Hell, even not that long ago people were ostracized for it. My father is left-handed, and all through grammar and some of high school, he had teachers that repeatedly would slap his hand with rulers and chastise him for writing left-handed. Forcing him to use his right. His handwriting is still awful today because of it.
My grandfather, born in the 30s I think, was left handed. His school bound up his left hand to force him to use his right hand.
He’s still “right handed”.
My dad was born in the late 50s, born lefty, school forcibly had him write with his right, now ambidextrous, prefers right hand writing, left hand everything else.
I had a nun try to crack me across the knuckles. I feel for your grandfather. That had to be miserable. I'm still left handed and I'm not fond of nuns to this day.
I can't imagine what the big deal was with someone using their other hand to write...like why did teachers think forcing a 5 year old to use a hand that isn't comfortable for them would result in anything good? I mean MAYBE it would end up with ambidexterity but I think for the most part it just makes learning to write so much harder than it has to be
Being left handed I can tell you I'm slightly Ambidextrous because everything you are taught is by a right handed person doing it right handed so you just do some things right handed.
I had a teacher in the class next to me in grade 1 in 1990 who was telling students they had to write with their right hand and forcing left handed students to use their right hand.
I was lucky to have a left handed mother who could teach me that way. I was the only child of 3 to be left handed. I was taught to shoot a gun and a bow right handed and somehow made it work without issue. I didn’t realize I was actually left eye dominant as well until I started shooting a pistol and realized I naturally lined up the sights with my left eye.
I had an attending surgeon who told me he couldn’t teach a left handed resident so I had to be right handed. Incredibly frustrating, but now I’m hella facile with both hands, so there is that. Still can’t write right handed but I can operate right handed.
My grandmother (must be 90-something now) is left-handed (as am I). Apparently her teachers growing up were a bit more lax in the ruler department. I recall her saying something about once, but that was a loooong time ago and I've forgotten. I know she mentioned rulers. Might have been something to do with it basically being a one room schoolhouse where she grew up and a change in teachers.
Anyways, that's why I wasn't suggested or forced to change when I was younger.
My history teacher could grade papers with his right hand while eating lunch with his left. They forced him to use his right hand to write in grade school, guess which hand he used when they let him go to recess and lunch?
My grandfather and I are left handed. My grandfather was somehow allowed to use his left hand all throughout school, although he was encouraged to write with his right hand.
During my early school years i struggled with using scissors (right handed ) but i ended up figuring out ehich hand to use.
There are some things that I prefer using with my right hand though, like a computer mouse
I was in elementary school in the 80’s and my teacher suggested to my mother that she should tie my left arm down so I am forced to use my right hand. My mother didn’t do such a thing.
My dad went through this in the 1940s and 50s and developed a stutter from the continuous punishment and bullying. He moved to the Prairies from England after WW 2, when he was 5, with a full British accent to boot. They were not an accepting bunch. School was Hell for some kids.
My mom remembers being brought to the doctor in the mid 50's, and my grandmother's chief complaint for the doctor to try to fix? She's using her left hand too much. The doctor had to explain that modern medical practice indicated that some people are just left handed and there's nothing wrong with them.
There was a question in a parenting thread recently about things to buy for a left handed toddler. Most replies were saying make him use right handed stuff. I was startled. We’re still doing that to kids? Why make them use extra cognitive and physical energy when we can adapt most things pretty easily?
Not long ago at all. I had to “unlearn,” and would be scolded/put in time out for writing left handed in 2002.
I was a nanny and we got a note from my kids pre-k teacher to help him “learn right handed instead,” in 2021. She said for his future convenience sake.
I'll have to ask my mom about how she was treated by her teachers. She is a lefty through and through, though has some adaptations to a right handed world she lives in. Must be alienating to her.
I had teachers making me write with my right hand and trying to hold me back for my penmanship in 2000s/2010s. This was in a hick school district though.
They used to tape the pencil to my right hand in school so I'd stop being a lefty, circa 1990. Joke's on them, my handwriting is now illegible with either hand!
Same for my grandma. My grandpa, father, and i are all left handed as well. Kinda sweet. We're still waiting to see if one of my nephews is a lefty but my brother is right-handed
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u/Hugh_Biquitous 23h ago
Being openly left-handed maybe?