Do the flaws in education discredit the discpline being taught?

Randman (and in the past others) have said that because 'overstatements' 'misrepresentations' 'lies', and 'fraud' have made it into the school textbooks (or been taught by teachers, made it into documentaries etc etc), it discredits the discipline (ie evolutionary biology). Whether or not these things are misrepresentations (et al) is not a major element to this debate, but rather whether or not this standard should be applied to other subjects:When I was in school I was taught:That people in the 15th Century thought the earth was flat, that Christopher Columbus proved them wrong, and that he was the first to America: This is clearly false, Eratosthenes calculated the circumferance of the earth about 200 years before Christ was born. People did get to America before Columbus.Does this clearly false representation discredit the discipline of 15th century (and before) history?So, this topic should cover two things.1. Any other examples of things we were taught at school, which scholars of the subject knew (at the time) were inaccurate, grossly wrong, or similar.2. Does this education issue reflect badly on the scholars of the discipline being taught. Is it indicative of a conspiracy, or a cover up or propaganda or anything, or is there a more benign explanation?This message has been edited by Modulous, Thu, 01-December-2005 09:24 PM

This seems like a pretty interesting topic. Did you have any particular feelings as to a forum, I would have thought either the 'Education..' or 'Is it science' forum would be most suitable.I think there is a typo in your first numbered point new -> knew.TTFN,AW

cheers for the typo alert.I reckon that Education is the best bet, since I'd like to include any education discipline rather than just science.

Thread copied to the Do the flaws in education discredit the discpline being taught? thread in the Education and Creation/Evolution forum, this copy of the thread has been closed.