Out of Context Textbook Diagrams Might Be My New Favorite Thing

John Summers • Contributor

Aug 2, 2025 1:00 PM EDT

I'll be honest: one of the best parts of adulthood is never having to sit through a high school biology class again. Don't get me wrong, I still love learning stuff - I'm the kind of person who watches hour-long YouTube explainers for fun - but the traditional school system? It just never worked for me. The endless hours stuck in a fluorescent-lit room, memorizing facts from dusty textbooks that were probably written in the late '80s and updated exactly once? No thanks.

Which brings me to my new favorite internet obsession: out-of-context textbook diagrams. You know the ones. Someone posts a completely bizarre image from a real textbook with zero explanation, and you're left to piece together what on earth was going on. Like… why is this diagram of a raccoon labeled "Figure 4.7: The Emotion Wheel"? What does this sentence mean: "Gub-gubs go 'wooo': the relational network is completed"? Who approved this?

It's part mystery, part nostalgia, and part "what were they thinking?" And I'm obsessed. So here's a collection of truly unhinged textbook diagrams that make you realize maybe we did learn something in school - just not what the curriculum intended.