Christopher Columbus "discovered" America.

In my freshman year of high school our English teacher required us to enter the American Legion Essay Contest. The topic that year was "why America is the greatest country in the world." This assignment irritated the living shit out of me, so I decided to parody the whole thing. I wrote the worst piece of jingoistic tripe I could conceive of. You could almost hear the marching bands in the background as you read it.

And then the goddamned thing won third place at the state competition. And I was asked to go to the state capital and read it at a ceremony.

I refused to do it.

I learned a valuable lesson from this ... always give teachers what they're fishing for, never the truth.

Vietnam was a victory. Cold war was a victory. Electoral college is a fair system. Pop is still good music.

That boys are more important than girls.

Other than that, they seem to keep changing their minds about whether or not Pluto is a planet. It was, supposedly, when I was a kid.

Oh, and that Africa and South America never fit together. It wasn't just Al Gore who noticed that as a kid - I got called stupid and crazy for asking about that, too.

Our schools are teaching facts that were proved false centuries ago. If you'd like your kid to learn creation theory without paying for a private education, all you need to do is live in the right state.

That whole Thanksgiving story.... And for some reason we were given the impression that Plymouth rock is large - it's not. It's actually quite disappointing. Also, did you know there are other Shakespearean plays aside from Romeo & Juliet? I swear we did that one in English class every. single. year.

Too many ‘facts’ to list here. What in my opinion is worse, is how much history was omitted. The white washing of history in order not to offend? North American history, Central & South American & European history talked of war...and barely a peep about genicide of whole groups of human beings. Unfortunately, we have not gotten any better with this...and so it continues.

American History.

dick tracy's wrist watch is impossible.

I remember being taught that plate tectonics was a controversial theory. I also remember asking my father if there was anything smaller than protons/neutrons/electrons (he was a university Chemistry Professor). He answered no, and when I pressed he emphatically said no.

PMS was "all in a woman's head", as was fibromyalgia.

This all isn't exactly what I learned in school, but I do remember this.

This is stupid, but I never forgot. My home-ec teacher in Colorado told the class that Florida oranges were green. I'm from Florida and had reality moved to Colorado from Florida, and I told her " no, Florida oranges are orange", and she didn't believe me. She continued saying they were green. Stupid!

Vikings never sailed to the new world.

DNA, genetics have disproven what we thought was 'race' .

That the US is the "good guy" in world politics. That all our wars were for peace, freedom, and the American way, which is, of course, the best way in the world. That our nation is a Christian nation, and that's why we conquered our enemies.

The steady state theory. A whole lot concerning biology.

How to stop a nosebleed

Dinosaurs were stupid and slow moving.

Damn near everthing..

Nine planets; Jupiter had 12 moons and Saturn had 9

That there are only 2 genders.

That algebra would be a useful skill.

The ones that stand out from primary school,
asbestos it this amazing stuff, safe, should be in every home,
in the future we will have cheap safe nuclear power and most things will be automated so people will only work 2 or 3 days a week, and be highly paid.

Probably the expansion of the American West. Manifest Destiny they called it. It was our countries God given right to take the land from the Indians because they did not use it to farm, raise cattle, build cities or divert the rivers to irrigate crops.
Then there the treaties that were broken by the U.S. Government. That’s an other story. I think everyone was broken.
For a good read check out “Bury My heart at Wounded Knee” by Dee Brown

America is not really a democracy.