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| Boynton |
Research suggests that between ten and twelve percent of the world's population is left-handed. I am one of them. I've heard stories of some left handed people being encouraged (and sometimes coerced) to use their right hand, but fortunately I've never experienced that.
However, much of the world is designed for right handed people, which can be inconvenient. Some examples:
- If you're right handed, have you ever eaten at a crowded table next to a lefty? If so you're probably bumped elbows. Also, a formal place setting puts the drinking glasses on the right. That means they need to be picked up with the non-dominant hand, which can be a problem with a heavy, full glass.
- A standard tape measure has the numbers facing upside down when you open it with your left hand. A manual pencil sharpener has the hand crank on the wrong side. Computer mice are commonly set up for right-handed use. (That's how I learned, and what I still do to this day.)
- If you open an inward-facing door with your left hand you have to be careful or the door will open right into your face.
- Many kitchen items are designed with right-handed users in mind--scissors, manual can openers, many vegetable peelers, and some corkscrews.
When I was in school there were all kinds of left-handed obstacles, including:
- Classroom desks with the writing surface on the right, and auditorium lecture classes that had chairs with right-side pull out surfaces.
- Writing. Have you ever seen a left-handed person with ink all over the pinky finger side of their hand? That's caused when the hand drags through the fresh ink and causes it to smudge (unless you contort your hand or turn the paper at a weird angle). And even when you got past that issue, there were the problematic spiral notebooks or three-ring binders. Each has a barrier that gets in the way of writing on the left side of the page.
Are you a left hander, or do you know any? If so, can you think of any issues that I forgot?
Five years ago: Masses Of Masks
Happy Lefty Day! I'm an ambi (ambidextrous) and I eat with my left and it works well for us when we eat on the couch. Tim eats with his right but the way we sit, it works well. PS: I wonder if there's an Ambi Day? lol.
ReplyDeleteIt wouldn't surprise me at all if there was a day to celebrate ambidextrous people.
DeleteI am a righty and never realized the difficulties that some lefties might encounter. Very interesting information. When I taught school we had to get special scissors for the lefties otherwise they were all made for righties.
ReplyDeleteI'm old enough that it was before special left handed scissors, so I learned how to make it work with what was available to me.
DeleteMy husband is left handed. He said one time when he was in a new school the teacher tied his left hand behind his back to make him use the right: He went home, told his mom and let’s just say, the teacher never did that again.
ReplyDeleteOH MY!
DeleteMy Mom was left-handed. But being born 100 years ago, the school teachers of her era forced her to write with her right hand.
ReplyDeleteThings have changed.
DeleteI am also a lefty but I think I just adapted. my lefty mom was forced to write with her right hand but she did everything else with her left. - Christine cmlk79.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteInteresting to read about your mom.
DeleteI saw this just in time to celebrate being a leftie on our day. Thanks, I did not know we had a day. Lefties have some handicaps, including driving on streets in the USA. Apparently when a crisis comes up your dominant hand takes over so lefties pull to the left and the middle of the street. Righties go to the right side of the road toward the sidewalk and less traffic.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't heard about that.
DeleteI didn't know for years that my older brother was a leftie. He does have pretty writing. Linda in Kansas
ReplyDeleteI think being a southpaw feels a bit like belonging to a secret, quirky club. Happy belated Left Handers Day
ReplyDeleteLefties are special :-)
DeleteMy husband and youngest daughter are left-handed and neither have problems, apart from scissors for my husband. He was made to use his right hand, but it didn't work!!
ReplyDeleteScissors are tricky things.
DeleteIt must be difficult sometimes!
ReplyDeleteMy dad and step mother are both left handers.
ReplyDeleteRight handed here but I do have a left handed grandson and I have another grandson that is ambidextrous.
ReplyDeleteI am fascinated by ambidextrous people. It feels like they have the best of both worlds
DeleteMy mum wrote beautifully with her right but she thought that she had been forced at school, but didn't remember. Everything else with her left... ironing, scissors, painting, etc
ReplyDeleteHow interesting that your mother couldn't remember her younger days.
DeleteI know stories of older folks whose left hands were restricted to ensure they became right handed. It's a perfect example of outdated ideology and how essential it is that we evolve from (many) old ways of thinking.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely outdated ideology!
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