The Implications for Education of the Human Mind’s Understanding of Reality: Response to Iain McGilchrist

Iain McGilchrist’s Boyle Lecture looks at the implications of the human brain’s structure and modus operandi for our understanding of reality and our awareness of the divine. Here, I extend the argument by looking at the implications for education. I focus on schooling and the teaching of science and religion. In both science education and religious education, there is evidence for the development of a more balanced approach to teaching, with more right-hemisphere thinking being encouraged among learners. From a McGilchristian perspective, this is to be welcomed. At a time of increasing global fragmentation and the growing influence of post-truth movements, we need the next generation to be better educated, both with regards to the specifics of knowledge and more holistically, about what it is to be human and how knowledge might be used for the good of all life.