What you learned in school
Physics textbooks taught Aristotle's theory that heavier objects fall faster than lighter ones in direct proportion to their weight. Students learned that a bowling ball would fall faster than a feather, and that this was common sense - heavier things "want to fall more." This seemed logical from everyday observation and went unchallenged for over 2,000 years.
What we know now
Physics classes often taught or implied that heavier objects fall faster than lighter ones - a seemingly logical conclusion from everyday observation. Students might learn that a bowling ball falls faster than a feather. Galileo's experiments (supposedly from the Leaning Tower of Pisa) and Newton's laws proved that in the absence of air resistance, all objects fall at the same rate regardless of mass. The acceleration due to gravity is constant. Air resistance affects light objects more than heavy ones, creating the illusion that weight matters for falling speed.