n the last decade most people have become aware of the vacuum which exists in the

modern educational system. The emphasis on the three R's and on technological and
scientific subjects takes a prestigious preference over the arts and humanities,
not to speak about edification of the individual in the 'living' of life as a
whole. Even though scholars and educationalists well know that to educate means 'to
bring out', the system persists in 'stuffing into' the student's mind innumerable
facts and figures, either to make top grades for school, district or state, or to
make accountants, lawyers and laboratory assistants to fit into the economic social
order. Competence in the art of living everyday life has been forgotten.

At last man's awareness has arrived at the multifaceted brain. With recent
breakthroughs in scientific study it has been found that the brain operates on many
levels at the same time. Most studies have been done on right brain hemisphere and
left brain hemisphere functions. The left hemisphere was originally labelled as
analytical, sequential and logical in thought. It was the side favoured for
language abilities because the verbal function was thought only to be linear in
time- one word after another. This suited the academic system as it could be
measured easily for grades; in turn those grades would be measured in terms of job
capability which in turn structured the economic and political systems of each
nation. So, in fact, the greater part of the world for millennia has been governed
by the left hemisphere brain.

The right hemisphere, however, is wholistic in nature. It looks at everything, not

as a part but as a whole. Creative or spatial thinking comes from this area, as
well as imagery and the much maligned intuition. Although it was thought to have no
language ability, the right brain has recently been found to control the emotional
quality of speech. Often children who are retarded in writing, speech and other
left hemisphere skills have normal or superior development in various artistic
capabilities. Many patients with left brain damage also have superior non-verbal
perception. Through the left hemisphere thoughts are expressed in words, whereas
the right hemisphere is associated With the unconscious mind. Many of the eminent
scientists and scholars of our times have had their most revolutionary and creative
ideas during times when the non-intellectual, spatial or intuitive mind (right
brain) was functioning.

From the gathering evidence, we can see the necessity for educating or bringing out
the abilities of the right brain. This is not to say that the left brain should be
ignored, but there should be an integration of learning and development of both
hemispheres, so they can work in harmony and at top efficiency. This is partially
the goal of yoga, when taken at a gross or physical level. For spiritual
development, however, the whole brain has to be working, then there will be
enlightenment.

Today educators are becoming aware of their incapacity to deal with the
metaphorical and metaphysical, the spiritual and inspirational. Teachers have been
limited to conventional methods for too long. New methods of teaching are being
developed to utilise the whole brain function, so that creative ideas coming
through the right hemisphere can be acted on through the left.

Some educators have suggested modifications in the present school curricula to

integrate the intellectual and artistic abilities, e.g. making pictures to
accompany social science or science; in geometry, making freehand geometrical
shapes to experience the feel of a straight line, circle etc. This will have an
effect on the deeper consciousness, as the archetypes of the unconscious mind are
represented in yoga philosophy by geometrical shapes.

In intensive training experiments reported by E. Paul Torrance and co-workers at

the University of Georgia (Brain/Mind Bulletin, Sept. 3, 1977) it was stated that:
Those having a left hemisphere style of processing information scored lower on
tests of creative thinking ability and showed fewer creative traits than their
peers.
Gifted students with a predominantly left brain style have greater difficulty in
seeing the implications of new knowledge and skills and apply them less.
People can change from preferred styles of learning and thinking through brief
intensive training.