I was taught this in a Swedish high school and it was repeated at a Swedish university one year later.
Please not that the authors are Norwegian at a Norwegian university, and the first citation are "KVANTEFYSIKKENS UTVIKLING i fysikklærebøker, vitenskapshistorien og undervisning" by Reidun Renstrøm at the University of Oslo, all proclaiming the myth being perversive.
I would be careful proclaiming this being some kind of American phenomenon.