Classifying Brains
When I was young, I learned that different functions take place in different regions of the brain. I was fascinated by this concept. More than just breathing, eyesight, hearing and speech, but the fact that math took place on one side of the brain and art synapses fired in the other hemisphere compelled me to want to know how to categorize my brain. One of the ideas I learned along the way was the idea of a male brain and a female brain, and the further idea that male brains were left brained and therefore math was strong in all men, and women owned the right side and therefore were artistic. I learned that the way a person's hair parted naturally indicated their dominant hemisphere, as did left or right handedness, and if you wanted to help learn something that would naturally map to your non-dominant hemisphere, which means learning it would be difficult, try to use your non-dominant hand to write notes for that subject. I learned that you could be a woman with a male brain or a man with a female brain, and that examination of the brains themselves looked different, like a body builder who only exercises one half of their body.
I kept reading about the differences in the brains, and just simply the study of brains, especially since so much of what I had learned did not make any sense, and after I sat back and thought about it, the ideas made even less sense. Right brained verses left brained I understand, that seemed solid, but to say that one is a "male" brain and the other a "female" brain did not. I was good at math and science, terrible at spelling but loved to read, I loved learning about history but not the way it was taught in school, I loved music, and was indifferent at art. Did that mean I had the wrong brain for my gender? This was a serious question that I wrestled with in my teens and even in college.
At one point I stumbled upon notes taken five hundred years ago, the Age of Enlightenment, the Age of Reason. So much catastrophic reform took place within a few short hundred years. Science replaced religion as a way to explain the world; and categorizing and classifying everything was the standard for debate and discussion. One fallacy to arise from this era was categorizing and classifying humans into distinct races based on weird assumptions around brain size, limb length, and skin color. This classification was done to scientifically demonstrate the superiority of specifically Western Europeans.
Reading those notes was enlightening for me, but not, I suspect, in the way the original author intended. What I learned from that long-dead scientist was the importance of acknowledging when the idea of science has gone off the rails and actual science has been abandoned to make political or social points. I learned that when science is ignored for politics, people suffer, often for generations. You cannot measure the circumference of someone's head or the length of their forehead and know how smart they are. You cannot predict how someone will learn a particular subject by how they pick up a pencil. If someone naturally shows an aptitude for one subject, you might be able to suggest others that person could be interested in, but it is not an across the world similarity, and a culture different from one based off Western European ideas will have different subject associations with different characterizations and traits and even genders.
As I studied brains in general in an attempt to see where my own brain fit in, I learned that I needed to listen to individual stories and see each brain and life as its own entity. Many individuals who share a culture will have commonalities in world view, which is all interpreted by the brain. This shared culture and world view will group large numbers of people together in something experientially different from another large group. I learned something else, too - since my own heritage is that of the Western European descended culture that had been elevated, it is my task to work to undo the harm that has been done to so many. I learned that I needed to stop attempting to classify my brain, to end value judgements based on which side of the brain someone might be appearing to use, and to simply open myself up to listen to another person's story.
I love you all
Stay Safe and Healthy
Wash Your Hands
Peace be with you
~Rev. Andrea Joy Holroyd
Begun June 7th - Dismantling Structural Racism 21 Day Study Guide: https://www.presbyterianmission.org/ministries/matthew-25/racism/
Friday June 19th activity: Day 13 - Read the confession of Belhar
Other opportunities for discussion: this summer, Rev Kate Kotfila would like to facilitate a book discussion group around the book White Fragility. If you are interested, please email me, and I will make certain that Rev. Kate knows how many SUPC members and friends wish to participate. Thank you ~Pastor Andrea.
