Why do we teach little kids lies?

[yaroslav]

Originally posted by loinburger


The Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria.

Well, on Spain, we say Niña

[Dan Severn]

Originally posted by yaroslav


It folly means what Babylon.com tell me (you can see: my english is not vey good), I can only say that I'm getting tired of people that feel free to offend me only becasue I grow up on a Hispanic country.

It's a joke. Folly=Idea mala (Mi español es peor que su inglés.) Sleeping when the enemy is near is not wise.

[yaroslav]

Pardon. Babylon translate is in another way: as crazy, absurd, stupid

So I beg your pardon because my bad English cause me to not understand your post

EDIT: I've edited the original message in order to show my fault

[Dan Severn]

Originally posted by yaroslav
Pardon. Babylon translate is in another way: as crazy, absurd, stupid

So I beg your pardon because my bad English cause me to not understand your post

It can mean those things, too. But I wasn't using the word in that capacity.

[yaroslav]

I humbly ask your pardon, again

[Dan Severn]

Originally posted by yaroslav
I humbly ask your pardon, again

Don' sweat it, mate.

[Ethelred]

Originally posted by Ron Jeremy
When I was 8, my elderly and somewhat confused teacher revealed to the class that Britain had not lost a war since 1066.

Riiiiiigght....

I heard it similar but correctly. Sort of any.

Britain(key word Britain not England) hasn't been invaded since 1066. Thats if you don't count foreigner Bonny Prince Chuck as a one man invasion and don't count Egland invading Scotland or Scotland invading England, which is why Britain vs England is a key to the phrase.

[Lincoln]

The problem is who is control of education at any particular time. When I was in elementary school in the 1950's we were taught about mom and apple pie and and how to win the west and kill the Indians. Yes, we were taught that Columbus sailed to prove that the world was round and was a big hero. We were not taught that he expolited the Indians for their gold and other unsavory practices of the early "heroes". The revolutionary war was all England's fault of course and expanding west while rolling over any "savages" in the way was quite all right.

Now of course the little ones are taught that the Indians were all little sweethearts so perhaps there is some middle ground in there somewhere. I re-educated myself after I left school. I suggest that anyone who is really interested in an education do the same.

Oh yea. I should have listened when they tried to teach me how to spell.

[Ethelred]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov


Oh please. The thread is about how schools continue to teach historical lies, half-truths and misconceptions. Here comes a poster talking about those, but in the same post continues the misconceptions by implying history in N. America didn't start until the Europeans arrived. Well, excuuuuuuuuuuse me for pointing out there were people here thousands of years before Europeans showed up.

Yes there were people but there was no HISTORY. Thats record keeping. What we have about the Pre-Columbian New World is from archeology not history.

I think it's high time we stop propagating the idea Europeans "discovered" the Americas. They did not.

Actual discovery entails knowing that you are someplace new AND communicating it to others. Thus St. Brendan did not discover the New World and some Greenlander did BUT it was only communicated to Greenland and maybe Iceland. Even then it was just another a patch of land much like another island.

The earliest Amerinds had even less idea that they were in a new land than Lief Ericson did. They told no one on top of that. They just kind of wandered around and multiplied.

Of course Columbus didn't figure out what he did either. He discovered islands not two continents.

[Ethelred]

Originally posted by loinburger


That happened in my junior high as well (it was actually more like 20 out of 25 kids), even though the lesson was completely accurate. Let's face it: sex is damn funny.

Our Sex Ed classes had movies from US army made for WWII. Porn was not readily available either in the sixties. Especially hard core. Penthouse wasn't even in existence yet. Playboy was about it. Oh and the National Geographic.

[DaShi]

CBeast!

[Kramerman]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
The Mexicans lost no more than 400 men at the Alamo.

This is the first source I found on a google search:

http://www.lsjunction.com/events/alamo.htm

It mentions 1600 Mexican deaths. Again, the numbers vary greatly. But I can garuntee you that the Mexican army lost more than 400. You must have been reading the papers of Santa Anna, which mentioned that there were like 900 defenders of the Alamo and he had only 1000 troops, IIRC. but it doesnt really matter.

[MrFun]

I wonder if there has actually been a case where an ignorant teacher tried to use "Gone with the Wind" novel as a history textbook for teaching the American Civil War??

[Kramerman]

Originally posted by MrFun
I wonder if there has actually been a case where an ignorant teacher tried to use "Gone with the Wind" novel as a history textbook for teaching the American Civil War??

im sure of it.

[JtheJackal]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove


So no one can answer my question about where John Smith landed and the name of the three ships carrying the expedition? Well then, you're all a bunch of hypocrites. If you can't answer a few simple basic questions about American history you have no right to criticise what the younger generation is being taught!

Discovery, Godspeed, and Susan Constant
They landed on James River in Virgina where they founded the first permanent colony in North America, Jamestown.