Because it is a fact ...

Does not mean that it is the truth.

I have always been fascinated by trivia, etymology and seemingly unrelated facts. The geek and nerd in my psyche loves this kind of thing.

Take this fact ... in the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy has red shoes, from which an entire cult meme has formed. Yet Frank Baums book depicted them as silver. Why, because as one of the first films to exploit colour, red gave a much better contrast than silver.

Its like Big Ben, its the bell, not the tower. The tower is currently called St Stephens tower (tho there was a move to rename it the Queen Elizabeth tower). You can hear Ben, you cannot see it, but everyone declares that what they see is ... Big Ben.

Both are facts, but not the actual 'exacting' truth.

Now to make my point. Often in education I encounter many facts, handed down from teacher to teacher, educationalist to colleague. Yet when you scratch the surface, you discover that they have been labouring under some pedagogic myth that belies a somewhat non-existent truth.

Worse is when you dig and discover that the origins for some notions cannot be found by normal sane souls.

As if an urban myth became entangled with an old wives tale and took on a life of its own.

What myths do you harbour?

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