[thaumasiotes]

In high school chemistry I was taught that electrons existed as a fuzzy smear near the nucleus and were particularly likely to be found within various oddly-shaped orbitals. Motion of the electron was not discussed nor implied.

That may not be a perfect model, but it's a pretty far cry from "electrons go round the nucleus". My bog-standard high school chemistry textbook showed pictures of s and p orbitals and they are clearly three-dimensional. I think you'd have to go a pretty long way back to find a high school chemistry textbook saying that electrons follow a path.

[jacquesm]

Not all teachers are equal. There are plenty of places where the current state of chemistry education is still teaching kids the electrons go around the nuclei in perfect little circular orbits and that electrons that are 'shared' do so by making figure 8's.

[Symbiote]

In England and Wales, the circular orbits simplification is used at GCSE [1] (age 15-16), but the orbitals/probability thing at A-level [2] (age 16-18).

My teacher (the same for all four years) explained that the first model was an oversimplification, but I don't think it's inappropriate to use it.

[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/add_ocr_pr...

[2] http://www.s-cool.co.uk/a-level/chemistry/atomic-structure/r...