Right Brain, Left Brain, Whole Brain?

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…brain scan technology has revealed that the hemispheres’ roles are not quite so cut-and-dried as once thought. The two hemispheres are in fact highly complementary. For example, language processing, once believed to be left- hemisphere-only, is now understood to take place in both hemispheres: the left side processes grammar and pronunciation while the right processes intonation. Similarly, experiments have shown that the right hemisphere does not work in isolation with regard to spatial ability: the right hemisphere seems to deal with a general sense of space, while the left hemisphere deals with objects in specific locations.

Brain Mythology, Posit Science

Even though it is called Right Brain Education, it is a misconception that this program only develops the right brain. The right-brain/left-brain concept arose from Makota Shichida’s desire to distinguish his methods from the traditional forms of education in Japan which he considered to be primarily “left-brain” oriented. He knew “that the right and left brain are not so easily compartmentalised and that they work together in many ways which he called ‘hemisphere synchronisation’.”

Right Brain Education arose during an era when the theory of right-brain and left-brain thinking had been made popular from Roger Sperry’s split-brain research. Even though newer research has shown that this is an overly simplistic view of how the brain works, the whole notion of right-brain/left-brain thinking persists for the very reason that it is easier to understand.

Instead of focussing on “right” or “left”, let us consider what Right Brain Education does. The purpose of it is to help to draw out the potential ability of children by:

1. Enlarging the container (capacity) of the brain.
2. Discovering the methods and develop the inborn abilities of children.
3. Building the confidence in children and develop their potential abilities.
4. Developing their emotional intelligence (EQ).
5. Developing their true thinking ability.