Second Helpings

Right or Wrong

Despite once being a teacher I have always had issues and concerns about the way we teach, test and prepare our children for the future. There can never be a perfect solution, but it always saddened me how much wasted talent I witnessed being lost in a world where facts and figures mattered more than individuals. In an ideal world I believe each child should be encouraged to pursue the talents they display at an early age, be they scientific, artistic, physical, musical, technological or a multitude of other areas. Not that other subjects should be neglected, but in my limited experience we usually don't change what we are good at in life or suddenly develop an aptitude we didn't possess as children. It's a simplistic view I know, but the world needs all types of people and we are far more likely to do well and be happy in a career that suits our natural gifts.

I don't generally hold much store by the quizzes we see daily popping up on Facebook, but admit I find many hard to resist. Sometimes the results are laughable, sometimes remarkably accurate and sometimes ridiculous. The most recent one I took assessed our right and left brain percentages and I was quite surprised to discover my own score. Many people scored a fifty-fifty balanced result and others were predominantly left brained. My own claimed I am seventy percent right brained.

I know little about this subject, but a little research would have me believe having a dominant side of the brain is a myth. However, I then came across an article entitled 'Nineteen everyday struggles of being a right brained person,' and was absolutely amazed at ALL of the statements below.


1. You’re easily swept up by your imagination.

2. If you come up with an artistic idea, you have to stop everything you’re doing and write it down.

3. You’re totally guilty of doodling all over your math notebooks.

4. You have some strange talents, like tying seemingly unrelated things together.

5. You love to read and write, but you don’t know the difference between a preposition and a conjunction.

6. You’ve tried to learn at least three languages but struggled with memorizing grammar rules.

7. You have an easier time writing a silly message on your bill than actually calculating a tip.

8. You need to have music on when doing work, even though it can make your mind wander.

9. You love everything about music, but playing it on rhythm and counting each beat perfectly can be really difficult for you.

10. You rely on visuals when learning new things.

11. You’d rather write an essay than take a multiple-choice exam.

12. You appreciate a well-crafted sentence more than anyone, but you also think as you talk and don’t always edit.

13. You’re really brave when it comes to pursuing what you want, but your feelings are also easily hurt.

14. You are meticulous when it comes to creating a piece of art, but your desk is covered with scattered papers.

15. You get really excited about the tiniest of details related to your favorite series or film, but get easily bored in daily conversations with people.

16. You’re great at recognizing people’s faces but can’t remember names of new people to save your life.

17. Fictional characters have shaped your personality more than real people.

18. You’ve questioned the whole notion of morality and think it’s more important to be kind than to be right.

19. You live in your own world.


In my humble opinion this is almost a perfect description of myself and I think I know me better than anyone else. It's like looking in a mirror.

There may be no truth in these theories, but if children were given an appropriate test in school regarding brain side dominance, it may help in structuring how to educate individuals and what areas to focus on for the best progress and results. Just a thought. If some of my own teachers had been aware of some of the things on this list, then maybe I wouldn't have been forced to flog away at Maths and Languages for the sake of it and maybe encouraged to pursue a suitable qualification and career in a more creative field.

I never thought I was cut out to be a teacher. It saddens me how many people follow the wrong careers in life.