11 Things We Were Taught As Kids That Turned Out To Be Completely Wrong
Not everything you were taught in school is 100% true.
panophotograph | Shutterstock It's not uncommon for accessibility of information and complex thinking skills to contribute to the debunking of myths we learned early in school. But a great deal of the misguided facts our teachers and parents taught us were due to misinformation, misunderstandings, and biases from the start. As an impressionable child learning from an adult in a classroom setting, a teacher's innate prejudices and misconceptions can truly affect not just how we learn, but what we learn, like experts from Norfolk State University suggest.
Especially coupled with enhanced technology, there are several things we were taught as kids that turned out to be completely wrong, changing our perception of everything we learned in school — from historical facts, to how we regulate our emotions, and even our solar system.
Here are 11 things we were taught as kids that turned out to be completely wrong
1. Chameleons change color to blend in
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While many people believe and have been taught that chameleons change their color to blend in with their surroundings as a defense mechanism, experts from Indiana University Bloomington argue their changes in color actually hold a different purpose. Sometimes for regulating temperature and other times to signal dominance, chameleons don't usually blend in to hide themselves; in fact, it's quite the opposite.
While it might seem subtle and minuscule, this random fact about chameleons is still one of the things we were taught as kids that turned out to be completely wrong.
2. Cursive is necessary
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While many older generations like Gen X and baby boomers were forced to learn cursive in school, any true practical usage of it in adulthood has almost completely disappeared. In fact, cursive instruction was even cut from Common Core curriculums across the country in 2010 to account for how unnecessary it's become in our adult lives and to make more space for standardized testing initiatives and learning styles.
Whether or not you believe it's an important skill to learn, its practical use has truly become one of the things we were taught as kids that turned out to be completely wrong.
3. Boys make fun of the girls they like
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While there's certainly merit to arguments that boys grow up in a society that encourages them to disconnect from their uncomfortable emotions and embrace a misguided sense of superiority in their relationships, the belief that boys "make fun of the girls they like" is both a stigmatized and toxic idea and is something we were taught as kids that turned out to be completely wrong.
A healthy relationship is founded on mutual understanding, respect, and trust in adulthood, and a toxic belief like this only reinforces women's belief that a toxic connection is something worth investing and engaging in.
Especially for traditional teachers and educators that brought this idea into their classrooms and encouraged young boys to adopt the practice, it was truly more conducive to bullying than true connection.
4. Quicksand is a huge risk as an adult
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As one of the more subtle, yet equally scary, things we were taught as kids that turned out to be completely wrong, why were we so afraid of quicksand? At every turn, there was a children's book about the dangers and a story about someone's twice-removed cousin that found their demise in quicksand.
Yet, less than a handful of people actually find themselves in a truly frightening and unsafe situation with quicksand every year. So, we can blame the movies, our fear-mongering teachers and parents, or maybe our childhood books for our childhood trauma with this strange phenomenon, but at least it's one less thing we have to worry about in adulthood.
5. We only use 10% of our brains
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According to research from the Association for Psychological Science, only ever using 10% of our brains is one of the things we were taught as kids that turned out to be wrong. With improved technology and research investigating the brain, experts can now see and understand that our brains are utilized for much more than just a fraction of our daily routines.
So, while nearly 50% of early education teachers firmly believe and teach the "10% myth," we now know that our brains are interwoven into most of our daily habits and behaviors, from experiencing emotions, to regulating ourselves, engaging in complex thinking, and bonding with others.
6. We only have 5 senses
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Many of us were only taught the five main human senses — touch, sight, hearing, smell, and taste — and reassured that those were the only sensations we experience. However, there's actually many more, according to neurology professor Antonio Damasio that account for the less well-known "layers" of our mind.
From "proprioception," the sense of our body parts and physical being in relation to the world, to "chronoception," the sense of time passing, the exact number of additional senses we experience as humans is closer to 23 than to 5, yet still relatively vague as technology and research progresses.
7. You should always respect your elders
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While definitions of true respect tend to look different for everyone, the idea that you should put someone on a pedestal simply because of their age is misguided.
While it's not necessarily a myth to believe that you should "respect your elders," considering many are deserving of empathy and trust with their experience and wisdom, simply adopting this ideal with little regard for your own well-being or boundaries can do more harm than good.
Respect should be a two-way street and if we're teaching our kids to tolerate disrespect and toxic behaviors from their elders simply because they hold authority from age, we're putting them at risk for mistreatment and weak boundaries.
8. There are only XX and XY chromosomes
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Especially in our society today where discussions on biology gender have become overly stigmatized and unnecessarily controversial, the belief that there's only two sets of chromosomes — XX and XY — can be easily debunked as a myth by science.
Like research from Scientific American argues, biologists believe that there's a spectrum, encompassed in examples of people who are born with combinations of X and Y chromosomes like "XXY."
So, while you might have been taught a simplistic — and toxically rigid — "fact" that there's only biological males and females, science argues it's simply untrue.
9. People are either left-brained or right-brained
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While many of us were taught to believe that we're either "left-brained or right-brained," otherwise known as logical and rational or creative and open-minded, this belief is actually one of the things we were taught as kids that turned out to be completely wrong.
While the left side of our brain is typically responsible for logical processing, language, and analytical thinking, and the right is more creative and spatially aware, the majority of people tend to use both sides in their everyday lives without preference.
The myth that people favor one side of their brains was surely debunked by neuroscientists in a 2013 PLoS One study, who found that unless one side of our brain is damaged, we don't use one side more than the other and often use both simultaneously to complex tasks and engage in behaviors.
10. Swallowed gum takes 7 years to digest
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Whether it's folklore or school misconceptions that encouraged us to believe gum takes seven years to digest in our bodies before it's completely gone, experts like gastroenterologist Elizabeth Rajan, M.D. argue that this is completely a myth.
While it's technically true that we can't digest gum completely, it goes immediately to our digestive system when it's swallowed and passed through like any other kind of food.
Other experts from Duke Health argue that while swallowing gum, filled with artificial sugars and preservatives, isn't great for your overall well-being, it's not as unhealthy as we might have been made to believe as kids.
11. Thomas Edison invented the light bulb
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While it might seem shocking to some and painfully obvious to others, most of our nation's early inventions and discoveries were credited to someone entirely different from who discovered them. Whether it was biases and prejudges of the time or manipulative claims to influence and power, many marginalized communities were stripped of their credit for large discoveries that still influence our adult lives today.
For example, Thomas Edison wasn't the first person to invent the lightbulb, just the first to patent it, with influences and knowledge from innovators and scientists who had been experimenting with electricity for years prior.
Of course, not every historical advancement we learned as a kid is a product of this toxic system, but recognizing the trends — men taking credit for women's discoveries or white communities claiming influence from POC innovators — can ensure we approach historical discussions and beliefs from a hesitant and knowledgeable perspective.
Zayda Slabbekoorn is a staff writer with a bachelor's degree in social relations & policy and gender studies who focuses on psychology, relationships, self-help, and human interest stories.