Left and Right Hand Brain Activity
Western man makes an unconscious assumption that knowledge is intellectual by nature. Literature regarding brain function spans nearly 150 years in the annals of medicine and anatomy. Up until the 1970's neurophysiologists concentrated on the left hemisphere of the brain and the mapping of its specialities; they overlooked, ignored and underestimated the importance of the brain's right hemisphere.

Recent extensive research findings have yielded dramatic insights into brain function which contain implications for learning modalities and the development of appropriate teaching strategies. Reality of left and right hemispheric specialization is now firmly established. Application of balanced hemispheric development is, of course, fundamental to education and in particular the teaching process. Educators must, at the very least, not violate the fundamental principle of cerebral functioning and should wherever possible optimize children's thinking along integrative patterns.

Carl Sagan makes the point "critical thinking, without creative and intuitive insights, without the search for new patterns, is sterile and doomed. To solve complex problems requires the activity of both cerebral hemispheres; the path to the future lies through the corpus callosum".

The author, Peter Spink, describes how there is some evidence to suggest that many more children today need "an entirely new approach to learning" and he adds that a methodology which does not relate to the intuitive faculties should be rejected.

In his fascinating book Emotional Intelligence New York Times science writer Daniel Goleman argues that our IQ-idolizing view of intelligence is far too narrow. Instead, Goleman makes the case for "emotional intelligence" being the strongest indicator of human success. He includes in his definition of emotional intelligence self-awareness, personal motivation, and empathy. His book examines scientific data emerging from studies using new brain imaging technologies. Such data assists us in understanding of how emotions work.

Goleman also touches on the universal adoption of educational curricula that teach youngsters how to regulate their emotional responses and to resolve conflict peacefully. Implicit in this statement is that we need to educate the affective as well the cognitive.

Regeneration of society is possible if this type of education occurred. This well-researched work persuades us that we need to re-examine teaching practices and for us to teach our children an important lesson: humanity lies in our feelings, not our facts.

Breaking of the genetic code
Jane Healy in her book Endangered Minds similarly draws upon the latest neuropsychological research and also includes an analysis of current educational practices. She points how we are gradually learning what is needed in order for children to develop in the way nature intended.

With the breaking of the genetic code we should be able to customize factual evidence for each individual child. For example, we know that the axons or output parts of neurons, gradually develop a coating of a waxy substance called myelin, which insulates the wiring and facilitates rapid and clear transmission.

Growth and development of myelin
At birth, only the most primitive systems, such as those needed for sucking, have been coated with myelin, or myelinated. Myelin continues to develop slowly all during childhood and adolescence in a gradual progression from lower-to higher-level systems. Its growth corresponds to the ability to use increasingly higher-level mental abilities.

The process of mylenation in human brains is not completed at least until most of us are in our twenties and may continue even longer. While animal studies have shown that total myelin may reflect levels of stimulation, scientists believe its order of development is mainly predetermined by a genetic system.

While the system, overall, is remarkably responsive to stimulation from the environment, the schedule of myelination appears to put some boundaries around 'appropriate' forms of learning at any given age. Before we go on to consider the exciting implications of the fact that environments can make brains grow, we should stop for a moment to discuss some potential hazard in trying too hard to 'make' intelligence or learning happen.

Some of the skill deficits of today's schoolchildren, in fact, may have resulted from academic demands that were wrong - either in content or in mode of presentation - for their level of development.

We, therefore, need to create lessons that result in the balanced growth in the coating of myelin of all related neurotransmitters.

Stanley I. Greenspan is the USA's most influential child psychiatrist and coauthor of The Growth of the Mind: And the Endangered Origins of Intelligence. He maintains that until educators learn how to foster the individual child's emotional growth they will continue to shortchange the future of our country. He adds weight to recent efforts to legitimize early emotions as something far more than elements of a rich but unproductive fantasy life. His descriptions also reveals the missing link between neuroscience and the qualities that make us fully human including that impersonal technologies may interrupt the natural development of children.

Greenspan joins with T. Berry Brazelton, one of the world's most respected pediatricians, to offer parents, teachers, and policymakers clear-cut guidelines for rearing healthy, well-nurtured children. In their book The Irreducible Needs of Children: What Every Child Must Have to Grow, Learn, and Flourish they share the mutually strong conviction that society, and education in particular, is not currently meeting the basic needs of children. They describe the very high toll that society suffers if the right type of emotional growth does not occur.

These are some indications of why it is imperative that education needs to be using content and methodology that relates to the affective (emotional intelligence) as well as the cognitive side of childrens' nature. Institutional education is an enormous monolithic structure unresponding and rigid in the majority of situations. The changes that are urgently needed will be disseminated from this structure in a fragmented manner if at all. The answer is to give teachers the tools, namely lessons, which they can use to educate the affective (emotional intelligence) as well as the cognitive.

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