Mind Body Seminar: Feb./Mar. 1976

The educational system, both past and present, has specialized in verbal analysis and the teaching of reading, writing and arithmetic. What it has neglected, perhaps, is the development of relationships between ideas, between people, and the perception of whole systems—the development of the whole person.

Yet many concerned people in diverse areas of contemporary life, from students of the mind, to those concerned with problems of population and energy, to schools of business, medicine, and religion, note a loss in a comprehensive and holistic mode of knowledge.

There is, however, a growing understanding among scientists and educators that the ability to understand in a comprehensive manner can be developed in students in a manner similar to the way in which language can be taught. There has been a new discovery, that the functions of the human brain are divided, one half being responsible for language and analytic thought, the other for spatial abilities and comprehensive understanding. Our students will enter a world that is changing. To understand the complex nature of that world and of themselves, they require an education for the whole brain.

This symposium brings together the new scientific discoveries on the brain and consciousness; a recognition of the differences between people; and techniques for educating the whole person. Our intention is to present a new synthesis and a new understanding of the brain, the duality of the mind, and the implications of the newer knowledge of split-brain and normal brain research for the purposes and processes of education.

PROGRAM

9:00-9:30
EDUCATING THE WHOLE PERSON: AN INTRODUCTION
PAUL BRANDWEIN
At present, our schools address mainly the verbal-analytic functions. A complete curriculum would also address the spatial and holistic functions.

9:30-11:00
TWO MODES OF KNOWING AND THE TWO HALVES OF THE BRAIN
ROBERT ORNSTEIN
There is much recent evidence that the human brain is specialized for two distinct modes of knowledge, one analytical, the other holistic. This lecture will present the findings of the original “split-brain” research and later developments, and the recent research with normal people which shows that we all make use of the dual natures of our brain. There will be a presentation for the general audience of research evidence which bears on how the two hemispheres of the brain specialize in two kinds of thought.

11:15-12:00
EDUCATION AND LEFT-HANDED PEOPLE
JEANNINE HERRON
Not all people have the same brain specialization and hence, they need to be understood and taught differently. Left-handed people, who are about 10% of the population, have diverse brain organizations; some are similar to right-handers, some are reversed and some have intermediate organizations. This lack of under-standing of the diversity of cerebral specialization has often caused left-handers to be discriminated against, condemned as “gauche” or “sinister” and suffer in education.

1:15-3:15
ARE THERE RIGHT AND LEFT BRAIN CURRICULA?
PAUL BRANDWEIN
Many subjects, such as mathematics and physics, have strong holistic aspects which are not usually taught. The study of man, in addition, is not sufficiently emphasized in schools as well. How can we bring this sort of education into the curriculum? This lecture-demonstration, using film strips and the piano, among many other things, will draw together educational research and class-room experience on educating both modes of knowledge.

3:30-4:00
TEACHING STORIES
ROBERT ORNSTEIN
In many Eastern (as well as some Western) countries, a holistic understanding is conveyed by special tales which may have other functions, such as amusement, moral education, and the dissemination of information. These stories are an education for both sides of the brain at once, and are designed to be read aloud and listened to. This lecture will consist of some discussion on the nature and use of these “teaching stories” and a sample of them in practice.

4:15-5:00
QUESTIONS/COMMENTS
Questions from the audience will be considered as well as comments on the day’s proceedings from the speakers themselves.

FACULTY

PAUL BRANDWEIN is a member of the National Humanities Faculty, Adjunct Professor at the University of Pittsburgh and Senior Vice-President and a Director of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich where he heads the School Curriculum and Instruction Group. He is also Vice-Chairman of the International Center for the Advancement of Education, a joint venture of HBJ and Rizzoli (Milan, Florence). He is author of THE PERMANENT AGENDA OF MAN and THE TEACHING OF SCIENCE.

ROBERT ORNSTEIN is Associate Professor of Medical Psychology at the Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute, University of California, San Francisco. His current interests are the psychology of meditation, biofeedback, and the conscious functions of the two hemispheres of the brain. He is the author of THE PSYCHOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS and THE MIND FIELD, and the editor of THE NATURE OF HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS.

JEANNINE HERRON is a Research Associate at the Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute, San Francisco. Her current research interest is in left-handedness and brain organization. She has written on the subject in PSYCHOLOGY TODAY, and has also published a book documenting her transatlantic sail to Africa.