Modern Myths Repeated by Intelligent People

I’m a big fan of myths and mythology, both ancient and modern. Since the beginning of human communities, myths have been created, used, and passed down from one generation to the next to help people understand and find appropriate ways to cope with the world they live in. I think myths have tremendous value.

But let’s be clear: myths are fictional stories. They do not accurately represent events as they happened. (Alternatively, myths can be inaccurate assertions or popular misconceptions. I’ll cover a couple of these, too.)

Myths may be Truths, but they are not true.

I’ve run into a few modern myths recently, and problems arise when people insist these myths are facts. I’m not talking about the silly ones: “the Earth is flat,” “the moon landings never happened,” “birds aren’t real,” “billionaires are job creators,” etc. I’m talking about myths that are repeated by reasonably intelligent, but misinformed people.

Here are a few examples.

You might have heard about the Space Pen. I used to hear this one a lot in “employee development” meetings, because it delivers a powerful message. The story goes like this: at the beginning of the space program back in the 1960s, NASA needed to develop a pen that astronauts could use in a zero-gravity environment. The government spent millions of taxpayer dollars and developed a Space Pen that worked in the absence of gravity.

Meanwhile, the Soviet cosmonauts solved the problem by using a pencil.

The message of this story is clear: “Cheap and simple solutions are often superior to expensive ones (and governments waste a lot of money).”

This lesson has value, but this oft-repeated story isn’t accurate. Pencils weren’t (and aren’t) acceptable for either astronauts or cosmonauts, because pencil lead tends to break off and float around the capsule, and tiny particles floating around the delicate instrumentation and mechanics in a space capsule can cause big problems. NASA did indeed develop an effective pen that could be used in zero-gravity, and the Soviets adopted it for their cosmonauts. The research, development, and production of the Space Pen didn’t cost much, as it happens, and the high-tech pen has been in use ever since, both in outer space and on Earth.

Here’s another one I hear a lot: “Only two manmade objects can be seen from outer space with the naked eye: the Great Wall of China and the Staten Island garbage dump.” (Variations: Sometimes something else, like the Great Pyramids, is substituted for Staten Island’s garbage. Often the Great Wall is presented as the only manmade object that can be seen from space.)

This one is not so much a story as an assertion of fact. Any way you tell it, however, it’s not true.

First, “from space” is a problematic term that needs a more precise definition. How far do you have to be above the Earth before you are “in space”? From low orbit, say, 100 miles above the Earth’s surface, a number of manmade objects are visible without augmentation, including various dams, highways, bridges, and, of course, city lights. One of the objects that is NOT visible from low orbit, however, is the Great Wall of China. The Great Wall is not only too narrow, but it blends into the background. Experts say that your eyes would need three times the visual acuity of the sharpest-eyed falcon or eagle to see the Great Wall of China from just a hundred miles above it.

Often, the mythical assertion states that the Great Wall of China is the only object that can be seen by the naked eye from the moon. The fact is that no manmade object can be seen unaided from the moon, which is approximately 240,000 miles from Earth. Astronauts who have flown to the moon report that the earth is just a white sphere with some blue and patches of yellow. Even land masses are indistinct from that distance.

But, yes—the Staten Island garbage dump is pretty big!

I saw this oft-repeated myth on social media recently: “Albert Einstein, one of the greatest scientific minds in history, failed a class in mathematics when he was in the fourth grade.” This story is usually told for one of two reasons (or both): first, to point out that some very intelligent students have neurodivergent issues that hide their true mental capabilities, and second, as an indictment of an educational system that fails to recognize genius or creativity.

I have no problem with the lesson this myth delivers. But the story isn’t true. Albert Einstein was, in fact, a recognized mathematics prodigy from the time he was a child. He not only never failed a math course, but he excelled in every mathematics-related class he ever took, including (and especially) calculus and physics. A possible source of this myth is that Einstein did, in fact, fail the entrance exam to the prestigious Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich when he was 17. A copy of the exam results show that he aced all the math tests, but didn’t do well in some of the non-math related subjects. Despite this rejection, he somehow managed to gain some respect.

I can’t believe I’m still hearing this one, but apparently some people still believe that Mr. Rogers was a decorated sniper for either the Navy Seals or the Marines with dozens of confirmed kills in Vietnam and tattoos under the sleeves of his sweater for every successful mission. The Navy still has a web page denying this myth.

I won’t spend much time with this one, except to say that sometimes a gentle male role model who is good with children is just what he seems.

We all know that Ponce de Leon, the 16th-century Spanish explorer and conquistador, led an expedition into Florida in which he searched for the Fountain of Youth. It was one of my favorite stories from elementary school, and last I checked it’s still being taught. The fountain itself, of course, is just a legend, but it turns out the explorer’s quest for the fountain is equally mythological. He never mentioned anything like a Fountain of Youth in his letters and other documents, and he probably would have laughed the legend off if he’d ever actually heard it. He was very clear about his actual goal, however: finding an island that he could conquer and rule.

As a former schoolteacher, I ran into a ton of myths regarding education. I won’t go into them all (I tire easily), but this is one that doesn’t want to go away: “Different students have different learning styles (usually identified as ‘visual,’ ‘audio,’ and ‘kinesthetic’).” Too many teachers (and WAY too many students) are convinced that this myth is true, even though it has been disproved over and over again with careful, empirical research and testing. In fact, studies show that the ways in which people learn is far more similar than different.

[IMPORTANT NOTE: I’m not talking here about students with legitimate learning disabilities, or about students who are blind or deaf. That’s another topic.]

If learning styles were real, “visual learners” would always learn better—regardless of the subject matter—when teachers use visual teaching modalities, whereas “audio learners” would always learn better through the use of audio teaching modalities. In practice, different subjects require different teaching modalities. Geography is much easier to learn when taught using visual tools, but so-called “visual learners” suddenly become “audio learners” when they are trying to learn a foreign language. And, of course, all students learn better when presented with a variety of teaching modalities.

And, by the way, “My students are kinesthetic learners” is just an excuse teachers use when they can’t control their classroom.

In my experience, teachers are surprisingly vulnerable to trendy theories about teaching. School administrators and Boards of Education are even more excited about them. They come and they go, usually supplanted by the next big thing. The “Teaching Styles” myth, however, continues to persist no matter how often it’s debunked by responsible research and testing.

There’s a number of other oft-repeated modern myths and popular misconceptions: Napoleon was short, creative people use the left side of their brain, sugar causes hyperactivity in children, Mama Cass choked to death on a cheese sandwich, cold weather causes the common cold, most people in Christopher Columbus’s day believed the world was flat, Mark Twain authored that quote about summer nights in San Francisco, humans only use 10 percent of their brains, etc., but I’ll leave with this one popularly believed myth: “People today are, in general, more intelligent than people of the past.” Sorry, folks, but IQs have not increased over time. We are more informed—hey, we have the internet, right?—but intelligence is not the same as having access to more information. If anything, access to information makes us more susceptible to myths, which is one of the reasons why more people today believe that the earth is flat than at any other time in human history.