What did they teach you in school , flat or round earth?

[pgp_protector]

Or the 1865 Comparative Geography Book (online)

Comparative geography

www.gutenberg.org

The daily revolution of the Earth on its axis is also of only medium swiftness, consuming 24 hours. This, of course, controls the periods of waking and sleep of the entire animate creation on our globe. Some planets revolve slower, some more rapidly than our own; Jupiter’s revolution, for example, is accomplished in little less than 10 hours. This extreme rapidity seems to account for the much greater flattening at the poles of the planets than the Earth exhibits, occasioned doubtless during the formation processes, while those immense revolving masses were passing from their primitive fluid state into the more rigid forms in which we know them. Of all the planets, however, the Earth has most perfectly retained the spherical shape; and the spherical form is in one sense a medium form; i.e. it is removed from all extremes of angularity, and so falls in with the analogies which I am endeavoring to establish, springing from[xi] the position of the Earth’s orbit midway between those of the inner and outer planets. According to Plato, the beauty of form lies in symmetry, and our Earth is the most symmetrical of planets, and, unquestionably, the spherical shape is the one best adapted to the display of the largest number of phenomena possible.

 

[pgp_protector]

I asked my MIL who is 80+ she gave me a funny look and said ‘round of course’.

I can’t imagine anyone alive being taught in a real school that the Earth was flat.

My wife has Dementia & she knows its round

 

[imsaneru]

Was this a public school (or what the British call a “state school”) out of curiosity?

Yes I believe it was. On looking this up I found that the school that I see now was built and completed in 1959 , and that she never went to this school.
As they had no school building she said they were schooled in an old factory next door , and she left school from there.

 

[Jipsah]

just trying to figure out why one generation was taught flat earth and my generation round earth.

It's not generational. I'm old (71), and my dad would be 100 in October. His dad would be 140 now. They were all taught that the world was a globe. Paternal Granddad had to use globe-based celestial navigation during his relatively short stint as a sailor, and it was he who showed me how a sextant worked (using a picture in a magazine). Maternal grandmother (Not sure how old she was but mom would be 96 now) spoke of her home "on the other side of the world",and showed us where Korea was on a globe in the state museum. No flat earth gibberish there.

I did ask my 80 yr old friend why they taught her flat earth

And again, I'm not far from 80 myself, and the idea of teaching us flat earth would have had my parents howling for the teacher to be sacked.

I did manage so far to work something out. The guy in the vid is an Australian and he and his mother live in a different state to us , so the two women went to different schools , because I was thinking my friend might have been going to a strange school , or had a strange teacher.

Yeah, I'd have thought that living "down under" would have required that there be a down and an under that's wholly lacking on a flat earth. <Laugh>

 

[Jipsah]

Why use that word?

Because it's shorter than "public nuisance"?

 

[Larniavc]

Because it's shorter than "public nuisance"?

Ah, then you don't know what it means.

adjective
informal

alert to injustice and discrimination in society, especially racism:

My understanding is that some people are against this. Weird.

 

[imsaneru]

And again, I'm not far from 80 myself, and the idea of teaching us flat earth would have had my parents howling for the teacher to be sacked.

Agreed. However that never happened in this case , so we are left with one or two schools so far that were teaching flat earth , and so the question is why? ...

 

[prodromos]

Ah, then you don't know what it means.

adjective
informal

alert to injustice and discrimination in society, especially racism:

My understanding is that some people are against this. Weird.

Who on earth came up with such a nonsense definition?

 

[Jipsah]

Who on earth came up with such a nonsense definition?

I did. In my experience "woke" people are self-righteous, sanctimonious, holier-than-thou white folks who may have watched too many movies with "white saviors". They operate off a mixture of nobless oblige and and the modern version of the White Man's Burden (read the poem by Rudyard Kipling). They tend to patronize those they allegedly want to aid, treating them like backward children, and often unconsciously mocking or disparaging those with different cultures than their own, and often seemingly prefering the old racist stereotypes to reality. ("Oh, I love exotic Asian food! Is this cooked? Is it dog? I eat it all the time!", "Oh, you're Buddhist, right? Oh, Presbyterian. How... interesting...." or speaking jive "'S'mofo butter layin' me to da' BONE! Jackin' me up... tight me! I cain't hang!" ) ad nauseum.

