, it just looks blue because of the colors that the skin blocks letting only blue to reflect back to our eyes.

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#26

30 'Facts' People Learned In School That Have Been Disproven In Their Lifetime I learned tongue taste maps at school. Turns out it’s complete nonsense.

TimmyMTX , Pavel Danilyuk Report

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BrownTabby
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That’s just how science works. They find a theory and then they learn more and realise that their theory was wrong. No doubt it’ll happen again in future.

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#27

30 'Facts' People Learned In School That Have Been Disproven In Their Lifetime Using plastic bags will help save the environment

meatybone , Kevin Malik Report

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pep Ito
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Taking into account that paper bags were previously used, which were practically single-use bags and that to make them it was necessary to cut down trees, it can be said that it served for a time to save the environment as an intermediate step to other types of bag materials.

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#28

That male pattern baldness trait passed down from your maternal line. Mom's side loaded with full heads of hair, however found out early I received zero of the genetics promised.

Personal-Actuary-712 Report

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Andrei Caldararu
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

IIRC, there's a certain gene that can cause baldness, only on the X chromosome. But it's not the sole reason that can cause someone to go bald.

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#29

30 'Facts' People Learned In School That Have Been Disproven In Their Lifetime That we would all but run out of oil by the year 2000

fatbongo , Tom Fisk Report

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Corvus
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

We will eventually run out of oil, though, as it cannot renew itself once depleted.

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#30

30 'Facts' People Learned In School That Have Been Disproven In Their Lifetime A little bit before my time and most teachers already knew it was wrong but it was still in my third and fourth grade science books since they were dated to when it was still in vogue in the 70s even though we were told to mostly ignore it, but Global Cooling. I imagined massive ice ages by the time I was an adult since I ignored my teachers and read the passages anyway. I was disappointed to find out how wrong it was. Heh.

frice2000 , Laura Portik Report

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pep Ito
Community Member
1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Well, if global warming melts the arctic ice and the gulf stream is diverted, it is quite possible that northern Europe will experience this cooling.

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