[...] I tend to ignore wikipedia due to my school and most others banning it as a respectable source of information [...]
Wiki is on the mean quite good. It contains some blunders, but so do books, encyclopaedia, courses and peer-reviewed research papers. I suppose school professors denigrate this competitor by jealousy.
More generally, a scientist shouldn't believe a source but a thesis, based on his own rationale. Maybe high school is too early to realize that, since believing professors and books is a fast way to learn.