TOW #24- My Stroke of Insight

            We often hear people describe themselves as strictly “right-brained” or “left-brained.” Right brain thinking is non-verbal and intuitive while left brain is verbal and analytical. Although we may identify with one hemisphere of the brain more than the other, they work together in our everyday lives to process information. Chronicled in Jill Bolte Taylor’s discovery and enlightenment in My Stroke of Insight, there is great importance in having a balanced brain. When Taylor was a thirty-seven year old Harvard-trained brain scientist, she experienced a massive stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain. As she observed her mind deteriorate, Taylor alternated between the euphoria of the intuitive and kinesthetic right brain, in which she felt a sense of complete well-being and peace, and the logical, sequential left brain, which recognized she was having a stroke and enabled her to seek help before she was completely lost. Taylor’s stroke was a blessing and a revelation for her. It taught her that by "stepping to the right" of our left brains, we can uncover feelings of well-being that are often sidelined by "brain chatter."

            The right and left sides of the brain focus on different skills which, when combined, enable individuals to be rational and spontaneous, analytical and creative. It wasn’t until experiencing the stroke that Taylor’s consciousness shifted and found deep inner peace. This was an eye-opening experience for her because it was the first time that she was really able to see the power of the right hemisphere. She came to the realization that the two sides must be balanced in order to maximize our quality of life, believing that “the more time we spend running the deep inner peace circuitry of our right brain, then the more peace we will project into the world, and ultimately the more peace we will have on the planet.”

TOW #23- Political Cartoon

As our reliance on technology has continued to increase, people have put forth the assertion that technology has a negative effect on modern society. Mike Smith, an award-winning editorial cartoonist featured daily in the Las Vegas Sun, applies this notion to his work. But what Smith and others fail to consider is how much technology makes life easier for us and that there may be other correlations to student’s test scores than just our usage of technology.

Yes, the amount of time we spend using our beloved devices is a lot more than it should be, but that’s not to say that this only applies to Americans. Our dependence on technology is global and comparing test scores in China and the U.S. based on our usage of it is invalid. Even those top test scoring students in Shanghai probably use a decent amount of technology. But just because Chinese students test better, doesn’t mean they use technology any less. If anything, the correlation comes mostly from the rigor and importance stressed on academics and that technology is a tool when it comes to preparing for tests.

In my experience as a student, technology has made many aspects of learning better. Having all the files that I need for my classes in the school-issued laptop makes it much easier to stay organized. Not only am I no longer needed to lug around all of my heavy books and binders from class to class, there are so many aspects of using technology that make learning easier. I am constantly using Quizlet’s learning tools to help me prepare for tests. The repetition of flash cards and games drill the information into my brain quickly and I’m not wasting pages of paper in the process. Technology has pushed us forward more than it has set us back, we just need to know our limits with how much it should be used. 

TOW #22- Feel the Math

            As far as the 2016 presidential race goes, many have been surprised with how far the Sanders campaign has come. They expected Hillary Clinton to get an easy democratic nomination with no one else in her way. But even though Sanders gave Clinton a bit of a run for her money, the facts show that Sanders has slim chances of winning the nomination.

            Paul Krugman informs readers in his article, “Feel the Math,” that at this point it’s all about delegate counts, where Clinton has a substantial lead with the voting more than half over. Taking account of what we know about demographic factors, like that Sanders mainly does well in very white states and in caucuses, the Times’s Upshot calculator informs us about the remainder of the race and what to expect. It shows that Sanders would need to win by about a 13 point margin from here on in. Krugman’s statistics go on to say that at this point, “it’s something like a 90 percent probability that Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee.” Even though Wisconsin is a demographically favorable state for him to win next week, unless it’s a huge blowout (which the polls aren’t showing), Clinton will still be very much on track for the nomination.

            Wherever we stand with our political opinions, it’s important to keep our eyes open and be more realistic about our choices. The Sanders campaign has shocked many people with how far it has gotten and with how many people have shown support for it, but as time moves closer to November, the end comes along with it. 

TOW #21- Social Disgraces

Regardless of how you feel about Facebook and Twitter, there’s no denying that they’ve changed our world. But the topic of debate that surrounds social media is whether or not they’ve changed the world for the better or for the worse. Kristin Appenbrink’s essay, “Social Disgraces,” takes a closer look at this topic and shares common social-media faux pas that many of us do. To a certain extent, it is easy to see why the “limitless opportunities to connect with others… and irritate them” can make us rethink our ceaseless usage of social media. But at the end of the day, the positive impacts that social media brings into our lives outweigh the negatives.

