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<blockquote data-quote="MerakSpielman" data-source="post: 1196722" data-attributes="member: 7464">Heck, they taught me different &quot;facts&quot; at different grade levels. Example:&nbsp;In 1st grade, I was taught by teachers that Colombus proved that the earth was round. The greeks had figured that out a long time before, and even calculated a very precise estimate of the diameter of the earth. &nbsp;Then, a few grades later, I was taught by teachers that Columbus discovered America. This was closer to the truth, but still not true. If he discovered it, I guess all those Native Americans showed up afterward. And then there's the whole Viking thing that most people have heard of. There are suspicions that certain Portugese had traveled that far - but kept the discovery a secret. There are even rumors that China sailed across the Pacific. Certainly the Polynesians traded with South American natives.&nbsp;Finally, in high school, I learned that Christopher Columbus was searching for a fast, cheap trade route to East Asia, lied to his crew about how far they had sailed (so they wouldn't get alarmed and mutiny), forced several native tribes into slave labor for his outposts, and threatened his crew with death if they expressed the opinion that they had not landed in Asia, which was very clear to him at that point but he was in denial and refused to beleive it. It is true that his expeditions led to the European colonization of the Americas, but virtually everything I had been taught before high school was a deliberate lie.&nbsp;Why did they lie to me? Because they needed some way to explain why we celebrated Colombus Day, so they made up some stuff young kids could understand. Is that the purpose of education? I think not.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="MerakSpielman, post: 1196722, member: 7464"] Heck, they taught me different "facts" at different grade levels. Example: In 1st grade, I was taught [i]by teachers[/i] that Colombus proved that the earth was round. The greeks had figured that out a long time before, and even calculated a very precise estimate of the diameter of the earth. Then, a few grades later, I was taught [i]by teachers[/i] that Columbus discovered America. This was [i]closer[/i] to the truth, but still not true. If he discovered it, I guess all those Native Americans showed up afterward. And then there's the whole Viking thing that most people have heard of. There are suspicions that certain Portugese had traveled that far - but kept the discovery a secret. There are even rumors that China sailed across the Pacific. Certainly the Polynesians traded with South American natives. Finally, in high school, I learned that Christopher Columbus was searching for a fast, cheap trade route to East Asia, lied to his crew about how far they had sailed (so they wouldn't get alarmed and mutiny), forced several native tribes into slave labor for his outposts, and threatened his crew with death if they expressed the opinion that they had not landed in Asia, which was very clear to him at that point but he was in denial and refused to beleive it. It is true that his expeditions led to the European colonization of the Americas, but virtually everything I had been taught before high school was a deliberate lie. Why did they lie to me? Because they needed some way to explain why we celebrated Colombus Day, so they made up some stuff young kids could understand. Is that the purpose of [i]education[/i]? I think not. [/QUOTE]

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