Left, Right, and Wrong Brain

[Mike Estep]

There has been much experimentation and discussion on left-right brain theory since Roger Sperry’s split brain experiments in the 1950s-1960s. In most people, it has been generally determined that the left half of the brain is more verbal, logical, sequential, and analytic in function – while the right half is more visual, intuitive, random, and synthetic in function. These terms imply a distinct contrast in how the two brain hemispheres work. Also, the right half is more imaginative. When writing this post, I found it interesting that there are few antonyms for imaginative that don’t start with “un.” So, if the right half is imaginative, then the left half would be unimaginative.

 

It has also been generally discussed how our education systems tend to favor teaching predominantly to the left side. What is not discussed is the impact that this has on students and society as a whole. The rest of this post will focus on the amount of time spent on - and the ultimate effects of - unbalanced left-brain training. I will also discuss the potential to impact the world if we truly practiced whole-brain learning.

 

Let’s look at a common scenario. Depending on how a public school system (or equivalent) is set up, children may spend an average of 6 hours per day in classes focused toward exercising left-brain activity. Regardless of the academic subject of study (math, science, history, language, government, etc. - even art and music) students are taught to analyze logically and learn in a sequential order. It is genuinely rare to have cases where the main focus, or any focus, is on intuition and imagination with these subject areas.

 

So, children start their schooling excursion at 5 years old and spend about 6 hours per day studying academic information with the left half of the brain. Classes continue for 5 days per week, around 4 weeks per month, 9 months per year, for 13 years (K-12). Multiplied out, that ends up being over 14,000 hours of left brain exercise in school…

 

6 hrs x 5 days x 4 wks x 9 mo x 13 yrs = 14,040 hours

 

This approximation is just during class hours in public school. It doesn’t include time spent on homework. It also is not taking further college education into account.

 

My question is this – if we are designed with two halves of the brain, does it logically make sense to spend 14,000 hours exercising just the left half while virtually ignoring the right half? In my humble opinion, I believe that this process is just incorrect.

 

I have heard people try to justify this with statements like “Intuition is inferior to logic. Intuition can’t be trusted because there is too much chance for error. Logic depends more on facts and is more apt to be correct.” This justification is not well thought out. How do people know their intuition is more error prone if they don’t exercise it enough to ever develop it? Also, how many students in school make 100% on every assignment they do? If they don’t have perfect scores all the time, does this mean that their logic is error prone and should not be developed and trusted? People certainly make mistakes with their logical left-brain thinking - but they still exercise it plenty in public school (14,000 hours). It stands to reason then that our intuitive right-brain has the potential to be just as accurate if given adequate exercise and training.

 

Other than many decades of cultural indoctrination, I believe there is one main reason why predominate left-brain training continues in our schools. Without known benchmarks, it is difficult to develop curriculums and evaluations for right-brain training. Left-brain training has been established for centuries and is therefore much easier to develop strategies for. It is human nature for administrators and educators to avoid confronting and devoting long hours to the unknown within limited time constraints and budgets. However, this is a poor excuse for allowing mental decay and doesn’t make the situation correct.

 

I have been independently contemplating and studying geniuses and savants for almost two decades. We casually mention da Vinci, Einstein, Mozart and the like in our textbooks. We marvel at what these geniuses were able to accomplish. We wonder how it is possible for savants to have handicaps such as autism and simultaneously be extremely brilliant in areas such as math, music, or art. What mechanisms are in place to allow such genius and brilliance to exist in the first place? Also, are these mechanisms only in the gifted/disabled few or latent in all of us?

 

I have come to the conclusion that much of mental genius comes from right-brain - or at least whole-brain - exercise. I also believe that savants are able to display feats of brilliance because their mental disabilities tend to suppress left-brain activity. The right-brain is not suppressed and is able to display the brilliance that is already there. This has also been shown with normal adults who received physical damage to the left hemisphere of the brain later in life - afterward displaying newly acquired feats of brilliance.

 

What are some results of excessive and imbalanced left-brain training to individuals and society? Consider the following two ideas…

 

How many geniuses are we pumping out of our school systems? If left-brain exercise alone is what it took to produce genius, then surely 14,000 hours of practice in public school is enough time to develop this.

 

Why is possessing traits of genius such a big deal? Because, geniuses can solve difficult problems, create solutions, and literally change the world. Are our school systems suppressing true genius without even realizing it? If so, then it is being done out of ignorance – which is totally opposite to what education is meant to promote.

 

Four centuries ago, da Vinci was independently studying anatomy, botany, art, music, optics, and various engineering areas. More importantly, he was drawing diagrams of helicopters, tanks, submarines, underwater breathing apparatus, parachutes, etc. It obviously took much practice with intuition and imagination to accomplish this.

 

What if most people were capable of displaying such genius and the key factor to making it happen was true balanced exercise of left and right brain activities? I believe that we would have another renaissance period and that the benefits to mankind as a whole in all areas of our lives would be exponential.

 

What about the dangers? Wouldn’t it be bad to have a bunch of genius criminals running around? I think a better question is what effect would having hundreds of millions of geniuses in our society have on crime?

 

Would there be as much criminal activity if we were able to use da Vinci types of thinking to eliminate hunger and material wants? Perhaps we could make machines such as those depicted in Star Trek that could create food and possessions by rearranging atoms out of the air. Or how about eliminating all forms of mental disorders and physical diseases? This type of thinking is no more outlandish now than it was for da Vinci to conceive a helicopter in his mind 400 years ago.

 

Mike Estep PhD

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Mike Estep.com - Common Sense Outside the Box

[Trialbyfire]

It's definitely food for thought. Interesting read.

 

I have a nephew who was considered "gifted" in kindergarten through a fledgling new program which evaluated the children with different tests. The idea was to test them previous to entering the school left brain curriculum.

 

By Grade 3, he was considered still very bright and continued to show potential. By Grade 5, still very bright but no longer considered "gifted".

[silentcharon]

That's interesting.

 

If you've seen the 2 faces facing each other or a white vase picture, this is a very good example. If you see the white vase, you are using your left side of your brain. If you see the two faces in the picture, you are using your right side. I wonder what the statistics are for this type of tests, especially for ink blot tests.

[Storyrider]

There are some people on here you could study who have mastered cross-brained thinking.

 

I have seen lateral thinking exercises and books that address this.

[Sweetie2007]

What I want to know (as someone studying education, to become a teacher of Special Education children), is why, if all of this information is known, why the school systems aren't even considering doing anything about it?? It angers me that so much has gone in to descovering things like this, which I truly believe to be correct, but no action is taken to improve society, based on the research and facts! As a teacher, when I did one-on-one with a child with Autism, I used materials which taught him the information, by using the right side of the brain also, he actually learned that BETTER than left-side activities. So why can't every school just change a little, and include everything??? I just don't get it...

 

Thanks for the read, Dr.... I truly enjoyed it