#hopefully this isn't coming across as condescending also. and I'm sorry if it is

[nothorses]

I actually know about this one!

This is a great paper on the subject, which delves a lot deeper into why the myth exists, why people believe it, and what the impact of believing it actually is (hint: it's pretty bad). It's a little long, but interesting. To start, though:

Learning style philosophies are considered a myth because they provide anywhere from inadequate to incorrect portrayals of learning (Dembo & Howard, 2007; Pashler et al., 2008; Scott, 2010). To date, there has been no evidence that matching or meshing instruction to someone’s self-reported learning style positively affects their ability to learn new information (e.g., Husmann & O’Loughlin, 2018; Knoll, Otani, Skeel, & Van Horn, 2017; Krätzig & Arbuthnott, 2006; Rogowsky, Calhoun, & Tallal, 2015; also see Pashler et al., 2008 for a review).

Which is just to say that it isn't real, it has been tested, and nobody has been able to prove it. It's a myth.

I think for a lot of folks who believe it's helped them personally, though, what they tend to actually be benefiting from is a combination of:

Information being presented in multiple ways (often at once), which provides more ways for your brain to process, hold onto, and recall that information later,

Experiential learning (i.e. learning by doing, or learning from personal experiences) being genuinely one of the best ways for anyone to learn anything, and also more common if you're trying to tailor lessons to "kinesthetic learners" in particular, and

Student-centered teaching styles and individualization of content (teachers trying to meet students where they are and give them what they specifically need).

Folks can also have certain disabilities/neurodivergences that might make processing some sensory information more difficult; if you have auditory processing disorder, for example, and your teacher starts to provide more visual aids to their highly verbal lectures to accommodate "visual learners", you are probably going to have an easier time understanding them.

You might also be wondering, "if it's inaccurate but ultimately helpful, why does it matter if people believe it?" and the answer to that, my friend, is psychological essentialism.

The learning styles myth perpetuates the idea that, to quote another paper on the subject (this one is like a 5 minute read, check it out): "Psychological essentialism is the belief that certain categories of people have a true nature that is biologically based and highly predictive of many factors in their lives".

It's not uncommon for people who believe in learning styles to believe that they are genetic and can be inherited, and this can quickly lead to racist and ableist assumptions about what "kinds of learners" certain people are, and what that says about them.

There are also definitely some assumptions that folks make about "learning styles", even without thinking they're hereditary; raise your hand if you've ever heard of "visual learners" and artists being associated, or "kinesthetic learners" and athletes. Consider the impact this has on kids who are being assigned a "learning style" in elementary school (I was!), and how they might perceive their own abilities going forward in life. Can I still be a visual artist if I'm not a visual learner?

There's also an issue of resources, which that previous paper summarizes:

Previous research has shown that the learning styles model can undermine education in many ways. Educators spend time and money tailoring lessons to certain learning styles for different students even though all students would benefit from learning through various methods. Students study in ways that match their perceived learning style even though it won’t help them succeed. Some teacher certification programs incorporate learning styles into their courses, which perpetuates the myth for the next generation of teachers. Academic support centers and a plethora of products also are focused on learning styles, despite the lack of scientific evidence supporting them.

So yes, even speaking strictly about the academic practicality of the myth, there's an impact!

It's something I still see in education-oriented spaces- though actual classes for educators that I've taken have all outright debunked the myth or just ignored it entirely- and it hasn't really brought anything to those programs that you can't get from, like, the basic understanding that giving kids more ways to understand information will help them learn it. And you certainly get more from asking the kid why they're struggling than you do from making assumptions about the situation based on an assigned "learning style".

I'm glad it's been positive for some folks, genuinely! And I also hope you can take a little time to question the labels that have been applied to you, how accurate they really are, and how they're serving you. I was told that "kinesthetic learning" was practically useless to me as a child, and I can promise you that is not true of literally anyone- but especially 10 year olds.