"Woke" folks much prefer for the people of different races/colors/cultures/nationalities/whatever they meet to be oppressed, because otherwise they won't be in need of the services of a White Savior. They really don't care much for successful minorities. They won't go so far as as to stretch their eyes and "ching chang chong" me and mine, but their kids probably will. They won't tell the people at the clinic that they'd prefer an American doctor, they'll just note that the little Asian doctor (born and raised in Tennessee) looks like she might be a little too young. yeah, that's it! The Black professor is OK as long as she's teaching Black Studies, but a Black Electrical Engineer who designs nanoprocessors doesn't inspire them.

So yeah, public nuisances.

Here's the hot tip: Treat EVERYBODY like you'd want to treated yourself.
Matthew 7:12 - Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

End digression,

 

[prodromos]

I did. In my experience "woke" people are self-righteous, sanctimonious, holier-than-thou white folks who may have watched too many movies with "white saviors". They operate off a mixture of nobless oblige and and the modern version of the White Man's Burden (read the poem by Rudyard Kipling). They tend to patronize those they allegedly want to aid, treating them like backward children, and often unconsciously mocking or disparaging those with different cultures than their own, and often seemingly prefering the old racist stereotypes to reality. ("Oh, I love exotic Asian food! Is this cooked? Is it dog? I eat it all the time!", "Oh, you're Buddhist, right? Oh, Presbyterian. How... interesting...." or speaking jive "'S'mofo butter layin' me to da' BONE! Jackin' me up... tight me! I cain't hang!" ) ad nauseum.

"Woke" folks much prefer for the people of different races/colors/cultures/nationalities/whatever they meet to be oppressed, because otherwise they won't be in need of the services of a White Savior. They really don't care much for successful minorities. They won't go so far as as to stretch their eyes and "ching chang chong" me and mine, but their kids probably will. They won't tell the people at the clinic that they'd prefer an American doctor, they'll just note that the little Asian doctor (born and raised in Tennessee) looks like she might be a little too young. yeah, that's it! The Black professor is OK as long as she's teaching Black Studies, but a Black Electrical Engineer who designs nanoprocessors doesn't inspire them.

So yeah, public nuisances.

Here's the hot tip: Treat EVERYBODY like you'd want to treated yourself.
Matthew 7:12 - Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

End digression,

I was responding to larniavc's definition. I quite agree with yours

 

[Jipsah]

I was responding to larniavc's definition. I quite agree with yours

Yeah, I meant it to go to him, my bad.

 

[The Liturgist]

My grandparents were all born in the 19th century, and 2 of them in the rural South, and two in Korea. They were all literate people, and they all knew perfectly well the the earth was round. As best I can tell, the "flat earth" lunacy is primarily an internet phenomenon. Up until about maybe 10 years ago I never met anyone whi expressed a belief that the earth was flat. I've met precisely two people personally who claimed to believe in a flat earth.

Interestingly enough, my white grandparents believed in a six day Creation, but qualified it by citing Psalm 90, that
"A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.", to mean that one of God's "days" could have been a whole lot longer than ours.

I haven’t personally met anyone, outside of the anonymity of an Internet forum, who advocates for a Flat Earth. I myself often wonder how many flat earth advocates we encounter online truly believe in it.

 

[The Liturgist]

My wife has Dementia & she knows its round

I am glad her faculties are intact to that extent; I will pray for her however. If you send me a private message with her Christian name, that is to say, whatever name she was baptized as (just the first name), I can add her to the list of people who I pray for along with fellow clergy for health reasons. I maintain a list with over 200 first names (but no last names, so no one in it is personally identifiable, except in a few cases where someone requested it).

 

[The Liturgist]

Agreed. However that never happened in this case , so we are left with one or two schools so far that were teaching flat earth , and so the question is why? ...

Well either they were connected with a cult, or the school teacher was lacking in intellectual prowess, to put it mildly.

In fifth grade I had two teachers, one of whom was very bright, and the other of whom was … well intentioned, but spectacularly underqualified. She was shocked when I mentioned Ireland was an island and looked on a globe and found out I was right (she had assumed it was on the west coast of Europe). Likewise, when I used the word “supplant” she thought i had made it up, but I explained it meant to replace, and I encouraged her to look it up in a dictionary, and she did, and was again shocked that I was right.

But even poor Mrs. Holzer, bless her heart, was aware of the spherical nature of the world and also had reasonable skills when it came to basic arithmetic and basic English grammar and cursive and so on.

Now admittedly in the latter case, not many fifth graders are likely to know the word supplant or how to use it in a sentence, but not knowing the basics of geography, like, for example, that Great Britain and Ireland are actually islands, is worrisome.

