Education Assumptions All Shifty

I've always had the utmost disrespect for the dubious assertion that their are calculable and meaningfully comparative multiple intelligences to be found in our children. It was an idea that gave comfort to the parents of kids who could not put two and two together, but who could, if not asked, and without listening, paint a picture of three elephants. Okay that's too much. We exaggerate. Or do we? Couldn't help wondering at this paragraph in the New York Times about learning styles and preparing your kids for homework:

"Take the notion that children have specific learning styles, that some are “visual learners” and others are auditory; some are “left-brain” students, others “right-brain.” In a recent review of the relevant research, published in the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a team of psychologists found almost zero support for such ideas. “The contrast between the enormous popularity of the learning-styles approach within education and the lack of credible evidence for its utility is, in our opinion, striking and disturbing,” the researchers concluded."

(N.Y. Times)

There are probably a lot of things in the education world that serve a reality that certain people want to have, rather than reality as it actually exists. The piece goes on to express a learning value in standardized testing, and quite frankly we are shocked that such thoughts are getting an airing. Perhaps a side effect of political changes in the air?