EDIT: specifically regarding the "this teacher's style worked for me but nobody else" anecdote: everyone has different needs and succeeds under difference circumstances. We have different "styles" of learning, but that doesn't mean they can be categorized, especially by something like sense, into neat & specific "learning styles" like the myth perpetuates. (I'd also be curious if there were any systemic factors at play; did the students struggling in that class share any marginalized identities? Maybe not, maybe it's just the first thing! But it's always worth asking those questions.)

wikipedia is a gem

[hoshi9zoe]

hi,

(if you dont wanna read all this thats fair in that case i just hope you have a good day)

i dont know you and i dont wanna bother you, but i saw your reblog of the post about being scared of trans women, and i just wanted to say that its not always gonna be like that. im younger than you and i dont wanna be lecturing a person with more experience than i have, but reading what you wrote made me concerned. at the same time it is exactly what goes through my head sometimes.

i know i cant fully understand your struggles, because im trans in the other direction, but im starting to think its unfortunately true for all the people who are seen as something theyre not - right now we really have to accept there are our kinds of people and we cant change the rest. you absolutely deserve a better world in which people dont see you as dangerous just because you exist but in the meantime you need to remember your whole life isnt defined only by the people who hate you or are scared of you. it still absolutely sucks that people are intimidated by you just existing, and it shouldnt be like this and i can only imagine how lonely it could make someone feel. none of it is fair, but you can and should try to be happy anyways.

i try to think about it like we got the short end of the stick, but that doesnt mean we should break it and throw it away. it really is shit but (as cheesy as it sounds) we only get one chance at living, and as much as itd be understandable to do so, we cant spend it thinking about how unfair it is.

remember that there will be people who will see you as a person and not as a danger. it might feel like theres few of them, or they dont exist, but they do, and hopefully you get to spend more time with them than you ever will have to spend with the people who are transphobic.

i personally still cant accept it but its the advice a friend of mine gave me (though it was in the context of me being autistic) and i do think its smart even if not groundbreaking. i have trouble applying it to myself, so i might be hypocritical and/or projecting, i apologise for that. still i wanted to share it because i dont think theres any better option for us. im really sorry you feel that way and i hope we both get better at focusing on the people who can see us as people

ps well this is bible length im sorry and also sorry if its rude? i really didnt want to come off as condescending or like i was assuming you dont know any of this so i hope i at least managed that (and i sincerely apologise for my punctuation. )

I still can't wrap my mind around the fact that because of my depressive ass comments on a post people are trying to comfort me and cheer me up. I've done nothing to deserve this kindness and while I think that this kindness and your time is wasted on me, i'm grateful non the less. don't worry about coming across as lecturing me. you're just sharing your thoughts and feelings on that matter and I don't mind. even tho i may be older than you, I absolutely do not have more experience than others. less even probably... and I did not want to make you or anyone else concerned about me. as i said that's absolutely wasted on me. it's just me trying to somehow vent my depression so that I don't do something more harmful. it is just irrevocably true that trans women that are not thin, white, effeminate, with clear skin and no body hair will be seen as dangerous and intimidating by afab people and especially cis women. But i'm grateful that you with for a better world where that isn't happening. It's admirable. And I don't want to spoil your positive message but it's gonna be hard to keep my depression about that in check and I wanna apologize in advance for probably still being very negative about that. You are correct that my life isn't defined by those that are scared of me, but they still can affect it in a profound way even if I try to ignore them. And yes it is incredibly lonely, but I've already been lonely before I came out so there's not much of a difference. Just maybe a new flavor.

I'm just gonna skip the next paragraph with the short end of the stick so that I don't let my depression speak my mind and just rip all of that to shreds. You've got a nice mentality there and I don't wanna take that from you especially since you went out of your way to try and cheer me up. I know there are people that aren't scared. I'd like to meet some one day. But all deprecating jokes aside, I will always get reminded of it when I see how the trans community and especially trans women have their own separate isolated corner from the wider LGBTQ+ community. I'm not faulting you for struggling to apply the advice your give yourself. I really know a thing or twenty about that... Realistically I know that it's not as bad as my insecurities, depression, anxieties ect make it out to be. But acting on that; confronting your fears is exponentially harder. Especially if you have to do it alone because you're shit at meeting new people and making friends and very good at driving existing ones away. And please don't worry about grammar or punctuation or all that jazz. School makes a way bigger deal out of it than I feel is should be on the internet in casual situations. It's your intent and your feelings that matter not punctuation ^^'

