Being Left-Handed
One of my earliest memories of first grade is my mother going to bat for me with Miss McDougal to insist that I be allowed to use my left hand. I was then sent to the fifth grade room to write at a large double wooden seat with the principal’s son, who was also left handed. Because of that early experience, I slant my paper toward the right rather than the left as right-handers do.
That wasn’t the end of my troubles with writing. Those pens with removal nibs and ink wells meant that my left hand often smeared my work as it moved across the page. Thank Heavens for ball point pens. Even today the best solution for painting letters on posters is to write the line out on another paper and then copy it letter by letter, the last letter on the right side first.
There are many horror stories about children who were forced to use their right hand even though genetically they had a left-handed tendency. A guide in Hong Kong reported that her grandma beat her “blue black for using left hand”. As a grown woman, she stutters in her native Chinese but not when she speaks English.
In Asian countries it is considered bad manners to use chop sticks in the left hand. Although Chinese and Japanese are written vertically and from right to left, the problem with using your left hand when writing calligraphy is that the “tails” of most characters are to the right. It is much more difficult to push a “tail” than to pull it and end nicely in a point.
Many people know about the troubles that lefties have with scissors. The small side of the scissors digs into the thumb because the slant is wrong for us. We have several pairs of Chinese scissors which are rounded and equal on both sides. Can openers are another problem, and the cord on an iron is often on the “wrong” side.
When I open our back door, I often hit my knuckles on the door frame. I really should practice using my right hand for that motion. Fishing poles are all wrong for lefties. Percy casts out the line with his right hand and cranks the reel with his left. I learned to turn the rod and reel so that the reel is on top and then I cast (but not accurately) with my left hand and use my right hand for the reel.
Most left-handers learn early to be ambidextrous, so they can function in a right-handed world. In baseball switch hitters are probably all left-handers who learned to bat right-handed, too. For children starting out, batting left-handed is an advantage because it confuses pitchers to have them standing on the opposite side of the plate and they get more walks. Also they are a little closer to first base when they start their run.
The world of music is a problem for lefties. Stringed instruments can be re-strung, but most lefties use them as they are and find that the left hand does the fingering on the frets just fine. Trombones are not a problem and may even be better for lefties because their stronger left arm bears the weight of the instrument when marching.
Most teachers today are aware of the dangers of trying to force a child to use his or her right hand against a genetic tendency. If they try to change a child in a behavior like handedness, they are sending a strong message to him that it is not OK to be what you are. On the other hand, left-handed children do not want others to be too aware of their difference. Now schools provide left-handed desks, so lefties do not develop back and shoulder problems turning their bodies to use a right-handed desk. More left-handers today do not try to imitate the slant of the papers of their classmates and don’t write with their wrists in a bent cramped position.
I remember well how hard it was to pass the driver’s test in spite of Percy’s excellent instruction. I was twenty-five and needed to drive to my teaching position. The tester, a stern, middle aged trooper, gave me a direction. “Turn left at the next intersection.” I struggled in my mind to remember which direction was left and then, too late, I was through the intersection. I have learned since that I am not the only lefty who has trouble following and giving directions. Now I have a system. I hold my hands in front of me palms down, and the hand that forms an L with the index finger and thumb is my left. I still have some trouble giving directions, and sometimes I just point and say, “Go that way.” I did pass that test on the third try.
There is an idea out there that lefties are more creative than right-handed people, but I think we have had to find creative ways to live in a right-handed world. Maybe that effort carries over into other areas.
Many famous people use their left hand. Among presidents of the U.S., Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford all are lefties. Queen Elizabeth II and her mother and father, Steve Forbes, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, and both John, Jr. and Carolyn Kennedy are left handed. Entertainment figures who are left- handed include Jay Leno, Glen Campbell, Carol Burnett, Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise, Robert Redford and Shirley McClaine.
My purpose here is to let lefties know we share similar problems and to show them and their parents some ways to adjust to a right-handed world. M. K. Holden, a teacher at Indiana University has studied handedness and has a web site which is a resource for left-handed people, gauche! Left-handers in Society.
– Mary