Most incorrect thing you were taught?

Insect Overlord

Louche Lad wrote: »

Most western point in Ireland seems to be Tearaght Island off the Dingle Peninsula: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_points_of_the_Republic_of_Ireland

That island is one of the Blaskets. Cool Wikipedia page though. I'll bookmark that for quizzes and stuff.

Duggys Housemate

wilkie2006 wrote: »

The point that I was getting at is that graduates' standard of academic knowledge and competency has had to increase in response to the decrease in employment prospects.

Yes, school has indeed become an institution that champions learning by rote at the expense of students really challenging and engaging with material. In this respect, schools are guilty of bad pedagogy. While one's superior intellect cannot be confirmed through scoring 600 LC points, their superior knowledge of that particular subject (at its level) cannot be questioned (an achievement that I don't think can be ignored if we're talking about competency, particularly for vocational jobs).

In my experience, however, the type of material one studies in a university degree precludes the school-inspired variety of "learning by appropriation". Those who persist with it or are incapable of advancing beyond it are those who flounder in their degrees (even if they excelled in their peer groups at school).

While the LC may provide a very crude, unfair - and, I agree, often imprecise - filter of "excellence", the criteria for progressing from undergraduate to postgraduate is far more sophisticated. In order to qualify, one must have a demonstrable ability to engage their chosen subject in a reflexive, critical way (i.e. proof that they've learnt the skills taught traditionally by universities).

This is standard cant about the LC. The fact is not all of the LC is rote, and most of it doesn't have to be, with some exceptions, but a huge amount of University Courses are nothing else but rote.

ComputerKing

Project Maths

Shorty11857

Shorty11857 wrote: »

Water freezes at 100C, was a typo in our Geography book and pretty much proved that our teacher had no business teaching at all

I always remember having a textbook (1960's) that was about the solar system and had the surface temperatures of the outer planets at values considerably below absolute zero measured in Fahrenheit (−459.67)

Pluto was supposed to have a surface temperature of something like -1250 deg F

mikemac1

mikemac1 wrote: »

Using the internet for years and years before I ever knew you didn't have to type www.


I just didn't know until last year

When I expressed my surprise I got a look as if I was the greatest fool in Ireland :rolleyes:


When I started using it fadó fadó you had to type www and I had no reason to ever stop

Depends on the DNS name resolution, there are still many web sites out there that only resolved with the www. in front!

Duggys Housemate

Deleted User wrote: »

Depends on the DNS name resolution, there are still many web sites out there that only resolved with the www. in front!

The browser adds it.

fasttalkerchat

Duggys Housemate wrote: »

The browser adds it.

There are exceptions.

jobcentreonline.com for one.

SdoowSirhc

Insect Overlord wrote: »

That island is one of the Blaskets. Cool Wikipedia page though. I'll bookmark that for quizzes and stuff.

You better bookmark it for a quiz! It was in a quiz that he came out with this statement and told me I was wrong :P

fasttalkerchat

Here's one, the topic of quizzes reminded me:
We were at a quiz. Final question was one about Disney films. I knew the answer and my sister watched that film 100 times as a kid so she was sure. We thought had every other question right in that round so it was either joint first or we had won.
Anyway, we came second! He called out the answers and it was wrong... Checked it on wikipedia when we got home and we were right. Gutted.

Won a bottle of Baileys instead of Oxegen tickets.

im invisible

fasttalkerchat wrote: »

Here's one, the topic of quizzes reminded me:
We were at a quiz. Final question was one about Disney films. I knew the answer and my sister watched that film 100 times as a kid so she was sure. We thought had every other question right in that round so it was either joint first or we had won.
Anyway, we came second! He called out the answers and it was wrong... Checked it on wikipedia when we got home and we were right. Gutted.

Won a bottle of Baileys instead of Oxegen tickets.

don't leave us hanging, man...

baalthor

Ikky Poo2 wrote: »

SdoowSirhc wrote: »

Hahah, brilliant

You should have pointed out that Greenland is a Danish province and therefore even further west than Iceland. No EU come back there!

Greenland is not part of the EU or of Europe.

The most westerly part of the EU is Saint-Martin, part of the French Caribbean.

fasttalkerchat

im invisible wrote: »

don't leave us hanging, man...

I cant remember the exact question I'm afraid. The correct answer was sleeping beauty and they said Snow White. Wrecking my brains now!

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

Ikky Poo2 wrote: »

You should have pointed out that Greenland is a Danish province and therefore even further west than Iceland. No EU come back there!

Its somewhat more complicated than that. Greeland is a constituent country of the Kingdom of Denmark but its not part of the actual Danish state and isn't part of the EU.

gufnork

To think before you act. All this does is cause you to worry for ages and then not do what it was you wanted to originally.