[bougiebutchbinch]

i don't often go looking for them to read them myself, but I'll occasionally read one if i come across it scrolling and it looks good, so this probably isn't a comprehensive way to search- there's probably some that are tagged wetting but aren't under the omorashi tag, or even some that are just broadly tagged watersports or something. also, do note, that there's not really a way to definitively check that all of these are izzy omorashi, they're just all tagged as having izzy in them. knowing izzy, though, probably most of them are izzy-centric. anyway, point is, this is just a link to an ao3 search, you'll have to manually choose which ones are what you're looking for.

i would love to give you like, actual recs, but i really don't have any cause again i rarely read these. i'm sure you know how to use the search function on ao3, i'm sorry if this seems condescending, lol, i overexplain a lot.

https://archiveofourown.org/works?commit=Sort+and+Filter&work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=Israel+Hands%2COmorashi&work_search%5Bexcluded_tag_names%5D=&work_search%5Bcrossover%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=&work_search%5Bwords_from%5D=&work_search%5Bwords_to%5D=&work_search%5Bdate_from%5D=&work_search%5Bdate_to%5D=&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&tag_id=Our+Flag+Means+Death+%28TV%29

uhhh the only one i have bookmarked is this one, i found it in the drunk izzy tag:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/51467227

i'd love to be more helpful, sorry i'm not. hopefully you can find more of what you want! have a great day :)

you have blessed me on this day!! thankyou ahhhh <3

[bladehorror]

Gently addressing concerns about the update

(I posted this to FRD, but I want people here to see it as well)

Hi, I am one of the random users who are in the majority that is extremely happy about this update. I am here to give those who aren't, for many reasons, words of understanding and a different perspective on the most common complaints I've seen around here. Hopefully this post doesn't come across as condescending, that isn't my intention at all. I understand that this is a drastic change from the way things have been since the 5th year anniversary, and it'll take some getting used to. Your emotions are valid, you have the right to not like it. That being said, I hope to at least alleviate some concerns here.

On to the issues I've seen brought up:

All the time and effort I put into my dragons now feels wasted.

This is understandable. With the first eye update, there was a huge shift in most users' opinions about what makes a dragon impressive, and special eyes became sort of a big priority. Breeding/scattering for one was extremely time-consuming/expensive, and the RNG-based nature of it made it really frustrating; which is why for those who invested all that time and effort and eventually got what they wanted it was very satisfying to share their work with the rest of us in Dragon Share and say, "I raised this one myself", and I can see why you'd think the change is unfair.

Here's what I think: you can still be proud of your work! You can still share with us how long you tried to breed/scatter your dragon(s) for the perfect eye type. I know I'd be impressed if you told me "it took me two years to breed for this dragon but eventually I got it". You did that! Be proud!

I spent a lot of money on scattersights to get the right eyes for this dragon, and now that I can just use a specific item for it I feel cheated.

This is also frustrating as hell. Although a lot of people asked for the vials to be available, there was no way to predict that they would actually be released. The Staff was clear that Scattersights were permanently retired and that created an environment where people who wanted to customize their dragons' eyes only had that option for almost 4 years.

The truth is, what this update brought is what I believe should've been there from the beginning. The pure RNG-based nature of eye types, as it was, is antithetical to Flight Rising as a site where you can work for and customize your dragons with as much control as you can. The mistake wasn't making eye types available for purchase, it was not doing that from the get go.

I had dragons/vials I bought for their monetary value, and now I can't get my invested money back.

People have many different ways to earn money in this site. I flip gen1s on occasion myself. I don't think it's unfair or unethical to want to earn some money for something in high demand.

That being said, spending money in order to get more money later is, to put it a bit bluntly, a gamble. The nature of every economy, real or simulated, is fickle. What is valuable one day can lose all its worth the next. You took a risk, I'm willing to say a very reasonable one at that (seeing that staff gave us all the impression that the way eye types work wouldn't change), and unfortunately it didn't pay off.

It happens. It happened with Eliminate, and now it happened again. And it sucks that it happened to you. I'm sorry.

In conclusion: no update is going to please every one, and I think staff could've been more gracious in how they first implemented the eye update so we wouldn't be going through this. But in the long term, I think it's a good thing.

The RNG-based mechanic is still there for people who enjoy the challenge of breeding for special eyes. Eggs will still hatch multigaze and primal gen1s without anyone needing to buy vials for them. But now they're more accessible to everyone else, and that's good! I'm all for people getting the dragons they want the way they want them. And I hope my post has, at least, given you some consolation.

Have a good day.