Things you learned in school that are no longer true.

[grumbler]

*turns and runs*

*throws out a hip*

[garbon]

The thing I learned in school that is not true - that Columbus discovered the New World.

I didn't learn that (when I was in school, we already knew about Lief Ericson and the gang), but did learn that the reason Columbus had such a hard time getting finances was because he touted the "foolish" belief that the world was round.  Heck, that story is still told by some teachers today! I'd say half my world history students are flabbergasted when I tell them the truth.

I don't know if it is ever taught by teachers (or is just common misinformation) but one that continues to float around is that "Humans only use 10% of our brains."

[Barrister]

It happens a lot with medical science. On the front end we're told half of what we are taught is going to be shown to be wrong in 10 years. As with Marti, it's boring and/or technical stuff.

Now that I think about it, it happens in law school too.

Just as an example, I went to law school 1997-2000.  In 1998 the SCC case out with a trio of cases that completely changed administrative law.  So our admin law class in 1998-1999 was taught to us from scratch based on these new cases.

In 2008 though the SCC thought better of it, and completely overhauled admin law again.  So everything I learned in class is now completely wrong.

The list of law school ones is endless - my personal bugbear in law school was the "patent unreasonableness test" in administrative law, which I always thought made no damn sense - eventually, the SC decided that yes, indeed, the "patent unreasonableness test" made no damn sense. 

The difference between Pushpanathan and Dunsmuir is my example - you'll have to find your own.

[lustindarkness]

Wait what? I was supposed to learn stuff in school?

[alfred russel]

Sex with a condom is just as good as sex without. That definitely isn't true now. Maybe it was true when I was in high school, but I wouldn't know. 

[Jacob]

I was thinking of excluding things like current events and geography from the this thread.  I should have.  Obviously we all learned there was a big red country that took of the Northern half a of Eurasia and that this country is not there anymore.

Careful, Raz, you might be unceremoniously drafted into the nitpick brigade. Seedy is the chief recruiting officer and Jacob is the USO talent.

Now you're playing "assign positions" game too!

[Jacob]

I don't know if it is ever taught by teachers (or is just common misinformation) but one that continues to float around is that "Humans only use 10% of our brains."

Turns out that's only true for languish posters?

[The Brain]

Which 10%?

[Razgovory]

Christ, what a trainwreck.

[DGuller]

Good of you to admit your own ignorance, though somewhat out of character for you

Ah, the old "I'm rubber, you're glue" gambit.  Haven't seen that one work since first grade, unfortunately for you.

They had rubber when you were in first grade? 

[Razgovory]

Great.  Seedy and garbon are giffing at one another and Grumbler has regressed to the first grade.

[celedhring]

My Spanish language textbook still considered "Galician-Portuguese" to be the same language, and I was told as such by my teachers. It's been centuries since both languages diverged. I've always suspected that, since this was in the late 1980s, it was a remnant of Franco times Spanish cultural imperialism.

That's about the most interesting thing I can come up with that adheres strictly to the OP, sorry.

You can still find that notion dangling around in philological circles. It has a hard time against the reality down on the ground, but it has some validity up in ivory towers.

Thing is, Franco was not a pro-Galician language dude so colour me skeptical on this one. Only Castilian existed. Not sure where you get that Francoist vibe  Specially, since the "Galician and Portuguese are (very) different languages" position was something very popular after Franco which led to the imposition of Castilian spelling to Galician, not exactly the best choice given the history of Galician.

As for being the same language, there is still this dialect continuum between Northern Portuguese and Galician. Of course, Lisboete is quite another thing.

You don't need to lecture me on stuff about my home region, and it was Cel the one who assumed the Franco link. 

The linguists that put forward the "Galician and Portuguese are the same language" are bound to be the exact opposite of Franco apologists.

Fair enough, I just got a "Portugal is just part of Spain" vibe out of it.

[Duque de Bragança]

Interesting part of the world, what's it like for cycling?

South of the country is flat, north is hilly and/or mountainous. The beaches in the South have too many Brits holding property, yet who cannot afford a baby sitter.

I know a bit about Portugal in general, I was more interested in that area on the North Portuguese-Spanish borders, looks very interesting on the maps/satellite images.

A bike ride I did was Bragança-Rio de Onor by following the road to the airfield, then through Varge (a village possible halt for a very hearty meal in a local restaurant), till Rio de Onor a.k.a Rihonor de Castilla (sic) in Castilian. Rio de Onor is an interesting little village, a curiosity for ethnologists with its communal property traditions and near extinct Astur-Leonese dialect, which used to be intersected by the Spanish-Portuguese border which was materialised by a chain in the old days. Before the opening of the paved road, in the '60s, it was quite an off-the-way place. It still is in a way, being located in a middle of a natural park.
Not so much people and obviously not so much traffic, despite being the best way to get to the (future) high speed train station in Puebla de Sanabria/Póvoa de Seabra across the border, through a very narrow local road, and very steep at times in the Spanish side.

https://www.google.fr/maps/dir/Bragan%C3%A7a,+Portugal/Rio+de+Onor,+Bragance,+Portugal/@41.873404,-6.761783,12z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0xd3a49fd2c3fc247:0xd7369ad50abd191c!2m2!1d-6.756738!2d41.8061131!1m5!1m1!1s0xd3a3ae06ca0b969:0x500ebbde4908a20!2m2!1d-6.6159029!2d41.9404865?hl=fr

[mongers]

Interesting part of the world, what's it like for cycling?

South of the country is flat, north is hilly and/or mountainous. The beaches in the South have too many Brits holding property, yet who cannot afford a baby sitter.

I know a bit about Portugal in general, I was more interested in that area on the North Portuguese-Spanish borders, looks very interesting on the maps/satellite images.

A bike ride I did was Bragança-Rio de Onor by following the road to the airfield, then through Varge (a village possible halt for a very hearty meal in a local restaurant), till Rio de Onor a.k.a Rihonor de Castilla (sic) in Castilian. Rio de Onor is an interesting little village, a curiosity for ethnologists with its communal property traditions and near extinct Astur-Leonese dialect, which used to be intersected by the Spanish-Portuguese border which was materialised by a chain in the old days. Before the opening of the paved road, in the '60s, it was quite an off-the-way place. It still is in a way, being located in a middle of a natural park.
Not so much people and obviously not so much traffic, despite being the best way to get to the (future) high speed train station in Puebla de Sanabria/Póvoa de Seabra across the border, through a very narrow local road, and very steep at times in the Spanish side.

https://www.google.fr/maps/dir/Bragan%C3%A7a,+Portugal/Rio+de+Onor,+Bragance,+Portugal/@41.873404,-6.761783,12z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0xd3a49fd2c3fc247:0xd7369ad50abd191c!2m2!1d-6.756738!2d41.8061131!1m5!1m1!1s0xd3a3ae06ca0b969:0x500ebbde4908a20!2m2!1d-6.6159029!2d41.9404865?hl=fr

Duque thanks for that, very informative.

[grumbler]

Ah, the old "I'm rubber, you're glue" gambit.  Haven't seen that one work since first grade, unfortunately for you.

They had rubber when you were in first grade? 

Yep.  I was in a first world country.  Unlike some.