From Sinister to Smarter “‘Sinister Children’” was the title psychologist Theodore Blau gave to left-handed children in the late seventies, due to their over abundance “among the academically and behaviorally challenged” and their greater vulnerability to obtaining mental diseases later in life (1). This condescending view on the left-handed population has existed for centuries. The word sinister itself comes from the Latin word sinistra, meaning left hand. In the article “Sinister Minds: Are Left-Handed People Smarter?,” written by Maria Konnikova, a psychologist from Columbia University, she explains how these outdated theories about the intellect of the left-handed community are wrong. In fact, the author elaborates how left-handed people may have higher brain abilities compared to the general population due to the …show more content…
The more a participant preferred their left hand, “the better they were at tests of divergent thoughts” (3). The study also found that “Left-handers were more adept… at combining two common objects” and finding a way “to form a third” (3). The article gives the example that they were better at creating a birdhouse by combining a tin can and a pole. The left-handed group also “excelled at grouping lists of words into as many alternative categories as possible” (3). According to the article, the study found “an increased cognitive flexibility among the ambidextrous and the left-handed,” which tends to lead to a rise in creative thinking (3). This flexibility explains why lefties are over-represented in more creative thinking jobs like music, architecture, and the arts, including famous artists Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. To help Konnikova prove her claim, she makes an underlying assumption that having these skills are beneficial and adds a unique ability to the left-handed
This quote above illustrates that at the start of Thomas Buergenthal journey, Holocaust survivor, he would be experiencing strokes of luck that help him stay strong, survive, and reunite with his mother during and after Auschwitz.
In this extract, Bennett reveals the fate of all the boys, the eulogies told by ‘’Hector’s boys’’ seem to stem the realisation the true extent of Hector’s importance to the boys and how his lessons – though understood late, has managed to shape the boys and contribute to who they are at the ending of the play. The extract reflects an elegy in which we see Hector though obscured by his paedophilia, is a tragic ‘hero’ as he saves the boys from being lost in the system of clichéd education in which there is no individualism.
Disabilities in the classroom are a very important issue for teachers to be familiar with. In the article by Michael Graziano, An Inconvenient Child, Graziano’s son suffers from Apraxia but gets inaccurately diagnosed by his son’s teacher. This creates issues of trust for his son and worsens the learning disability problem. He includes important information all parents should hear in the article. Graziano looks at his son’s disability in the classroom, which directly relates to teachers catching signs of mental illness in the classrooms, how teachers diagnose a behavioral troubled child, and training school counselors on the Section 504 policy. The conversation between Graziano’s concerns and these other current articles establish kairos for the article.
Topic/ Thesis Statement: Don’t judge a book by its cover, some people are not who they claim to be, or looks can be deceiving.
Did you know that every day several hundreds of people are forced out of their home causing them to become a refugee? The universal refugee experience of fleeing and finding a home is difficult since the refugee doesn’t know or understand the language that well and can sometimes be viewed as an outsider. According to the article, “Children at War” by Arthur Brice, Amela Kamenica a teen refugee is forced out of her home due to the war near her hometown. In the novel, Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai, the main character, Ha is treated like an outcast since she doesn’t know the American traditions and ways. Ha is a ten-year old girl, who has to flee Vietnam because of the war between North and South Vietnam. It is dangerous and unsafe
Oflaz, M. (2011). The Effect of Right and Left Brain Dominance in Language Learning. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 15, 1507-1513. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.03.320
“Right-brained” or “left-brained” is a concept that has been manipulated by the media, it’s not supported by solid science. The myth of a “right-brain” person is generally creative, intuitive, artsy, while a left-brain person is more of a problem-solver, more direct, logical. Somehow the real meaning was lost in translation, so I’ll explain. The brain is divided into two sides, called hemispheres. The left hemisphere
... Unquiet Mind, p.72). Such unique ideas and associations provide significant evidence for aid in all types of creativity.
Being left handed or right handed is a natural development every individual catches on to at a certain age and according pediatrician (Laura Jana), most children start to show a preference for either their left or right hand at about 2 or 3 years old but can develop a preference as early as 18 months old. Most people feel that being right handed is an automatic adjustment that being right handed is correct and being left handed is viewed as a negative factor, in a retrospective study on decedents; scientist have solved the reason being that left handedness can reflect in a negative outcome. In researchers’ study (Marcel E. Salive, MD, MPH, and Jack M. Gurlnik, MD,PhD) they found that the average death rate for left-handers was 9 years lower
Since the beginning of days, the fight between the goodness and hatred, bravery and cowardice, and benevolence and evil has always existed. The frivolity of evil written by Theodore Dalrymple argues about the existence of evil among us, questions the reasons of its flourish and the reason why we commit evil. He begins his article by informing his audience of his career as a physician in a prison’s hospital where he treated several criminals. He also expressed his passion of treating the poor people because, according to him, treating the poor is more compelling and florid. Dalrymple then expresses the presence of different evil acts he witnessed at his work and in several countries all over the world.
...may affect a person’s cognitive abilities. Handedness is the preference of a person to use either right, left or both hands. It follows that the hand mostly used is stronger than the other. This phenomenon is hereditary but it has no effect on the cognitive abilities of a person (American Scientist, 2004). Biochemical irregularities is another phenomenon
ONE DAY. If you can manage to do only half of everything left-handed for that day, you MIGHT BEGIN to understand the seemingly small ‘inconveniences’ suffered by the left-handed on a daily basis” (Dossey 12). Many people may glance at this challenge and find it pointless, highlighting exactly the point Weems makes: that the majority of people don’t realize the struggles of living in a world where people simply assume right-handedness. The stamp of left-handedness appears to also bring the stamp of unworthiness in regards to ease of living, since left-handed people have no trouble finding enemies in the most commonplace of activities. Cooking, for instance, requires lefties to run the risk of injuring themselves meals after meal. Appliance such as can openers, peelers, corkscrews, and soup ladles all force lefties to manipulate their hands in a way where failure prevails more often than success. If only manufacturers took the time to construct items suitable for lefties, or at least appliances equally suitable for both hand preferences, left-handed people would not have to spend just as much time in the kitchen worrying as they do cooking. However, in a world in which profit trumps quality, lefties continue to receive the short end of the stick, overlooked and under appreciated for the skills they could bring
“The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell and “The Child By Tiger” by Thomas Wolfe are two short stories that have completely different plots, but have many similarities that relate them. Both stories deal with unexpected killers and have a twist that surprises the audience. These pieces make use of foreshadowing and address discrimination, but the characterizations of the protagonists are very different and they affect the readers in distinctive ways.
The good news, though, is that some of the most eminent contributors to society have been lefties. Both Jay Leno and David Letterman are left-handed, as are Julia Roberts, Matthew Broderick, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Robert...
Did you know that approximately 10% of humans are left-handed? If there are 7,000,000,000 people in this world, then about 700,000,000 people are left-handed: a difference of 6,993,000,000 people. I should mention that I contribute to that ten percent. Being a lefty is almost equivalent to a person with recessive eye colors such as blue, hazel, or green. Just like eye color, the rate of southpaws can vary according to culture, gender, country, etc… As an example, most left-handers tend to be males. Left-hand dominance has surprisingly been very consistent throughout 500,000 years, staying at a constant rate of ten percent. Researchers have found, for example, by examining tools and bone density, that Neanderthals also favored their right hand. If the world is mainly filled with right-handed people, why does left handedness exist? The history, benefits and disadvantages of