A recent article in Skeptic » Insight » The Myth of Learning Styles suggests we have all been duped into believing that people learn in different ways, without any hard proof or experimental evidence. This made me think, what else do we take for granted in the education of children?

Should children be in school from 8am to 4pm every weekday? Should we test them every week? Should class sizes be 30 or 10 or 2? Why are we so frightened to A/B test different variations on the standard education curriculum?

The most obvious argument is that if we teach two sets of children in different ways then we are necessarily providing one group of students with an inferior education. And we are more comfortable with providing both sets of students with a potentially inferior education – because at least they are equally inferior. I believe we can do better and should not be afraid to try.