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Mary G
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In perusing the NEA's annual education resolutions, I found this unique gem:
Quote:
B-18. Left-Handed Students
The National Education Association believes that the needs of all students, including left-handed
students, should be met. The Association also believes that appropriate governing agencies should
provide desks, scissors, and all other materials and instruments necessary for left-handed students to
achieve on an equal basis with right-handed students.
The Association strongly recommends preservice preparation and staff development for education
employees that present strategies for handwriting instruction to left-handed students. Such training should
also address sensitizing instructional staff to the needs of left-handed students. (1979, 2001) |
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I didn't know we were considered "special needs" -- I love the "sensitizing instructional staff to the needs of left-handed students." Since I am a leftie, my dh is a leftie, and at least 2 of my children are lefties, I wonder if we can get federal scholarships based on this? 
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Barbara C.
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I am not a leftie, but my mother "was". She had the unfortunate circumstance of having a first grade teacher that didn't believe in left-handedness (this in 1948). The teacher made her learn to write right-handed. Then in second-grade her teacher tried to teach her to use her natural hand. As a result, my mom never felt very confident writing with either hand, and I think the whole experience crushed her and ruined the rest of her time in school.
It must be really inconvenient at times to be left-handed in school with how notebooks are made and some desks. And then you throw in a teacher who is clueless about how to teach handwriting (and possibly resents having a student that needs extra attention) and I bet it could be really uncomfortable. It is kind of funny that they put it as a "special need", but I guess it kind of is.
Go for the scholarships if you can!  When it comes to college every penny helps.
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trish
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Funny isn't it? I don't recall being a leftie traumatizing for me. I've learned to use my right hand for few things though just out of convenience. Using scissors and can openers come to mind. My poor uncle in the 50's had a teacher try to 'switch' him too. He's still a leftie though. 
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MacBeth
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You know, we don't live as long, on average, as righties. I guess that's a bit of a handicap.  All those can opener accidents, I suppose.
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Bookswithtea
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Hmmmmmmmm...I had one teacher give me hard time about my handwriting...the year we learned cursive, because I couldn't make my letters slant to the right. The best I could do was straight up and down. That said, I certainly don't feel traumatized. I always hunted out the one or two left handed scissors in the coffee can until I got used to using right handed ones.
Does it really require teacher training and intervention to teach lefties to *turn their paper* as much as it takes to not drag the heel of their hand over their work? That's why some lefties write with a hook.
Good grief...
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LisaR
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all FIVE of my kids are lefties- what do you think happened?? I am ambidexterous, but lean heavily Right. Dh is a righty.
we have never encouraged one or the other, but observe during meals, when they pick up crayons, etc.
any thoughts or theories??
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mathmama
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Well, I always thought righties were the ones at a disadvantage. I have found my left handedness to be such as asset. Living in this right handed world I have been forced to be ambidexterous. I can use each hand equally well in most tasks. DH OTOH has a left hand that is completely useless. I always tease him about it.
I have to say, though, that in a way that statement is important. I found that when I was learning handwriting in school the teacher insisted that my paper be slanted like the righties. She would come over and slant my paper that crazy way and then when she would walk away I would slant it back the way that I want. It was an ongoing battle. To this day I have awful handwriting and print most things...I have no paitence for it.
I am curious, how many lefties write with the hook?? My dad does. I think it is from being forced to have his paper slanted the wrong way...am I correct? I actually tilt my paper completely sideways and pull my arm down the paper to write, so I don't have the problem of smudging my work. It works much like a righty who would kind of pull their arm up the page to write, if that makes any sense. In school I would even slant it to the point where I was writing with the paper upside down. My eighth grade teacher actually told me "you are unique like a snowflake because you write upside down"
Beth
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MacBeth
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LisaR wrote:
all FIVE of my kids are lefties- what do you think happened?? I am ambidexterous, but lean heavily Right. Dh is a righty.
we have never encouraged one or the other, but observe during meals, when they pick up crayons, etc.
any thoughts or theories?? |
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As odd as we are, Lisa...two lefties and 4 right handed kids, though Libby is ambidextrous--writes right, eats left, bats left, sweeps left...
Handedness is genetically complex, and may have environmental factors. Don and I are both different kinds of lefties (he's a hooker ), so it was not too much of a surprise that the kids are (mostly) righties.
Genetically, though, Lisa, you may have beaten the odds. Two lefties have a 4 in 10 chance of having leftie kids. If one parent is a leftie, the chances are 1 in 10. They are much slimmer for two right-handed parents. Do you suppose that you and Dh might have been subtly switched as toddlers? I know lots of people who are still in favor of it--especially grandmothers--and who insist that the little ones use their right hands.
