Mytical and the case of the Horrible Handwriting

[Mytical]

((This is in two sections. A creative writing story first, and then the TL;DR Section. Don't worry I will indicate where the shorter less crazy section is ))


Our local villain guardian gargoyle was born left handed. Then he went to first grade. Now I forget the name of the teacher at the time, but I do know it was a she.. so lets call her Ms. Right. Now Ms. Right had a peculiar belief.. well several but only one that has to do with this. Ms. Right was one of those elderly people who, at the time, thought that anybody who was left handed was the Devil's child. ((Also red hair.. so don't know how bad a left handed, red haired person would be. I have black hair))

Ms. Right was very religious, and ruled with an iron fist ruler. She would brook no devil's work in her classroom, no sirree. So our guardian gargoyle goes to class, starts printing left handed.. and SMACK right across the knuckles with the ruler. "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?" Asks Ms. Right in a voice that Beelzebub would be jealous of.

Hand still stinging Gargoyle responds "Writing, like you told me too!"

"Put your pencil in the other hand!"

Our Guardian Gargoyle tries, but it looks atrocious, his other hand's writing looks MUCH better.. so he switches again. And again, gets the ruler.

"You will learn to write the RIGHT way, no matter how long it takes" ((Or swats of the rulers either!))

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ TL;DR

I was born left handed, forced by a teacher to learn everything right handed, and now my signature looks like somebody dipped a chicken's foot in ink and let it walk on the paper.

[mjr]

I was born left handed, forced by a teacher to learn everything right handed, and now my signature looks like somebody dipped a chicken's foot in ink and let it walk on the paper.

As a Southpaw myself, I was fortunate that I never had to go through that.

I see that there are some people (and I found a FORUM with a post about this on it) that being left-handed is a "choice" and "against God" (sound familiar?).

I couldn't believe it. One of the most Christian guys I know is left-handed.

[Mytical]

I can still feel the sting of that ruler (It was wood, not iron lol). Surprised I don't have some permanent damage from it, but I don't. The semi good thing is I am now mostly ambidextrous ... except for writing.

[NoRedCards]

I fall in this same category....they tried so hard when I was in 3rd and 4th grade to get me to write right.....(In my defense, I should be right handed, but had a brain injury when I was young, and hadn't recovered when I figured out how to write and eat.....everything else I do right handed). They even brought a specialist in for an hour a week for a year to teach me. I was ambidextrous for a while, but I stopped trying, now I'm back to chicken scratch with my left hand, and doctors handwriting with the right.

[Aragarthiel]

I had a friend in high school who had this happen to her and she developed dyslexia as a result. Apparently it's pretty common for people who had to be "taught" to be right-handed.

[NorthernZel]

Heh, Lil' Zel's teachers think that he is right-handed (since his handwriting is really, REALLY bad) and are trying to convince him to at least try to use his right hand, but he's consistent in wanting to use his left hand, gorramdamnit! (I suspect he's ambidextrous like his dad, but I digress)

[KuariKaydrith]

My son is left-handed and only once has he had a teacher try to 'correct' him. I found out about that and lost my mind - I see nothing wrong with being left-handed. I'm right-handed myself and I was always a little lost about how to teach him to do certain things but we've figured it out pretty well. He's 23 now and still uses his left-hand for writing and pretty much everything other than using a computer mouse.

[dawnfire]

I had a friend in high school who had this happen to her and she developed dyslexia as a result. Apparently it's pretty common for people who had to be "taught" to be right-handed.

I didn't know that. hubby is dyslexic. he is ambidextrous with big leaning towards left handedness. (thing he taught himself is done left handed but things he was taught he's right handed).

My eldest is left handed and has never encountered that type of discipline. The biggest criticism he has ever gotten is that is that his writing is like an epileptic spider walked across his page. his teacher just told him if he could get his writing speed up he could type his work. (this was in 6th grade.)

[MoonCat]

God, this is such a stupid thing! Some people are right handed, some left handed. It absolutely freaks me out that anybody in this century or the one that ended 15 years ago could seriously think there's something wrong with being left handed!

[wolfie]

A couple items about handedness, one humorous and the other serious.

- I recall seeing a T-shirt with the message "If the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body, and the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then lefties are the only people in their right minds."

- With medieval castles, you can tell by looking at a staircase whether the secure area (i.e. further into the castle) was at the top or the bottom. Someone approaching the secure area would have a wall to their right, while someone coming from the secure area would have open space to their right. This meant that the defenders would be unimpeded in swinging their swords, while the wall would keep the attackers from being able to swing their swords freely.

[FormerCallingCardRep]

I was in the same boat and still have bad handwriting

[NorthernZel]

Just in case I should clarify that Lil'Zel's school isn't trying to "correct" him into using his right hand; they're only suggesting that he should try both hands and see which one works best when it comes to writing, since they also think he might be ambidextrous (he's got a pretty good aim when it comes to throwing stuff with his left hand, he even once beat his uncle (my BIL) at darts, and BIL is a pretty skilled darts player!)

[Kittish]

I like that Lil'Zel's school is trying to encourage him to use both hands and see which one works better for him.

I guess I got lucky, I don't recall ever having any teacher try to make me write with my right hand, and I was in elementary school in the late 70's, when such things would largely have been allowed to pass without comment. As a result I'm an odd mix of handedness with assorted tasks. I use scissors and knives right handed. I use hammers and other blunt whacky tools right handed unless I need delicacy. I use a mouse left handed at home (LOVE my ambidextrous trackball), but in any work place where I have to use a computer I mouse right handed. My mouse confuses the hell out of people. It's on the left, but the right and left buttons are NOT reversed. Right button is still right click.

I can write with my right hand, entirely self taught. I think the logic behind that was to already be able to write right handed if I ever broke my left arm (I was a kid, ok?). Whether anyone can read it, though... maybe a doctor could. Or rather, a pharmacist.

[XCashier]

I'm right-handed myself and I was always a little lost about how to teach him to do certain things but we've figured it out pretty well.

My mother is right-handed, her sister is left-handed. Mom taught Aunt how to crochet by sitting across from her, facing her, and having her mirror her movements.