Bad, bad mummy.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Duffy the Vampire Slayer wrote: »

Its somewhat more complicated than that. Greeland is a constituent country of the Kingdom of Denmark but its not part of the actual Danish state and isn't part of the EU.

His teacher's not going to know that!

If we're going down the road f the EU, how about French Guiana?

SdoowSirhc

Ikky Poo2 wrote: »

His teacher's not going to know that!

If we're going down the road f the EU, how about French Guiana?

Thanks for that one, didn't even think of over seas territories I'll be sure to ask him about that if he ever decides to brings it up again. What amazed me was that he argued with me in front of everybody that Iceland didn't count as being European even after I told him that it had even applied to join the EU. He said "well yeah, but it's not culturally part of Europe really"
I thought it was more culturally European that "geographically" European because it's part of the Scandinavian group of countries..

Capt'n Midnight

Ikky Poo2 wrote: »

His teacher's not going to know that!

If we're going down the road f the EU, how about French Guiana?

Or Polynesia ?

MultiUmm

A teacher in primary school told us that during WWII the soldiers in concentration camps and other areas on the front were guilty of no crimes at all because they were "just following orders" from the chain of command.
So she basically absolved thousands of war criminals who committed atrocities because they were only following their orders like good boys sure.
I think that was possibly the most inaccurate thing I was ever taught.

DEFTLEFTHAND

MultiUmm wrote: »

A teacher in primary school told us that during WWII the soldiers in concentration camps and other areas on the front were guilty of no crimes at all because they were "just following orders" from the chain of command.
So she basically absolved thousands of war criminals who committed atrocities because they were only following their orders like good boys sure.
I think that was possibly the most inaccurate thing I was ever taught.

They were following orders. Germany had conscription they had no choice in the matter. The Nazi hunters need to lay off. Don't put the tag of war criminal on these men, they have suffered enough.

BlueSmoker

That I'm not normal

I realise now I'm as normal as the next person, it feels good

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

They were following orders. Germany had conscription they had no choice in the matter. The Nazi hunters need to lay off. Don't put the tag of war criminal on these men, they have suffered enough.

The death camps were operated by SS volunteers, all of whom were war criminals.

Neeson

Them Sellafield tablets each household were given years ago that we're to be taken if there was a nuclear disaster were actually suicide tablets.

MultiUmm

MultiUmm wrote: »

A teacher in primary school told us that during WWII the soldiers in concentration camps and other areas on the front were guilty of no crimes at all because they were "just following orders" from the chain of command.
So she basically absolved thousands of war criminals who committed atrocities because they were only following their orders like good boys sure.
I think that was possibly the most inaccurate thing I was ever taught.

So I guess soldiers from either side who were on the front are war criminals?

Do you think everyone who was a member of the khymer rouge was a war criminal aswell?

Jesus Wept

Neeson wrote: »

Them Sellafield tablets each household were given years ago that we're to be taken if there was a nuclear disaster were actually suicide tablets.

lol

Gurgle

MultiUmm wrote:

war criminals who committed atrocities

Deleted User wrote: »

So I guess soldiers from either side who were on the front are war criminals?

Atrocity

Noun
atrocity (countable and uncountable; plural atrocities)
(uncountable) The quality or state of being atrocious; enormous wickedness; extreme criminality or cruelty.
(countable) An extremely cruel act; a horrid act of injustice.

Soldier != War Criminal

Alot of the Khymer Rouge are also considered to be victims in Cambodia.. There was no choice involved for most. Take this gun, kill or we kill you.

Their pictures and stories are documented next to the people they had to kill.

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote: »

Alot of the Khymer Rouge are also considered to be victims in Cambodia.. There was no choice involved for most. Take this gun, kill or we kill you.

That statement holds true for most acts of "genocide" in the past as the penalty for disobeying orders was often death.

There are exceptions of course.

Capt'n Midnight

Gurgle wrote: »

Soldier != War Criminal

Soldiers = { !(War Criminals) & War Criminals }

Solair

I remember in university they told us that banks had ultra-reliable IT systems that ensured 100% uptime.

Capt'n Midnight

Deleted User wrote: »

That statement holds true for most acts of "genocide" in the past as the penalty for disobeying orders was often death.

At present there is almost no down side to obeying orders. Your chances of being prosecuted and then found guilty and then having to face punishment that was anything like the immediate punishment for not following orders is practically zero.

Perhaps if those following orders knew there might be a time of reckoning it might slow down the worst of them a little. Considering the millions who have died even a 0.01% rate of indecision would save lots of lives.