When the movie Forest Gump came out we were blessed with countless cutesy, life sayings. Many of these sayings still ring true to this day. For example, the phrase, “Stupid is as stupid does”. Though this quote shouldn’t be taken as more serious than what it is, a quote from an old movie. It does reflect on the literal ideology that society accepts. In our society, if someone acts a certain way, people will always automatically assume that they actually are that way. If there was one person who had 80 flashcards for each unit test and another person without flashcards and those sort of preparations, the more organized person would be seen as smarter or more academically successful just because, overall, we see organization, for example, as a ‘smart people’. Though, mostly people don’t look any farther than that to consider that maybe the two people have different “learning styles” so they both can be at the same level of preparation, despite their different methods. But, many don’t consider these different learning styles before making judgements. No options or awareness is given to people with learning styles different than what’s normal. When the second student in the example fails the test, its assumed that it’s because they didn’t study, when in reality they could have studied even harder than the first student.
The problem with these perceptions is that they distract schools from the real issue that school is aimed toward the same two (maybe three) learning types. Auditory and visual learners are very much catered to in our school system. Since most teachers use PowerPoint presentations to teach and take notes, students with different learning types don’t really get an opportunity to learn their own way. If teachers taught in a way that addressed all of these different learning types it would level the playing field for all students.