diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 84e4921..6f5ed74 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ Lark provides syntax highlighting for its grammar files (\*.lark):
 
 ### Clones
 
-- [Lerche (Julia)](https://github.com/jamesrhester/Lerche.jl) - an unofficial clone, written entirely in Julia. 
+- [Lerche (Julia)](https://github.com/jamesrhester/Lerche.jl) - an unofficial clone, written entirely in Julia.
 
 ### Hello World
 
@@ -141,10 +141,10 @@ Check out the [JSON tutorial](/docs/json_tutorial.md#conclusion) for more detail
  - [mappyfile](https://github.com/geographika/mappyfile) - a MapFile parser for working with MapServer configuration
  - [synapse](https://github.com/vertexproject/synapse) - an intelligence analysis platform
  - [Command-Block-Assembly](https://github.com/simon816/Command-Block-Assembly) - An assembly language, and C compiler, for Minecraft commands
- - [SPFlow](https://github.com/SPFlow/SPFlow) - Library for Sum-Product Networks 
+ - [SPFlow](https://github.com/SPFlow/SPFlow) - Library for Sum-Product Networks
  - [Torchani](https://github.com/aiqm/torchani) - Accurate Neural Network Potential on PyTorch
  - [required](https://github.com/shezadkhan137/required) - multi-field validation using docstrings
- - [miniwdl](https://github.com/chanzuckerberg/miniwdl) - A static analysis toolkit for the Workflow Description Language 
+ - [miniwdl](https://github.com/chanzuckerberg/miniwdl) - A static analysis toolkit for the Workflow Description Language
  - [pytreeview](https://gitlab.com/parmenti/pytreeview) - a lightweight tree-based grammar explorer
 
 
diff --git a/docs/classes.md b/docs/classes.md
index 021b2f4..284ce73 100644
--- a/docs/classes.md
+++ b/docs/classes.md
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ The Lark class accepts a grammar string or file object, and keyword options:
 
 * **keep_all_tokens** - Don't throw away any terminals from the tree (Default=`False`)
 
-* **propagate_positions** - Propagate line/column count to tree nodes, at the cost of performance (default=`True`)
+* **propagate_positions** - Propagate line/column count to tree nodes, at the cost of performance (default=`False`)
 
 * **maybe_placeholders** - The `[]` operator returns `None` when not matched. Setting this to `False` makes it behave like the `?` operator, and return no value at all, which may be a little faster (default=`True`)
 
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ The main tree class
 
 * `data` - The name of the rule or alias
 * `children` - List of matched sub-rules and terminals
-* `meta` - Line & Column numbers (unless `propagate_positions` is disabled)
+* `meta` - Line & Column numbers (if `propagate_positions` is enabled)
     * meta attributes: `line`, `column`, `start_pos`, `end_line`, `end_column`, `end_pos`
 
 #### \_\_init\_\_(self, data, children)
diff --git a/lark/lark.py b/lark/lark.py
index 33b57e3..3e69b7f 100644
--- a/lark/lark.py
+++ b/lark/lark.py
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ class LarkOptions(Serialize):
         'start': 'start',
         'priority': 'auto',
         'ambiguity': 'auto',
-        'propagate_positions': True,
+        'propagate_positions': False,
         'lexer_callbacks': {},
         'maybe_placeholders': True,
         'edit_terminals': None,
diff --git a/tests/test_parser.py b/tests/test_parser.py
index 3f73990..72be997 100644
--- a/tests/test_parser.py
+++ b/tests/test_parser.py
@@ -151,7 +151,7 @@ class TestParsers(unittest.TestCase):
                     g = Lark(r"""start: a+
                                 a : "x" _NL?
                                 _NL: /\n/+
-                            """, parser='lalr', transformer=T() if internal else None)
+                            """, parser='lalr', transformer=T() if internal else None, propagate_positions=True)
                 except NotImplementedError:
                     assert internal
                     continue