Ask Marilyn
Envisioning Time
Joan Mullet of Goshen, Indiana, writes:
Marilyn: My husband visualizes time as moving from right to left. I see it moving from left to right. Does this reflect right brain/left brain thinking?
Marilyn responds:
No, your own thinking is typical and reflects teaching. In this country, where we read from left to right, virtually all mathematical concepts--number lines, timelines, and much, much more--are taught according to this convention. Negative numbers are on the left (or down), and positive numbers are on the right (or up). If your husband were in school, he would be handicapped by his thinking.