 

[imsaneru]

Well either they were connected with a cult, or the school teacher was lacking in intellectual prowess, to put it mildly.

In fifth grade I had two teachers, one of whom was very bright, and the other of whom was … well intentioned, but spectacularly underqualified. She was shocked when I mentioned Ireland was an island and looked on a globe and found out I was right (she had assumed it was on the west coast of Europe). Likewise, when I used the word “supplant” she thought i had made it up, but I explained it meant to replace, and I encouraged her to look it up in a dictionary, and she did, and was again shocked that I was right.

But even poor Mrs. Holzer, bless her heart, was aware of the spherical nature of the world and also had reasonable skills when it came to basic arithmetic and basic English grammar and cursive and so on.

Now admittedly in the latter case, not many fifth graders are likely to know the word supplant or how to use it in a sentence, but not knowing the basics of geography, like, for example, that Great Britain and Ireland are actually islands, is worrisome.

Yeah well this is the sort of thing that i'm trying to find out about.
So far all I have is that guy on the internet talking about his 90 yr old mother and my friend or neighbor next door and her two friends , and just yesterday I was talking with another friend and she told me she was taught round earth but that her mother held the flat earth position.

But she doesn't know if her mother was taught that in school or got the idea elsewhere. Anyway our conversation has got her interested and she is now going to help with my little survey , said she knows a heap of women in their mid 80s and will ask around. But those results may not come back for a week or two or more.

My daughter is also interested to help me but she has her own probs at the moment , boyfriend is in hospital and not doing well , so i'm not expecting much from her at the moment.

With what I have so far , it doesn't appear to show any cult , maybe just odd ball teachers , I don't know.
Will wait for further results.

 

[The Liturgist]

With what I have so far , it doesn't appear to show any cult , maybe just odd ball teachers , I don't know.
Will wait for further results.

I don’t see what that would accomplish, frankly.

 

[imsaneru]

I don’t see what that would accomplish, frankly.

Well what if the results show that the majority of the people asked said they learnt flat earth in school , wouldn't you be curious , wouldn't you want to know why?

 

[The Liturgist]

Well what if the results show that the majority of the people asked said they learnt flat earth in school , wouldn't you be curious , wouldn't you want to know why?

We already know that the majority did not learn Flat Earth in school. But even if they did, well, schools have in the past taught things later shown to be incorrect or dubious, for example, we now know that Pluto does not clear its own orbit, and so either there are several hundred planets, or Pluto belongs to a different category, the dwarf planet, either way, it is no longer the case that we know of only nine bodies that are like Pluto or the other eight planets (which are not really like Pluto, since they are sufficiently massive to clear their own orbit).

At any rate, as I have said, there are only two possible explanations: either their teachers were profoundly unqualified, or the school was controlled by members of a dangerous cult, such as certain fundamentalist Islamic sects and other non-Christian religions which teach, as a matter of doctrine, that the world is flat.

 

[Astrophile]

I just watched a vid where the guy says that he asked his 90 yr old mother if she thought the earth was round or flat , and she said it was flat , said she learnt that in school.

So I asked an 80 yr old friend of mine the same question , and she said it's flat too , and that that's what they taught her in school. She said if it was round we would fall off you idiot...lol

So I said well when I went to school they taught us the earth was round , and we were both left scratching our heads....
So if there is anyone here aged around 80 plus , what did they teach you in school , round or flat earth?

Please let's not make this another flat earth thread , there is enough here already.
I'm more interested in what we were taught at school , and at what point did they cease teaching flat earth to teaching round earth.

My daughter works in aged care and said she would help by asking her elderly customers. Looking forward to the results of that , should be interesting.

My mother, who was born in 1921, was taught at school that the Earth is spherical and that its circumference is 29,000 miles. This is an over-estimate, perhaps derived from the Natural History of Pliny the Elder (23-79 CE), but at least it shows that my mother knew that the Earth is spherical. I am 76; I don't remember what I was taught in primary school about the shape of the Earth, but in secondary school (during the early 1960s) I was taught in detail about the Earth's shape and about latitude and longitude.

 

[The Barbarian]

I am 76; I don't remember what I was taught in primary school about the shape of the Earth, but in secondary school (during the early 1960s) I was taught in detail about the Earth's shape and about latitude and longitude.

I'm about your age. I remember being taught (incorrectly) that Columbus proved the world was round. By Columbus' time, everyone knew it was round.