1/25/03 3:14:00 PM, rone at ennui.org (circadian rhyme) wrote: >Gomi no Sensei writes: > 1/25/03 2:53:11 PM, rone at ennui.org (circadian rhyme) wrote: > >Gaertk at aol.com writes: > > Chris Olson - SunPS <Chrisf.Olson at Sun.COM> writes: > > >_____ - _Lies My Teacher Told Me_ > > This sort of thing exists? When I read _Science of > > Discworld_ (by Pratchett, Stewart, and Cohen), they discussed > > how school texts are full of "lies-to-students" and why, but > > didn't have many examples or the true explanations. > >The classic one is the Columbus discovery of America. >[dude, 80 columns] > An oversimplification (Northmen, etc.) but surely true enough -- > Columbus' trip is what opened up the era of colonization, not Erik > the Red, so it seems fair to mark Columbus as the 'discoverer,' > since his trip is what actually led to the large-scale > effects. Calling it a 'lie' always seemed gratuitously tendentious > to me. I mean, the Maya had developed the wheel, but only used it in > small toys, not for wagons -- it would seem equally incongruous to > say they 'invented the wheel'. > But I digress. >That's not what i meant; i meant the lies told specifically about >Columbus's trip (he believed the world was round when everyone else >thought it was flat, the Queen of Spain sold her jewels to finance the >trip, there were three caravels, plus many other myths which i don't >remember now and can't look up because that book was donated to >charity by someone else). oh, like the 'Galileo was a martyr for science in the face of wikkid Church oppression' line. I guess that's less annoying, then. paul e.