Schools Taught Flat Earth in the 1900s? I Checked the Textbooks

Were children really taught that Earth was flat in the early 1900s? According to a viral claim from @agape, schools supposedly taught flat Earth, the firmament, waters above the Earth, waters below the Earth, and an Antarctic ice wall surrounding every continent. Instead of accepting or dismissing that claim without evidence, I checked actual educational books published during the 1800s and used around the period in question. What do these historical textbooks actually say? They repeatedly describe Earth as a globe. In this video, I examine several digitized geography, history, and reading textbooks published between 1861 and 1897. These are not modern books that were edited to reflect current scientific understanding. They are historical publications printed before the early 1900s. The examples include: • McGuffey’s Third Eclectic Reader, revised edition, copyrighted in 1879 • Frye’s Complete Geography, published in 1895 • Barnes’ historical textbook, A Brief History of the United States • The Leading Facts of American History, published in 1897 • Cornell’s High School Geography, published in 1861 These books refer to Earth as a globe, contain illustrations of globes, discuss locating places on the globe, describe voyages around the globe, and explain how circumnavigation provides evidence for Earth’s shape. Cornell’s High School Geography is especially direct. It identifies Earth as an oblate spheroid that is nearly spherical and presents multiple observations supporting that conclusion. The word “globe” appears throughout the textbook. Other historical schoolbooks discuss Columbus planning routes based on the curved globe and Magellan’s expedition around the world. Frye’s Complete Geography includes globe illustrations and repeatedly uses the globe model when teaching geography. That creates a major problem for the claim that schools were teaching flat Earth as established curriculum in the early 1900s. Educational books published decades earlier were already explicitly teaching students that Earth is a globe. This does not mean every school used the same textbook or that no individual person believed in a flat Earth. It means that the sweeping historical claim requires evidence, and the readily available educational material from that period contradicts it. The best part is that you do not have to take my word for any of this. These historical textbooks have been digitized, and you can examine them for yourself. Search inside the books for terms such as “globe,” “sphere,” “circumnavigation,” and “form of the Earth.” If someone claims that flat Earth was officially taught in early American schools, ask for the name of the curriculum, the school district, the textbook, the publication date, and the page where it was taught. A broad claim in a social-media video is not historical documentation. Do your own research, but make sure that research includes checking the original sources. CHAPTERS 0:00 The claim about schools teaching flat Earth 0:19 McGuffey’s Third Eclectic Reader 0:33 Frye’s Complete Geography 1:10 Barnes’ historical textbook 1:37 The Leading Facts of American History 2:35 Cornell’s High School Geography 3:22 Her advice to research the claim What other historical flat Earth claims should I investigate? Leave the exact claim and its supposed source in the comments. #FlatEarth #Debunked #ScienceEducation