Communication is the single most important aspect of social media and it is something that many of us take for granted. It allows us to message, share pictures and videos, and keep in touch with people on the other side of the world. Last year, my friend studied abroad in Spain for a year. Needless to say, I missed her and social media helped me stay in contact with her. I could view all her pictures and send her messages with just the click of buttons. The half a world away that distanced us was irrelevant and helped keep a friendship alive. Social media lets us be close to the people in our lives that we love, even when we are nowhere near them.

Sure, we consume a solid amount of time on Facebook and Twitter that could be spent doing other things. Sure, we have probably irritated others on social media at one point or another. But these things do not compare to the value it brings into our lives. And whether or not people agree with that or not doesn’t matter because social media has and will continue to shape the world around us, for better or for worse. 

TOW #20- My Stroke of Insight

            Oftentimes, we hear people describe themselves as strictly “right-brained” or “left-brained.” Right brain thinking is non-verbal and intuitive while left brain is verbal and analytical. Although we may identify with one hemisphere of the brain more than the other, they work together in our everyday lives to process information. Chronicled in Jill Bolte Taylor’s discovery and enlightenment in My Stroke of Insight, there is great importance in having a balanced brain.

            In 1996, when Taylor was a thirty-seven year old Harvard-trained brain scientist, she experienced a massive stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain. As she observed her mind deteriorate, Taylor alternated between the euphoria of the intuitive and kinesthetic right brain, in which she felt a sense of complete well-being and peace, and the logical, sequential left brain, which recognized she was having a stroke and enabled her to seek help before she was completely lost. Taylor’s stroke was a blessing and a revelation for her. It taught her that by "stepping to the right" of our left brains, we can uncover feelings of well-being that are often sidelined by "brain chatter."

            The right and left sides of the brain focus on different skills which, when combined, enable individuals to be rational and spontaneous, analytical and creative. It wasn’t until experiencing the stroke that Taylor’s consciousness shifted and found deep inner peace. This was an eye-opening experience for her because it was the first time that she was really able to see the power of the right hemisphere. She came to the realization that the two sides must be balanced in order to maximize our quality of life, believing that “the more time we spend running the deep inner peace circuitry of our right brain, then the more peace we will project into the world, and ultimately the more peace we will have on the planet.”

TOW #19- The Wrong Way to Teach Math

From the time we begin elementary school, we are taught about the importance of math. By the time we get to high school, we have mastered addition through division and are sent through geometry, algebra, and calculus. But what are we getting out of this? How does all this math help us in the real world? Through Andrew Hacker’s article, “The Wrong Way to Teach Math,” it is evident that there is minimal correlation between the rigorous content that we are taught in math class and its application in the real world.

For one thing, many students “can’t see how such formulas connect with the lives they’ll be leading.” As a high school student, I can understand this statement. It’s one thing to understand a concept in math class and it’s another to understand why you’re doing it. Teachers put so much emphasis on the rigor and range of the math we are taught. I can understand how math acts as a way of problem solving and exercising our brains, but for the amount of time and brain-power we put into something, as students, we deserve to know why we are doing what we are doing. As Hacker stresses, we need to raise the importance in the proficiency of “quantitative literacy.” We need to be comfortable reading graphs and charts and adept at calculating simple figures in our heads. As Hacker puts it, “Ours has become a quantitative century, and we must master its language.” The problem is, there is this assumption made that all kinds of math will make us more numerically adept. But this is flawed. Our society needs to put more emphasis on the idea of quantitative literacy than on our high advancements in math levels. 

TOW #18- Would You Care More If I Was a Panda?

The World Wildlife Fund is an organization that challenges environmental issues through various campaigns. In this advertisement, they make the argument that in today’s society we tend to only focus on well- known endangered species such as the panda and neglect other lesser known animals like the bluefish tuna. The image displays several bluefish tuna, one of which is wearing a panda mask, and questions, “Would you care more if I was a panda?” This interesting approach by the organization is quite to the point. Without researching this advertisement, I wouldn’t have known that it was a bluefish tuna fish. The unrealistic aspect of the lone fish wearing a mask with the question being asked are intriguing because they hold truth to an audience guilty of paying more attention to the well-known endangered animals.

The audience aren’t the only ones guilty of this. The logo of the World Wildlife Fund depicts the image of a panda. By choosing the mask of a panda to cover the face of the fish, this organization is guilty too. Despite this, it makes the argument even more effective. With many people being guilty of focusing only on well-known endangered species, including the organization advertising the problem, there is more unity in making change to a realistic issue. The World Wildlife Fund effectively promotes helping all endangered species, not just the ones we’re more aware of. They’re changing the idea of how people, including their own organization, make change within biodiversity conservation.