Einstein famously said, "Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything they have learned in school." Perhaps a little harsh on educators, but those of us who call ourselves educators know very well how true it can be. And yet, we do have a role in planting the seeds for later harvests...!
An educator, Ian McGilchrist of Oxford, has just written a seedling study he titles: "The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World." He makes the case that we all have a little Jekyll & Hyde in us -- the brain's left hemisphere being the villain, and the right hemisphere being the hero.
He dismisses the pop science idea that the left brain is rational, dull and male; while the right is creative, impressionistic and female. Instead he sees the left as an "ultimately narcissistic world of power expressed in such efforts as the industrial revolution" while the right "deals with ideals in harmony with a local, agrarian and communitarian conception of democracy."
OK, so how to apply Mr. M's theory...?
Well, Shakespeare and Thoreau would be righties. Descartes and Hitler would be lefties. Maybe... Or maybe it doesn't really matter much, considering everyone of us has both a right and a left brain. Perhaps McGilchrist's theory is simply a handy metaphor for the way the human race has always been good/bad, passive/aggressive all along. In other words, we're all kinda schizophrenic.
I imagine, then, that two schizophrenics reading this book might agree: "All four of us like it!"
As for you and me -- especially in this holy season of the year -- it's another chance to take a hard look in that morning mirror with the question: "Who do I want to be today?"
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If we all start with the person in the mirror imagine what we could accomplish!
ReplyDeleteNow that thought is a grand thought indeed. It takes the courage of candor. Sadly, most of us are a little less than candid about ourselves. But I'll try harder!
ReplyDeleteI don't know if it's all about lefties and righties, but I think there is good and bad in everyone. Evil, however is another thing entirely!
ReplyDeleteYes, evil IS another thing entirely. I'm like the ancient Greeks and Medievalists who suspects it is a force in the world that manifests itself in the lives of the Caligula's, Rasputin's, Stalin's and Hitler's. That can lead to a very long exploration....
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