Another Spawn of Satan here. My mother started teaching in 1936 and she had been taught not to allow chidren to write with their left hand. I don’t remember her doing anything abusive. Really don’t remember it at all.
I am left-eye dominant. Don’t know if that means anything or not but my depth perception has always been a bit goofy and I am no good at any sport where the ball is moving, comes at you and you have to hit it.
Here’s an interesting tidbit: There is evidence of a higher number of lefties in the homosexual and chemically dependent populations. I have no idea what that would mean but I find it fascinating. (And sinister!)
That’s a good point about not seeing the animals. Now that he’s older he doesn’t do it as much.
Oh yeah, basic training!! Wasn’t that a fun time? Your other left, your other left!!!
My father was left-handed. He attended catholic school in the 40s, and the nuns forced him to use his right hand, instead. My brother is also a lefty, and never seemed to have any problems with it. His handwriting is atrocious, though- I think I could write better with my left hand.
I had a teacher who was also forced to use his right hand in elementary school. As an adult, he used both. He’d start writing something on the chalkboard with his left, then switch to his right when he got about halfway across.
Right-handed mother, left-handed father. Four kids: Two solid right-handers (can’t even point left-handed), one solid left-hander and one ambidextrous. One of the right-handers hooks her hand like a lefty - beautiful writing but with a 45-degree backhand slant. The ambi had her left hand tied behind her all through grades 2 and 3. By the time the other lefty got to school, that teacher had left and he was left alone. Pun intended.
Born 1980, the only lefty in my extended family. At school, I was always allowed access to lefty scissors and instruction in left-hand dominant sports stuff, but as an adult, I can only use scissors with my right hand, and I can sport with either hand.
My mother is left-handed, born in 1945. No one ever forced her to write with her right hand. She has nicer handwriting than I do and no left-handed hooking.
My dad was a natural lefty but the nuns forced him to write righthanded. Now’s he’s switched to righthanded, but is really ambidextrous.
Fella is a lefty. I just asked him if he’d ever been discriminated against? He said in small ways sure–like no left handed desks when he was in school. He has like swampbearsaid–handwriting like a serial killer. When he leaves me notes, I’m waiting to be murdered.
My best friend (aka Gay Husband–thus named by my mom) is a hooking lefty. He has lovely handwriting. If you’re a girl. (I’ve told him that and he said “I know!” )
They wouldn’t let me play shortstop on my baseball or softball teams for some reason.
I did have a second grade teacher, a nun, attempt to switch me to the ‘right’ side. My father had a good talking to her.
In a way I once messed with right handers. I taught aircraft mechanics and on one aircraft there was a job where it just had to be done with the left hand. On the other side of the aircraft, you had to use your right hand. I’d put righties on the left side and lefties on the right.
Lefties usually didn’t have any trouble adapting. However some righties had one hell of a time!
I’ve never really been discriminated against, besides the usual having to use right-handed desks, scissors, etc. But I have been accused by two different people of deliberately choosing to be left-handed, once by my father who said that I started out ambidextrous and chose to be lefty because my mom is and I wanted to be like her (no), and by another older man who claims that all people are born righty and lefties all choose to be that way. I pointed out to him that I saw how my youngest son, from infancy, always reached for things with his left hand and it sure didn’t seem like he chose that, but that was ignored. :rolleyes:
Lefty here, never subjected to discrimination beyond, say, the unavailability of left-handed scissors. I am fairly ambidextrous for all but fine-motor tasks like writing, but a terrible athlete with either hand or foot (which probably had more to do with lack of interest and asthma left undiagnosed until my 20s than left-handedness). Well, I guess I had a hard time as a kid learning the difference between left and right because our gym teacher kept insisting that the right hand is the one you write with, which, duh, isn’t always true. I still kind of have to think about it.
It totally boggles me that anyone would have ever cared which hand anyone wrote with. Seriously, who the hell cares?
My daughter has problems processing the words “right” and “left”. If she’s driving me somewhere, I have to tell her “Turn Lisa” or “Turn Mama”, rather than turn right or left. Her handwriting is barely legible. However, mine is no better, and I’m right handed.
Back when she was still living at home, I was playing a casual video game that gives clues such as “Suspect A is two rooms to the left of Object B”. She wanted to know if she would like the game, and I told her that I was afraid that it was too advanced for her, as it used complicated ideas like “right” and “left”. She stared at me for half a second, and then burst out laughing. Then I showed her the little clue section, which highlights the items in different colors, according to relative positions. She does like the game, and will play it. Because she CAN tell her colors apart.
Another cross-dominant here - that’s one of the most difficult things. I can’t do right and left quickly. Mrs Piper was originally very frustrated if I was driving and she was navigating. She would say “turn left” or “turn right”, and I would freeze up and sail through the intersection while my brain tried to process this “left/right” business.
Eventually we agreed that she should use “driver’s side/your side” instead of “left” and “passenger side/my side” for “right”, even more than me.
My mother was a lefty who became ambidextrous at school and could write with either hand. She also had trouble telling left from right.
I’m a “northpaw” (is that a thing? It should be) but my SO is a southpaw. I asked him if he had ever experienced any discrimination and he said no. He also pointed out that the ONLY thing he does lefthanded is write. Oh and when he was in school and played baseball he could bat left or right so his coach loved that.
I’m curious about this, also. Does anyone have any info on why this is/was so? I’m especially interested in understanding why it would be so offensive as to result in children being beaten with a paddle?
I once bought a pair of left-handed scissors and put them on my desk. Next I confiscated all my coworkers’ scissors. It was fun watching them borrow mine.
Left-handedness having a connection to the Devil in medieval times, I woud suppose. And it wasn’t uncommon to incorporate physical punishment with learning as late as the middle of the last century.
The reason my mother gave for training children to use their right hands was her belief (instilled in her by her teachers before her) that it would complicate their lives. Not to mention that the country schools couldn’t afford special desks to accommodate them. Left handed tools? I have no idea when they became more common.
And when the spiral notebooks came into vogue, she said, so many of the kids had problems using them left-handedly as they hurt their arms.
Before we eat with a group of people my husband aways asks if there are any lefthanded people dining with us. Then he places them on the end. You’d have to ask him if that were a courtesy or discrimination. Maybe he doesn’t want to bump elbows through his meal? I dunno.
Lefty here. It was never an issue for me in school, however looking back I think this was a NEW THING for my kindergarten teacher. Out of school I met a woman who was a year or two ahead of me in school and was bullied and demeaned by the Kindergarten teacher. Since we had a big chart on the wall of “lefties” (there were 3 of us in a class of 8, and 2 out of 12 in the afternoon class) and we had a labelled can of green handled leftie scissors.
I have never been the most coordinated person with my hands but I can do most nursing skills either handed. Believe me, sometimes stopping to switch hands when you need to give an emergency injection is not the way to go. Find the site, and swab, flick off the cover and give the needle. I’ve done that and people after say " I thought you were left handed." I said “I usually am, but today I decided faster was better.”
