Should We Believe Everything We Have Been Taught?

It's a given that the advent of the internet has enabled anyone to immediately retrieve information on just about any subject known to man. Has anyone (speaking mainly to Americans) questioned and really researched history as we have been taught? Have any of you found that there are discrepancies or downright lies in relation to what we are taught in school? If so then why do you think our education system has allowed the teaching of half truths or outright lies?

 

I always told each and every student of mine to NEVER, believe anything I taught.
In order for a student to properly accumulate and use the intelligence he or she has they must first establish the question, come to an answer and prove it!
I liked to teach my students the value of research in that they were free to question any information I provided. I also warned my students that at various points I would deliberately provide the wrong information and I dared anyone to refute it, and the only way to do that was through the integrity of honest study.
Hmmmmmm Who really did discover America? Study and find out!

 

Depends really, I mean some things I remember being taught 10 years ago are now not true anymore due to new facts. I guess you can believe what your taught at that moment until new information comes.

 

I don't really believe anything someone taught me until i did my own research on it. Like how often someone of your friends or family told you that for example a movie is incredible great and full of surprising moments or actions, so you went to the cinema to watch that "awesome" movie and in the end you were more than disappointed because you've never been that much bored before...
Guess "truth" in general is only a subjective feeling

 

Personally, i think we shouldn't "just" believe all we are being taught without making proper investigation as to how valid, true and up to date such in formation is. We might be taught something today that used to be true or worked 5 years ago but doesn't any longer.
I like to teach and have discovered that sometime teachers say things that are not entirely true so as not to appear incompetent to his/her students.
To do ourselves a lot of goo, we shouldn't take what we are taught as final but try to make our own findings to validate or correct points made.

 

Of course not. I think we have to select the information that is useful for us and the rest of it we have to just understand and to put that information in a safe place in our memories and to bring it in reality when we need it.

 

Definitely not, most subjects these days are teaching a syllabus. I remember when I completed my GCSEs and moved onto my A-levels. The first thing we were told was to forget everything I had learnt previously because it wasn't true. So when my own teachers are saying this then how can everything we are taught be true!

 

America Vespucci

 

I believe we should atleast consider everything being taught. That does not mean you should do everything being told to you but you should think to assess all that you have doubts with. Keep an open mind and don't make concluded opinions instantly.

 

I do not think we should directly believe everything we are taught. There are lessons that were applicable back then that are not useful right now. The value of teaching is when you teach the student "how to think" not "what to think". I questioned my teacher once before why things were the way they were and she just scolded me for asking too many questions. We should just keep an open mind and evaluate the things we were taught if they are in line with how we see life.

 

Socrates said, "The unexamined life is not worth living." That can be interpreted in different ways, but I've always taken it to mean that we need to examine our belief system. It is our beliefs that color the way we see the world. And the majority of our beliefs are derived from education, whether from society or family. So, I'm with preacherbob50 on this one, don't incorporate into your belief system anything anyone tells, or teaches, you without careful thought. And, absolutely, take at least ten minutes a day to question everything you've been taught by others.

 

This is a good question and there are many aspects to it, which can't be covered without pages of text!
My opinion is that public education is the best (or least worst) way of learning. However, as a poster stated above, it is absolutely crucial that children / students are taught critical thinking skills.
I can't stress enough how important it is to examine both sides of an argument and to reflect whether something is likely to be true based on the evidence, not based on what you want to believe.

 

I should not be. Deep inside ourselves we know and dictates what is right or wrong. But somewhere along what we call life there are seems to gray areas that needs explanations or opinions from subject matter experts, professionals. It does not necessarily mean that we have to completely believe or obey them completely.

 

When we were like 3 to 10 years or age, we always follow and believe what our parents teach us even if it is right or wrong. As we grow older and become more intelligent and wiser, we recognize what is really right and what is ought to be wrong. I have learn things before and thought it was right, but as I grow older physically and mentally then I have known to separate what is the right thing to do and what is the wrong things to do.