To clarify the perceptions of college freshmen regarding the kind of teaching they experienced in public schools and how those experiences relate to the split-brain theory, a study surveyed 241 first-semester college freshmen from the fall of 1984 to the fall of 1987 at Southwest Missouri State University. Only students who had completed at least six years of study in Missouri public schools participated in the study. To determine if students viewed their experiences as predominantly left or right brain oriented, or integrated, subjects identified the degree to which they had experienced various types of educational endeavors throughout their kindergarten through grade 12 experiences. Subjects also completed the Hough Brain Dominance Test to determine individual brain-dominance preferences. Responses showed that students perceived their public school experiences to be sometimes analytical, often sequential, concrete, rational, active, and quite goal-oriented, indicating that the students viewed their education in a traditional left-brain fashion. Similarly, students perceived the right-brain functions to be less dominant. (Two tables of data are included, and the student survey, brain dominance survey, results of brain dominance self-evaluation, five tables of data, and 28 references are appended. In addition, an addendum discusses brain dominance theory and the teaching of composition and includes three tables of data.) (MM)