Ah since some of us are sharing our childhood experiences with being left handed:
I am ambidextrous, like many lefties. While learning to write my letters in Kindergarten (age 5 for non-US peeps), my teacher noticed that I’d switch hands when the one writing got tired. She didn’t like this at all and kept telling me that I needed to choose one. She actually made quite a stink about it so I chose my left, idk why the left specifically.
I still write with my left, despite trying to retrain back to writing with both at different times in my life. I feel like a mini superpower was taken from me.
Interestingly enough, I’ve noticed that my large motor skills are best used with my right side (arm, leg, hand), and my small motor skills with the left. I think it’s a leftover from being truly ambidextrous, or it may be common amongst left handed people. Idk…the very few others I’ve asked seem to be left handed/sided exclusively.
I think if I had to choose a hand I would choose the right, just because we write left to right and I wouldn’t want to track my hand through fresh pencil and pen marks.
My friend in highschool was left handed and his left hand was always completely covered in graphite.
She didn’t like this at all and kept telling me that I needed to choose one.
i hate it when someone sees something cool and unusual and immediately feels the need to correct it… as if it were a negative thing.
oh - a kindergartner is so good at writing that they can write with either hand, and you see a problem in that?? it’s such a sad way to think! it’s counterproductive pedantry
nobody is really wired to me one hand or the other, we can all learn to be ambidextrous. your are that way because you just feel more comfortable/experienced doing certain things with one hand than the other, it’s a formation of neuromuscular habit.
it’s just a matter of practice, but yes, as children the adults around us often DEMAND we be one or the other. just like they demand gendered behaviors, etc. And children conform because adults like conformity.
it’s interesting as an adult, like getting coaching and having to re-learn basic bio mechanics you ‘assume’ are some sort of default, because well, nobody ever told/taught you you could/should be doing things differently. like there are different way to hold pens for different styles of writing…
not any different really when say, comes to language use and accents. you have a ‘native’ one you got from your upbringing, but you can unlearn it and a lot of people do because they won’t gain social acceptance if they retain it. when I code switch to my ‘native’ speech… people freak out because it offends them because I’m supposed to sound smart and ‘educated’ , not like a stupid working-class hick. and of course, the first year i came back from college all my family/friends basically asked me why i was such a douchebag and talked so pretentiously…
I remember my dad would tell me his teachers (mean ass nuns) would make him put his knuckles on the desk and smash that shit with a ruler until he stopped using his left hand
I remember my classmate telling me that they did the same to her in Louisiana public elementary school in the late '90s. The teacher even told her that it was because she was using “the devil’s hand.”
Can confirm. My kindergarted teacher in the early ‘90s slapped my hand with a ruler. Not sure if it was for religious reasons (there was no indication) or she just thought it was wrong. I write with my right hand now and my penmanship is shit.
i had one like these at school too. i often think about whether i should visit her again … just as an “update” sort of years later … due to her age, she’s probably dead by now
Holy shit, I’m so sorry your dad went through that. Like how is smashing a child’s hand less of a problem than that child using their ‘other’ hand to write?
Honestly, I’d really like to know what people were so concerned with. All I ever heard was ‘it’s not the correct way’, and the only evidence my mind can stretch to support this is based on the fact that sure, it’s a right handed world and certain things are more efficiently and even safely used with a right hand. I’ve also heard a few cultural reasons regarding cleanliness but these are from cultures far removed from mine and obv never given as an actual reason (to me directly) why using one’s right hand over their left is preferred.
Idk shit like this and many other examples just remind me of how quickly others turn to control and rigidity when faced with something they don’t understand/doesn’t ‘fit’ into their mental presets. This post officially has me in my feelings this morning.
Ah since some of us are sharing our childhood experiences with being left handed:
I am ambidextrous, like many lefties. While learning to write my letters in Kindergarten (age 5 for non-US peeps), my teacher noticed that I’d switch hands when the one writing got tired. She didn’t like this at all and kept telling me that I needed to choose one. She actually made quite a stink about it so I chose my left, idk why the left specifically.
