Some thoughts about the left-brain/right-brain-myth

Some myths about how our brain works are very persistent. For instance I came across the good old right-creative-brain vs. left-logic-brain myth when I searched the internet for engineering education. And I found something called "engineers are people too" which made me laugh, but then ... first things first:

As for instance Christian Jarrett (http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brain-myths/201206/why-the-left-brain-right-brain-myth-will-probably-never-die) pointed out this myth is based on actual research. But not only that this respective brain research has been conducted in the 60ies (and believe it or not brain research had some pretty amazing findings the last 50 years), this research back then were so called 'split-brain-studies' ... so if you are not suffering from a very serious head insury you most probably will not have a split brain (no seriously we have no two separately working brain halfs, thanks to our Corpus Callosum).

So when I see that seminars are based on exactly this myth (for instance http://www.engineersarepeopletoo.com/company) I need the urge to write a blog post. 

But there is more to that than just not accurate knowledge presented in adult education. 

Dichotomies like technology vs. nature, creativity vs. logic, etc. often end up in gender-binary and heteronormative stereotypes which are used to explain and legitimate structural inequalities and injustice. 

And now the 'shocking'  truth: we already know for decades about the issue because great scholars like Anne Fausto-Sterling wrote about such myths and their implications on gender relation (see Fausto-Sterling 1992: Myths of Gender: Biological Theories About Women and Men).

So all I'm saying is that I wish that whoever educates others (in schools, adult education, job trainings) would base their philosophies and didactics not on myths and stereotypes.