Left or Right - Could it be both?

The Uses of Right-Brain, Left-Brain Theory

     In 1981, the Nobel Prize in Physiology (or Medicine) was divided and one of its winners was Roger Wolcott Sperry (August 20, 1913 – April 17, 1994) for his discoveries concerning the functional specialization of the cerebral hemispheres. His split-brain researches contributed greatly to understanding the lateralization of brain function.

     Have you ever heard people saying that they tend to be or to do things more in this than in that way? So, according to the theory of left-brain or right-brain dominance, each side of our brain controls different characteristics, different types of thinking and although everybody uses the two hemispheres, one predominates over the other. 

     Some of the abilities that are popularly associated with the right side of the brain include:

being passionate, expressing emotions, music, color, images, intuition, creativity. On the other hand, the left-side of the brain is associated with other abilities, such as: language, logic, critical thinking, numbers, reasoning. Knowing which one is your predominant side could be very helpful, because understanding your strengths and weaknesses in certain areas can help you develop better ways to learn and study. For example, according to the educator Kendra Cherry in her article written to about.com.psychology, the students who have a difficult time following verbal instructions (often cited as a right-brain characteristic) can benefit from writing down directions and developing better organizational skills.

Felipe and his twin brother, Bruno - both are scientifically musical.

     But can both sides work together to enhance our abilities at the same time? Can people be very good at left-brain and right-brain abilities? The answer is a huge YES. Logic (from the left side) and music (from the right side) has been working together for a long time, it has being connected to the scientific temperament. The 18th century French mathematician Joseph Louis Lagrange proclaimed that he work best to the sound of music. Einstein’s vocational devotion to the violin is legendary. And we can have some very good examples at our school - the teachers from the exact subjects are the most music gifted, for example, teachers Dilza (Physics) and Rose (Math) sing very well, teacher Felipe (Physics) plays classic guittar so beautifully and teacher Wagner (Chemistry) sings and also plays guitar very well. Recent research has shown that abilities in subjects such as math are actually strongest when both halves of the brain work together. You can read about it here. So, being left-brained or right-brained is just a detail, the most important is keeping your brain thinking positively, working and being healthy. it was made to be used...well used, by the way!

Post Question: According to your opinion, are you right or left brained? Why? Which are your talent(s)? Which talent(s) don't you have but, if you could, you would like to have?

Tip: Are you sure about your characteristics? Are you left-brained or right-brained? If you want to know, try to do this test and get your result.

The 10 Strengths of The Soul - by Leo Fraiman

     Completing the school series of lectures, Leo Fraiman presented the 10 Strengths of The Soul speech, which was very inspiring (and funny too!). I loved when he said that some time ago, the little girls used to play with their mother's clothes (I remembered myself doing it), but nowadays the mothers are the ones who want to wear their daughter's clothes. Unfortunately it's true! On the long run...it won't be a good example to our teens and chances are that they are keep reproducing this and others inconvenient behavior! As he said, teenagers want their parents to be parents, the ones who will be their friends but will also give them limits and support for the problems they will face during this period. They don't want parents to be their BFF (best friends forever) because they have tons of them in the school and in the social networks. Parents influence in their children's character.

The character and integrity are not born with man, they must to be formed. Both, school and parents can contribute to this formation, but parents' role is absolutely crucial. To help our teens, he suggested we could follow the 10 strengths of the soul, which are:

1st - Intuition = faculty of knowing or sensing without the use of rational processes. It can be a very good guide when we allowed it. Deep in our heart, we know what we have to do, we just need to listen to it.

2nd - Reason = the basis or motive for an action, decision, or conviction. We go and we do...we act...but we must complete the sentence: "I do it because of...." - of what?

3rd - Attitude = the way a person views something or tends to behave towards it, often in an evaluative way. Attitudes can be positive or negative, the choice is yours. 

4th - Love = is what brings sense for all our attitudes and actions. If love is not involved in your daily basis, nothing will have a true meaning and it will be a waste of time and energy.

5th - Steadfastness = to be firm in belief, determination. You will find obstacles, but they are there just to be overcome.

6th - Harmony = agreement in feeling or opinion; accord. It's a pleasing combination of elements in a whole, which brings peace to our soul and the nice feeling of being doing the right thing.                               7th - Initiative = the power or ability to begin or to follow through energetically with a plan or task energetically. It's an introductory step towards the direction you decided to take, an opening move.

8th - Perspective = the proper or accurate point of view or the ability to see it. It brings objectivity to your project and promotes analysis.

9th - Action = an organized activity to accomplish an objective. It's necessary to do something to keep you in the track of your objective.