I still write with my left, despite trying to retrain back to writing with both at different times in my life. I feel like a mini superpower was taken from me.
Interestingly enough, I’ve noticed that my large motor skills are best used with my right side (arm, leg, hand), and my small motor skills with the left. I think it’s a leftover from being truly ambidextrous, or it may be common amongst left handed people. Idk…the very few others I’ve asked seem to be left handed/sided exclusively.
I think if I had to choose a hand I would choose the right, just because we write left to right and I wouldn’t want to track my hand through fresh pencil and pen marks.
My friend in highschool was left handed and his left hand was always completely covered in graphite.
Yeah I definitely didn’t think it through, because too small lol.
I too suffered the graphite mark and even had it transfer to my face via scratching an itch. Very embarrassing as a kid!
I also had a tough time with spiral notebooks, markers, and craft scissors.
i hate it when someone sees something cool and unusual and immediately feels the need to correct it… as if it were a negative thing.
oh - a kindergartner is so good at writing that they can write with either hand, and you see a problem in that?? it’s such a sad way to think! it’s counterproductive pedantry
nobody is really wired to me one hand or the other, we can all learn to be ambidextrous. your are that way because you just feel more comfortable/experienced doing certain things with one hand than the other, it’s a formation of neuromuscular habit.
it’s just a matter of practice, but yes, as children the adults around us often DEMAND we be one or the other. just like they demand gendered behaviors, etc. And children conform because adults like conformity.
it’s interesting as an adult, like getting coaching and having to re-learn basic bio mechanics you ‘assume’ are some sort of default, because well, nobody ever told/taught you you could/should be doing things differently. like there are different way to hold pens for different styles of writing…
not any different really when say, comes to language use and accents. you have a ‘native’ one you got from your upbringing, but you can unlearn it and a lot of people do because they won’t gain social acceptance if they retain it. when I code switch to my ‘native’ speech… people freak out because it offends them because I’m supposed to sound smart and ‘educated’ , not like a stupid working-class hick. and of course, the first year i came back from college all my family/friends basically asked me why i was such a douchebag and talked so pretentiously…
I remember my dad would tell me his teachers (mean ass nuns) would make him put his knuckles on the desk and smash that shit with a ruler until he stopped using his left hand
I remember my classmate telling me that they did the same to her in Louisiana public elementary school in the late '90s. The teacher even told her that it was because she was using “the devil’s hand.”
80s I was told I was holding it wrong. Don’t known if I would have been left handed as penmanship from both hands sucks.
Can confirm. My kindergarted teacher in the early ‘90s slapped my hand with a ruler. Not sure if it was for religious reasons (there was no indication) or she just thought it was wrong. I write with my right hand now and my penmanship is shit.
Yep my mother and grandfather both went through that shit. It made my grandfather very ambidextrous.
i had one like these at school too. i often think about whether i should visit her again … just as an “update” sort of years later … due to her age, she’s probably dead by now
Holy shit, I’m so sorry your dad went through that. Like how is smashing a child’s hand less of a problem than that child using their ‘other’ hand to write?
Honestly, I’d really like to know what people were so concerned with. All I ever heard was ‘it’s not the correct way’, and the only evidence my mind can stretch to support this is based on the fact that sure, it’s a right handed world and certain things are more efficiently and even safely used with a right hand. I’ve also heard a few cultural reasons regarding cleanliness but these are from cultures far removed from mine and obv never given as an actual reason (to me directly) why using one’s right hand over their left is preferred.
Idk shit like this and many other examples just remind me of how quickly others turn to control and rigidity when faced with something they don’t understand/doesn’t ‘fit’ into their mental presets. This post officially has me in my feelings this morning.
I mean it was jersey in the 70s, he’s never been too broken up about it
Looks like another victim of leaded gas. /s
Was this survey taken among alive people? If so, it might be subject to survivorship bias. Left-handed people might die earlier on average.
They asked the deceased, too.