Do the flaws in education discredit the discpline being taught?

Interesting that you bring this up.I'm just finishing an Operating Systems class (as teacher). When discussing virtual storage, I gave a greatly over-simplified account.I did make it clear that it was oversimplified. And I did later come back and correct it.The reason was that I wanted to concentrate on memory management, and not get tied down to hardware details.It seems to me that it is often good pedagogical strategy to simplify some parts, and exaggerate others, when the aim is concept teaching rather than skills mastery.

I was actually thinking of the one mentioned by Modulous in Message 1, that teaching about Columbus often says that the world was believed to be flat.That's mostly an elementary school example. By the time of high school and university, I would think that there is mainly simplification.

Of course, that was my point. It is why teaching that the earth was flat would be using a great exaggeration. Incidently, that's how I was taught about Columbus in elementary school. I'm not sure if it was ever corrected in high school, but then I was in Australia where American history received very little attention in high school.