Over the years, I have been writing about misconceptions regarding the schooling process. The purpose of these posts is to explain why I disagree with various comments that I have heard people make about schooling. These are meant as personal thoughts rather than conclusive proof, and I will admit that I'm not always the best at explaining my thoughts. Regardless, I have decided that I should be willing to share these posts when I encounter someone online who makes an argument that I have already discussed.
I have already dedicated a series of posts to learning styles. I think it's time to add one of the points I made to my list of misconceptions regarding the schooling process.
Teachers spent years pushing a nonsensical view on learning styles. There were two learning styles in particular that they tried to push (although variants exist), sight and sound. Two learning styles was the minimum required for teachers to claim that they were meeting variable needs. Evidence has emerged against this specific perspective on learning styles, and many teachers are embracing this evidence as though it disproves the broader concept of students having different learning styles.
To make matters worse, this concept for learning styles was never really aimed at learning. It was aimed at memorization. Methods aimed at memorization will never be adequate for practical learning.
The specifics of how people learn is unique to each individual. The idea behind learning through sight and sound was to lump children together by labels instead of trying to understand each child's unique set of needs. This concept was created in hostility towards individualism.
We all have unique educational needs, and it's absurd to think that a one-word label can define how each person learns. Learning styles are infinite. I turned against my teachers' portrayals of learning styles partially because sight and sound are insufficient to understand how a unique individual learns. Thanks to emerging evidence, teachers want to take this evidence against their views to justify their anti-individualistic tendencies that led to them. If everybody doesn't fit their flawed concept of learning styles, they consider it proof that learning styles don't even exist. Personally, I think that's ridiculous.
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