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MacBeth
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mathmama wrote:
I am curious, how many lefties write with the hook?? My dad does. I think it is from being forced to have his paper slanted the wrong way...am I correct?
Beth |
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The hook can be found in certain righties, too. It is a genetic variant, according to most sources these days. My dh hooks, and starts all his letters from the bottom when he writes--weird!
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Mary G
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MacBeth wrote:
| My dh hooks, and starts all his letters from the bottom when he writes--weird! |
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ahh, yes, but I bet ya still love him!
Neither dh nor I write with hooks ... and in fact my oldest ds is fairly ambidextrous as was his dad (in fact, my first dh could write with BOTH hands AT THE SAME TIME on the board .... to wake up the kids during geometry class ). And my first dh definitely died young -- 4 days after his 31st bday! 
My dh now is veyr left handed, as am I .... and we have one of our 3 as very lh -- altho Thomas (my almost 9 yos) did have tendencies toward lh-ness but I guess I didn't nurture it enough (or maybe I just wasn't as sensitive as I should have been (maybe that's why NEA is involved ! ) as he is now definitely rhed!
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Bookswithtea
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I do not write with a hook, but like someone else said, I turn my paper almost horizontal in order to avoid it. Seems a logical fix to me, and I don't understand why more teachers don't encourage this for lefties. When I was first learning cursive, it was a temptation to slant that to the left, but I was able to control it as the teachers *hated* it.
Almost all the lefties I have known write with 'the hook', but I've never seen a right handed person with the hook. It looks terribly awkward to write that way...
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Cay Gibson
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I learned not to write with a hook. It was bad enough getting teased for being a leftie without writing like one.
A good friend of mine who I grew up with (godmother to my oldest daughter) is also a leftie and writes with a hook.
Dh is right as are my two oldest dc. In his family of six, only his second brother is a leftie.
Our last three children are lefties like me. 
If a scholarship comes open for lefties, I want to know about it. 
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MaryM
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We have one leftie out of four. DH plays sports left handed - he always wondered if he was forced to switch young.
And sometimes righties are forced to go left - as in big brothers wanting to make youngest brother more marketable in baseball, therefore forcing him to think he is left handed when batting to become switch hitter.
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vmalott
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MaryM wrote:
| And sometimes righties are forced to go left - as in big brothers wanting to make youngest brother more marketable in baseball, therefore forcing him to think he is left handed when batting to become switch hitter. |
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This made me laugh. DS, while he was recovering from an elbow injury (right arm), out of pure boredom, taught himself how to pitch leftie. He could already bat leftie. And, during a blowout game, his coach will let him have fun and pitch an inning leftie and bat leftie.
My dad was forced (by a ruler to the knuckles) to switch to writing with his right hand as a child. I am able to do things w/my left, though I'm not truly ambidextrous. My only sibling is left-handed and write with a hook. And on my side of the family, I have at least one cousin in each family group who is left-handed. It fascinated me as a kid, so it's neat to see the stats Macbeth posted.
Valerie
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LisaR
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none of my kids have "the hook", although they are ALL frustrated by getting ink smeared on their hand as it drags through :(. This is why ds, age 14, still prefers to write with a pencil...
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missionfamily
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I am a no-look lefty who can write with both hands on a chalk board but not paper, bats and throws right, eats whatever way works best according to table arrangement, and has no lefty kids thus far. I always had a hand full of ink and creases in my arm from resting on the wrong end of the desk. I don't feel emotionally traumatized...but am glad my kids get to do their work at the dining room table so it doesn't matter either way.
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Mary G
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missionfamily wrote:
| but am glad my kids get to do their work at the dining room table so it doesn't matter either way. |
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... and with pencil if they'd like! I also love that they can do cursive, print or type if they'd like with no shame ....
I wonder if we should mention our solutions to the NEA??????
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Lisa R
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Mary G wrote:
| I wonder if we can get federal scholarships based on this? |
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I'll sign of my youngest son as well! Too funny!
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KT75
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Just browsing old posts...thought I'd add this:
A doctor told me once that straight left-handedness (as opposed to being a hook lefty) is a small subset of left handed people. He said colleagues of his in med school were fascinated with studying straight lefties. I guess they are truly in their right brain (or something like that). He said they tend to have certain characteristics associated with them...I want to say high intelligence, high creativity...but I'm not sure if I am remembering correctly.
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LisaR
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well, then we have it made- all 5 of mine are straight lefties! homeschooling should be a breeze- right?
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Lisa
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Topic: Calling all lefties ...
