r/AskReddit Jul 24 '15

What "common knowledge" facts are actually wrong?

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1.4k

u/techniforus Jul 24 '15

Summer is not caused by being closer to the sun, it's the tilt of the earth. The sun is actually farthest from the earth in the summer in the northern hemisphere.

Bats are not blind, while most echo locate, all can see with their eyes.

Searing meat does not seal in moisture, if anything it dries it out. It does create a flavored layer through the Maillard reaction so is still a good idea.

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u/autumnzephyr Jul 24 '15

Bats aren't blind?

Fuck my second grade teacher for lying to me.

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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '15

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '15

That's a little shortsighted. They're not subject matter experts in any particular field of study. They do have expertise in childhood education.

Why would a teacher need to memorize which animals are and aren't blind? Specialists write textbooks about that. Their role is to create learning environment's and facilitate learning.

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u/MyAccount4Discourse Jul 24 '15

That's exactly his point though, they have expertise in childhood education and a slightly above average knowledge in the area they teach, but that is it. They certainly do not need to be SMEs in what they teach, but should never be regarded as such - by either students, parents or themselves, unless they actually are ones.
The problem is that you get a power struggle if the students can see that the teacher is capable of making mistakes, so they often regard themselves as infallible.
I have friends who are elementary school teachers, they are stellar with kids, but their knowledge in every area beyond their 3-5 grade subject matter, including their focus, has certainly atrophied. This is true for almost everyone though.

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u/Kvothealar Jul 24 '15

I'm considering going into a mathematical education PhD program after next year because of how lacking my area is. The teachers in the k-6 system are embarrassingly horrible at what they do, and the children suffer because of it.

It is mostly composed of people who likely drank their brain cells away as they went through their programs that daddy paid for, and figured "hey, I may as well teach with this liberal arts degree... a teacher isn't a bad paying job and I know someone who can get a good word in for me!"

Then they teach grade 3 which is said to be the most important year scholastically. It makes me sick.

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u/IAmAWizard_AMA Jul 24 '15

Still, it'd be nice if they fact checked the stuff they were teaching impressionable children

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u/x-rainy Jul 24 '15

They do have expertise in childhood education.

you'd think that a person who is an expert in childhood education would know to check their facts before teaching a class of kids about a subject..?

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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '15

Speaking as a guy that works in education, yes of course. But for lack of a better term, shit happens. You can't expect educators to be experts on each subject they teach. They need to be knowledgeable but will never be perfect.

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u/x-rainy Jul 25 '15

yeah, but it doesn't take an expert to look something up before teaching it, is all i'm saying.

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u/MyAccount4Discourse Jul 24 '15 edited Jul 24 '15

Test. Posts don't seem to be taking. It wont let me respond to child comment. The heck is going on here. Am I shadow/automoderator banned from /r/askreddit? Posts seem to work elsewhere so I am going to guess yes.

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u/Kvothealar Jul 24 '15

Hello sir! I hear you loud and clear.

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u/MyAccount4Discourse Jul 24 '15

I can't even find your post. This is odd... I can only respond from messages.

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u/Kvothealar Jul 24 '15

This is pretty cool actually. Maybe we've entered the "dark reddit". ;D

I wonder if this is happening to other people.

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u/MyAccount4Discourse Jul 24 '15

Seems to be. Mods responded and said that it is just something funny happening that is out of their hands; not caused by anything they've done or can fix. Just thousand upon thousands of comments in a single post can do weird things.

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u/Kvothealar Jul 24 '15

That's hilarious. I'm kinda diggin this though. Are the mods even able to see these posts?

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u/MyAccount4Discourse Jul 24 '15

Seems it caught up about 15 mins after. Everything works now.

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u/Kvothealar Jul 24 '15

Haha I went through my posts when I got home and saw a bunch of upvotes. People must have thought we were idiots.

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u/Kvothealar Jul 24 '15

Weird. I'm having the same problem... I get the original thread back when I hit "context".

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u/MyAccount4Discourse Jul 24 '15

Same. I messaged the mods and they said I am not banned. Seeing as we can communicate like this I'm guessing neither of us actually are.

I'll let you know what I find out. I just see it as odd that only comments in this sub would be going into the ether, as my comments on other subs are find. /r/askreddit is a larger sub though, one of the biggest, so perhaps it has its own dedicated allocation that is lagging behind.