I made a website that tells you, based on the year you graduated high school, what your school (probably) got wrong!

I learned that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. And that busywork and adhering to the rubric is far more important than learning or producing anything useful.

I went in hoping to learn some cool knew facts and already knew them all. Feels bad man.

Also seemed like more so myths than stuff that was actually taught and then later revised.

It's a neat website, but it is very America specific.

For example, I'm Australian and I wasn't taught about slavery or genocide of our native people in high school. Hell, I was taught that the Stolen generation was a misnomer and children were only taken voluntarily or as an act of mercy... I graduated in 2008 so it wasn't exactly the dark ages. Referring to the planned exterminations of the natives as "battles" and "conflicts" at best was another one. they didn't even mention the shit that went down in Tasmania.

it's not just the dumb stuff like food pyramids and taste zones, even in schools today history is being glossed over

Strange. The site doesn't quite work properly for me. I set my decade, then changed it so I could see my parents and all the myths were the same.

Then I clicked around and they are the same for every decade that I selected.

I graduated in 2003. My DARE teachers basically taught drug abstinence and telling an adult about people offering you drugs. The really didn't talk about gateway drugs and what it does to your brain. This was in Illinois.

Update with context for you all since this post is unexpectedly taking off,

This was a small project I made in 5 hours as just a "huh, this would be neat to make!" and as a first coding project. I mostly shared it expecting a little bit of feedback but nothing too major, clearly I underestimated what to expect from it lol.

There's been a lot of really good suggestions for how to improve the site and make it better, so thank yall for that! Things I'm planning on doing are:

-Making open source so people can edit. Its just basic HTML and JavaScript so nothing too complex there

-Suggestions box on the site

-Some type of regional variations listed on the site

-If possible, more obscure myths and more tied to the curriculum of schools

-Optimizing the site for mobile

Probably more to come as well, but no estimates on a timeframe since I'm very much so new to this haha

Edit: Additional clarification, yes this site is only viable for Americans right now. Would love to help make it work internationally but I'm sure not the person to try and say what people in other countries were taught in school, so if someone wants to help with that lmk!

It should work better on mobile devices now, but if there's any repeated issues let me know and I can try to fix them.

It should also be public on Github, check out the description tab on the website for more info. My first time making a project open source (or even having one at all) so lmk if there's any issues!

Most of the selections give you the exact same outcome. Neat idea, but it needs work.

Did anyone else learn that eggs are dairy products? (Meaning, the word 'dairy' encompasses both eggs and milk. Not that eggs are somehow produced by cows)

Cool site, maybe you can open source it, so people can contribute improvements. I have a few ideas myself:

• Add continent or even country selector
• Display facts in a table
• Full text search

I could add those functionalities myself if needed.

A fun fact about taste for you - there is actually no such thing as a 'taste map,' or the idea that different areas of the tongue result in you tasting different things. At most, there's just different regions of sensitivity to taste!

Always thought this was weird and didn’t make sense to my tongue.

You might've been taught that lemmings are known to commit suicide because they're just that unintelligent. Turns out, this isn't true - they're smart enough to stay alive!

I blame the video game.

When I was in school, Pluto was still a planet. And it still is in my heart!!

You were probably taught at some point that people in the time of Christopher Columbus all thought the world was flat. However, this is a myth that pervades history - most people knew the earth was a globe! (Source)

Goddamnit! I've heard that so often already.

And then I learned separately that even the Greeks already knew not only that Earth was round, but even its circumference at a pretty good accuracy.

These two 'facts' genuinely had me thinking we must have lost a ton of knowledge from the Greeks...

I remember my little brother coming home from DARE convinced that my dad was an alcoholic for having a single beer after work then said little brother breaking down in tears over it. Good times.

"Probably didn't know we could map the human genome... but in 2003..."

I graduated high school in 2003, and had already heard the human genome had been mapped before entering high school. It may not have been true at the time, but I never once heard that it wouldn't be completed due to the complexity. lol

Actually quite a few of these were already being taught at my high school before it was more common knowledge. Like the stuff with Columbus and Edison. Which now makes me think my school was actually more progressive than I initially thought.

I graduated in the 2000's and the only falsehood from this list I remember being taught was the one about taste buds.

Cool concept but your site really needs some work done. I heard in school that lemmings would kill themselves and i went in the 2010s. This is only one such example, the best thing you could have done is map out which myths are most common where instead of the decade, and it would also be useful to add a important corrections list for the more important facts which you probably were misinformed about.

Pretty cool site. I like that you’ve included sources for most of the points. I was aware of the 2000’s falsehoods, but I’m sure there are many who aren’t!

It just listed a bunch of myths and old wive's tales that no one at the time thought were very credible anyway. Literally all of the "facts" they list were common chain letter/email memes that everyone trotted out at parties to sound smart and hip. Nobody ever believed what DARE told us, we always knew Christopher Columbus was an asshole, and every first aid class I've taken recommended against the whole tilt you head back thing.

• Contrary to what DARE might have taught you, marijuana is not considered a substantial gateway drug, with the best evidence being limited in nature, and with most marijuana users not going on to use other drugs. (Source) Yeah learn all that DARE BS.

