Published: November 07, 2008 03:20 pm            

The battle of the right and left brain

What is 45 plus 58 minus 20? Wait. I need to get out scratch paper for math problems. My brain is not fitted for mental math games, which is why I am a writer and not a scientist, engineer or math teacher. In school, skills such as comprehension, logic, reason and memorization made a difference in subjects like math, history and English. I noticed that I could read a book and write a book report with such intensity that I often got accused of “speed reading.” In history class, I could memorize presidents, battles, dates and explain the three branches of government in a heartbeat. But in math class, I stared at the wall in dark confusion. I couldn’t memorize math. For the first time in my academic career, a subject didn’t come naturally. And while I wasn’t afraid to work for understanding, I felt a rising panic at the sight of numbers, formulas and word problems.

Skilled at words; horrible at math. Numbers — zero to centillion — are my No. 1 enemy. In the fourth grade, I realized that math would kill my chances for an Ivy League education. Why? After fourth grade, I stopped making “A’s” on my tests and quizzes in math. Soon after that, I learned that algebra was a two-headed monster with strange “X’s” and “N’s” replacing numbers. How can I solve “X” if I don’t know what it stands for? Algebra is a mind game, one that I lost on a frequent basis. In school, I could feel my brain switch from right to left during math. The process actually hurt. After an hour of torture, I craved words, books, sentences and even those strange diagrammed sentences. I needed my right side of the brain to soothe the pain that the left side created while trying to figure out a word problem about apples, bananas and trains.

But is math my dilemma because I am female? This past summer, Fox News released an article that suggested girls were finally catching up to boys in the classroom. For years, parents and teachers hinted at the possibility that boys overshadowed girls in math classes. This summer, the journal Science released the largest study about the genre debate. It found that girls measured up to boys in math. Personally, this debate has never made much sense in terms of math education. Sure, I had a hard time in school with math. But did I attribute my lack of skills to the boys in the classroom? Not really. I simply knew that it was not my strongest subject.

So yes, standing in front of the class trying to solve a math problem in my head did create a dizzy, nauseating effect. Not to mention that tests, quizzes and homework produced a clinical term called math anxiety. But it is OK, because the grammar gods smiled and blessed the right side of the brain with the ability to write this column, news stories and decode Shakespeare. As for math, I keep trying to figure out how many quarts are in a gallon, the distance from point A to B and the balance of my checkbook. But then I remember the math gods created calculators.

I finally came to terms with the common cliche: “You can’t be good at everything.” In school, sports and at work, individuals strive to be the best at every subject, drill and project. But the cold, hard truth is we can’t all be super heroes. We are naturally going to be better in certain subject or fields. I inherited the word gene. However, numbers, formulas and tricky word problems skipped on by without a second glance. Skipped? I actually meant ran past, in a full sprint.

I have learned to accept that I can’t be good at everything. That includes math, sewing and roller skating. But it doesn’t mean I have permission to give up. The lesson — the real truth behind the comical image of left brain headaches — is accepting, but still attempting the lesser skill. It is OK to be good at writing, mediocre at history and terrible at math. I have learned to approach math differently, just like any enemy — slow and steady with a calculator and plenty of scratch paper.

Jamie Parsell is the Lifestyle editor at the Daily Telegraph. Contact her at jparsell@bdtonline.com

        

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