Frequently Asked Questions

In Your Right Mind is All About informing interested individuals about an ongoing, significant social issue and problem which is under-reported and under-appreciated.  The  issue has to do with the overwhelming dominance of a left-brain learning style and perspective which has come to dominate the thought processes of the Millennium.

A learning style is a short-hand method of indicating that not only do people learn and communicate information using different processes with differing strengths and weaknesses,  their learning style influences their perspective and orientation to a whole myriad of situations.

Learning styles can most fundamentally be thought of as “right” or “left.”   This is short-hand for the right or left side of the brain and refers to the fact that different facilities, faculties, or abilities are stored in different areas of the brain.

Right and left denotes location.

It is also interesting to point out that humans are constructed in such a way that most right-handed individuals have a dominant left-brain, while most left-handed individuals have a dominant right-brain.

Left handed people account for approximately 7-11% of the general population, and not everyone who is right-handed is wholly left-brained, and visa versa.

How we learn best, or how we take in information and present information optimally has an overwhelming impact on  how well we succeed academically. This is primarily true because much of our education is predicated on rewarding and reinforcing a certain style of learning, the left brain style.

This  preferential educational system has in turn an enormous effect upon  certain capable student’s timely acquisition of skills and required methods of demonstrating content mastery, and in turn  shapes a child’s developing (non- developing) sense of self and self-esteem.

Be confident that you know your child better than anyone else, including your child's teachers and most others.  You'll know your child is having a problem associated with his/her learning style based upon a number of factors:

• Kids who are judged bright and capable, especially in elementary school, who then to proceed to perform below expectations in Middle and High School are worth taking a second look at.
• In Middle School these kids often appear disorganized and immature, missing homework and longer term assignment deadlines.  Their Study Habits, if you can call them that, are either missing or appear to have as much of a  superstitious basis as they are grounded in meaningful tactics.
• Relative to their IQ, a meaningful measure of their true potential if accurately assessed,  these kids chronically under-perform relative to their ability level. 

• Compare your child’s teacher’s explanation of your child’s behavior and abilities with your knowledge and experience of your child in different social settings with different adults and different objectives. If you and your child’s teacher’s explanations and descriptions are pretty consistent and in-line with each other, then there is no reason to doubt the offered explanation or the steps identified to address the problem area.
• Any and all opportunities for the teacher to work directly with the child after school or at recesses,  sending extra work home,  assigning a student mentor, extra Resource Room* help, etc. are all fine strategies…if they work!
• Pls. note:  Resource Room help is often available only to Special Education
  students. If extra help isn’t working,  it is often due to the teacher employing the
  same approaches he/she used in the classroom. Children who have learning style
  clashes with their teachers will not (usually) be assisted by going for help after
  school, since, often, nothing changes (in the manner in which the information is
  presented or taught).
• On the other hand,  if the explanation the teacher shares with you of your child’s abilities and the reason for his or her academic or social difficulties does not coincide with your observations, experiences, family history or beliefs regarding your child,  then it is time to problem solve
• If you can identify that the teacher is either making assumptions that are unfounded, or characterizing your child  (often as unmotivated,  immature, not doing his/her best, etc.) or your family status in any way which makes you feel uncomfortable (i.e. blaming your being a single parent, for example),  this should set off some bells.  Start with the teacher and ask him/her to better explain to you under what conditions or in what situations your child succeeds and when he/she fails.