• You were probably taught at some point that we'd never be able to map out the entire human genome due to its complexity. However, in 2003, we documented the first 92%, and in 2022 we documented the remaining 8%. (Source) nope I was told we will map it soon

• This one got shared by school nurses all around, but did you know that you shouldn't tilt your head back if you have a nosebleed? This could cause you to choke or vomit as a result of blood going back into your throat, or - more severely - trigger a vomiting reflex and cause inadvertent harm. (Source) Nope but my mom is a doctor so I leaned from a lot from her

• You were probably taught at some point that people in the time of Christopher Columbus all thought the world was flat. However, this is a myth that pervades history - most people knew the earth was a globe! (Source) Yup

• On the topic of Christopher Columbus, you might've been taught that he was a pretty upstanding guy, or at minimum just that he was average in terms of morality. Take a second to Google his relationship to slavery and genocide. (Source) EHHH kind of, we talk briefly about him mass cutting off people hands and enslaveing people.

• A common myth that gets thrown around a lot in health classes is that cracking your knuckles can cause arthritis. This, as it turns out, isn't true - it's perfectly safe to crack your knuckles as much as you'd like. (Source) Heard that in school mom said it was wrong, I heard both the myth and the fact

• The original food pyramid was introduced in 1992, and seemed to imply that there were different tiers of 'importance' to what food you ate. Since changed in 2011, this was deemed an inaccurate and potentially harmful way to view food intake. Food is food after all! (Source) Nope never learned that there where tiers of food each part is good for you

• A fun fact about taste for you - there is actually no such thing as a 'taste map,' or the idea that different areas of the tongue result in you tasting different things. At most, there's just different regions of sensitivity to taste! (Source) Nopw, saw taste map never learned that it was supposed to show where you taste things

• You've no doubt heard of this myth, perhaps not just from school - the idea that we only use 10% of our brains. This isn't true - we use all parts of our brains, just at different times since each neural location has a specific purpose! (Source) Yeah heard that

• Another common myth is the idea that Thomas Edison invented the lightbulb. He was in fact not the inventor, just someone who helped to optimize its efficiency. (Source) yeah heard that

• There's a good chance when you were younger, you heard classical music in the classroom to try and make you smarter. However, this is a myth - there is no such link between music and intelligence (or that we can measure intelligence for another matter!) (Source) Yeah heard that

• You've probably heard a lot about Thanksgiving being a supposedly peaceful gathering among Pilgrims and Indigenous Americans, but this is actually a myth - it led to a bloodbath brought on by colonial settlers. (Source) Yup heard that.

I literally had creationist bullshit in my text books, so I'm thinking this site won't cover everything...

The drop downlist for me is white text on white background, Android using Connect for Lemmy. It's fine when I try in browser.

Site isn't working on my device.

Just FYI. Thanksgiving is the original blatant Cultural Appropriation. Thanksgiving was one of 13 harvest feast that the Native Americans in the area would hold each year. That's one of the reasons that Canada and The US celebrate it on different days.

We also stole most of their constitution, except the bit about "no law shall be passed that doesn't directly benefit all the children of the next 7 generations."

They had existed relatively stabley for 25,000 years, and we fucked it up, stole what we wanted, and trashed the rest.

I'm glad to see that none of that was new to me.

@MiraLazine love this!! any chance you can add a submission box? (With a section for source cited ofc :p). I'm sure there's a bunch out there that people might think of and want to add.

Class of '89 here, that was pretty spot on.

This is neat! Thanks for sharing :)

Huh the Thanksgiving one I was taught that the Indians were nice to the new arrivals, but within a few short years that niceness was exploited and betrayed.

I guess maybe the welcome feast never occurred? But we certainly were taught the pilgrims drove the Indians out

my 5th grade teacher said kurt cobain died of heroin overdose and not a shotgun to the head

I’m very grateful that everything in there got debunked by my high school teachers

Pretty accurate. My mom was very much invested in our education and contradicted a lot of this info when I was growing up so I learned the true facts.

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There's a good chance when you were younger, you heard classical music in the classroom to try and make you smarter. However, this is a myth - there is no such link between music and intelligence (or that we can measure intelligence for another matter!)

I've never heard anyone claim classical music makes you smarter. I have heard people say it makes you focus better, which is true to some extent. This was one of the first things my therapist recommended I try after being diagnosed with adhd. I can't imagine it isn't applicable to people without adhd, although probably to varying degrees depending on the person.

The only thing I take issue with is the specification of classical music. Some people have told me this is because classical music doesn't have words in it, which would distract you instead of help you focus. Not only can classical music have lyrics, but every other genre of music is perfectly capable of not having lyrics. I'm not sure if its even true that the lyrics would distract you in the first place.

Its pretty clear to me that the only reason people play classical music specifically for this purpose is because it makes them feel smart. You could argue that feeling smart might actually help you get things done, but I dislike the perception of classical music as smart people music in general. It's just a style of music, like every other. There's nothing that makes it superior or more sophisticated, its just what Europeans liked a few centuries ago.

We no longer say "committed suicide" because it's no longer a crime.

Otherwise it's great!

Very cool

Stay strong 💪

•You might've been taught that lemmings are known to take their lives because they're just that unintelligent. Turns out, this isn't true - they're smart enough to stay alive! (Source)

class of 00 and I'm shocked at some of this shit. American schools must be the worst.

I had nosebleeds a lot and it was always common knowledge you never tilt your head back, like what the actual fuck.

This is hilarious. Apparently the program did not pick up on staff grooming and raping young women.

Contrary to what DARE might have taught you, marijuana is not considered a substantial gateway drug

Lol, what? Of course it's a gateway drug. What the hell else are you going to try first, heroine?