PURPLE

They say that red and blue make purple.
But it doesn't - - not really.
I know because I've tried.
Red tempra paint and some blue tempra paint makes a mess.
It's not purple.

"Blue and Red make Purple" is an over simplification.

Red and blue food coloring will turn out grey and yucky if it's mixed in a bowl of cookie dough.

But "THEY" tell you "Red and Blue Make Purple"
It's the rule that they learned (so it must be true!)

And sometimes, the rule WILL work (like, if you use one drop of red and one drop of blue in a tub of cool whip -it will turn to a lovely shade of light purple!)
But there are also times it won't work (coloring with a red crayon over blue crayon will never make purple).

But THEY don't think about the situations where the standard rules won't apply - - they only know the basic rule - and they cling to it, getting very upset when you tempra paint and challenge their little understanding of the world.
They accuse you of taking things out of context and not using the rule correctly.

But they never bother to clarify the rule.
They never say "Blue and red make purple when you use food coloring on whip cream, but it might not work with tempra paint or crayons (or cookie dough or markers) because crayons (tempra paint, cookie dough, and markers) are made differently."

They say "Red and blue make purple" (Even if it doesn't).
And they teach as Purple Truth (even if it's only part purple truth).
And then, they wonder why I don't trust them

[Purple is merely an analogy . . . more later!]