Left Brain, Right Brain, And The Power Of Poetry

By Heath D. Jones


Some kids are right-brain dominant. They're creative. They think out of the box. They dance and do art. They usually don't like math.Other kids are left-brain dominant. They take things apart to figure out how they work. They like order. They think about things and ask lots of questions. Math is often their favorite subject.Nothing wrong with this, except that school is generally a left-brain dominant institution, especially as kids progress on to high school and then college. Although we're getting better at teaching to individual differences in grade school, left-brain teaching remains the norm in high school.

But just in case you're asked that question about poetry any time soon, and you want to have something to say without spluttering in indignation, I thought I'd throw together a few little-know facts about the effect poetry has on children's brains (and ours, for that matter).

Left brain, right brain... Uh, what? We've all heard this division-of-the-brain theory many times. Personally, I can never remember which way around it goes, but then that probably means I'm a bit of a right-brainer! It all has to do with the way our brains process information, and which tasks get assigned to which parts of the brain, with the right brain supposedly being more 'artistic,' and the left being more of a computer.

You are not dead until your brain is dead. Your brain needs two things to survive: fuel and activation. Fuel comes in the form of oxygen and glucose. Glucose comes from the food you eat, and oxygen comes from the air you breathe. The normal inspiration/expiration ratio should be exhalation twice as long as inhalation. That is to say - breathe out twice as long as you breathe in.

Now the action part. How do you get this neuronal pattern? How do you get these synapses across the corpus callosum? It's really quite simple. Every time you cross your body's midline, you make neuronal patterns between the right and left side. Right-brain dominant kids are now able to use more of their left brain. And left-brain dominant kids able to use more of their right brain. Just get them moving. Walking while swinging their arms. Skipping. Playing ball. Dancing. Running. Since moving is key, perhaps we're seeing more right-brain dominant kids because kids are less active.

Get kids doing Brain Gym's cross crawl. It's like marching in place. You can do it sitting or standing. Raise your right leg and touch your knee with your left elbow. Now left leg up and touch with right elbow. How many variations on this can you and your kids invent. Be sure to use music. Makes it more fun. How slowly can you do it? Slowly gives you more brain integration and better balance.

There are lot of difference between right brain and left brain. The right brained generally has specific characteristics such as,Concentrates more on images and visual,Act according to intuition,Use mind camera to remember,things or write down things,Checks the whole image and then turn to details,Lack of organization,Randomly makes plans,Difficulty in finding spelling or collecting word,No punctuality,Like more to touch and feel,Never follows instruction before handling any equipment,Express with hand gestures,Very creative brain

Roger W. Sperry, an American psycho biologist, discovered and developed the concept of two brains - left brain and right brain theory. He successfully explained and proved people functioning of brain. It was found out that human brain has two different ways of thinking because of two unlike brain. The right side of the brain concentrates more on visual and images while, the left side of the brain deals with the verbal power. In more simple words, people thinking from left side of the bran are more logistical, objective, and methodical. While, the right brained people are more creative, subjective, and thoughtful.




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