10th - Spirituality = relating to the spirit or soul and not to physical nature or matter. It's the connection to a high purpose of life.

Post Question:
What topics would you like to have a lecture about? Is there someone you would like to invite to be a guest speaker in our lecture series? Did you attend the Leo Fraiman's lecture? What did you like most in the lecture? About the 10 strength of the soul, which one do you think is the most important? Which one are you good at?

Tip: Take a look at the Abhay Kulkarni's presentation about his "10 strengths". Do you have something in common with him?

Entrepreneurship and The Girl from Silicon Valley

The students of the financial education course from EducaFin, some teachers and the principal of Colégio Eduardo Gomes attended the Bel Pesce's speech "How Entrepreneurship Can Change Your Life".  Her testimony and her career is a great example that when we really want, we can!

Among many examples and situations narrated by her, I'd like to highlight two important points for both: your financial life and your student life.

1º) The question of error. Bel Pesce is a successful entrepreneur nowadays, but as she said, there is still a lot to learn and to do. She managed to be admitted at MIT, she studied Engineering, Business and Economics there, she worked at Microsoft and Google and she owns a company in Silicon Valley.
But to get to where she has been now, it has taken a lot of willpower, commitment and above of all, a great desire of learning from the mistakes made. Unfortunately the error is still seen as a mortal sin. This attitude brings such a heavy burden for the person who committed it that there are some people who are not even able to recover themselves. Others can not learn from their own mistakes and because of it, they can not move on. Mistakes are just a learning opportunity, an important lesson to be assimilated, an obstacle to be overcome, an obstacle that will no longer be a hindrance when you come to face it again. The error shows what should be improved by giving you the opportunity to correct it and do better next time.

Financially intelligent people know that the problem is not losing your money when you invest it, but it will be a big trouble if you don't know how to come back to the game and recover your money. Robert Kyosaki said "Don't be addicted to money. Want to Learn. Don't work for money Work for knowledge. Kids leave school addicted to money. Shouldn't they be addicted to learning?"

2º) Think creatively. Be an entrepreneur. How? Start being a good observer. First identify a need and then think about why it is a necessity and how this need could be remedied. Create a product or service to meet that demand. Make any necessary adjustments to an increasingly wide acceptance. Dare and stay tune to opportunities. According to Robert Kyosaki "When preparation meets opportunity, the result is success." So, be prepared! Bel Pesce was and you should be too! She got the opportunity when she met her partner and both founded "Lemon". Study and think out of the box. Do your lessons but go beyond it, do more! Bel Pesce started her speech saying that she likes to study and called herself a nerd. And she is proud of it and again, you should be too! So, it's easy to understand the reason why she got where she is now and for sure, much more is yet to come!
Remember: Don't be afraid of making mistakes, think creatively and move yourself!

Post Question: What are you most afraid of? Being totally sincere, are you addicted to get good marks or are you addicted to learning? What's your favorite subject? Why? Are you creative?


Tip: If you want to read Bel Pesce's book, you can get it in the school library (just ask Rosa or Rita) or you can download it here. Enjoy it! 

Forgive...and forgot - can you do it?

And why should we forgive? I like this explanation:

      But we know that on our day by day things are not so easy and maybe the forgiving process can take a while. The singer Adele went through an experience where forgiveness was required. By the way, forgiveness was only necessary if she took into consideration what was told about her. If she didn't bother about what Karl Lagerfeld said, there was absolutely nothing to be forgiven.

     The Oxford English Dictionary defines forgiveness as "to grant free pardon and to give up all claim on account of an offense or debt". In other words it means free pardon and forget it! 

      Forgiveness has been a topic largely studied by religions and most recently, by medicine.  Studies show that people who forgive are happier and healthier than those who hold resentments. So, if you want to forgive someone (and for your good health, you should do it) but don't know how to start the forgiving process, don't worry, you're not alone. And there is also the other side, people who want to be forgiven. Some of them want it so badly that try to do something to make it up. Sometimes it can work, but unfortunately it can also make the situation getting worse and worse. 

So the big doubt is: what should I do - to forgive or to be forgiven? 

     To help you and lots of people who are interested in this process, Dr. Ned Hallowell, psychiatrist and author of the book "Dare to Forgive" developed four basic steps to forgive others. Have you got interested? Take a look at the tip below.  After that, click here to read this story about the singer Adele and the fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld. Enjoy your reading and answer the post question. 

Post question: First of all, answer the question at the end of the article you read about Adele and Lagerfeld. If you were Adele, would you forgive him? Why? Could he make it up? Have you developed any strategy to forgive people? What is it?

Tip: Read about the Dr. Ned Hallowell's four basic steps to forgive and give it a try, why not?