Yes, This Was a Thing

[NYCgrrl]

Started school in the 60's and they didn't care what hand I wrote with fortunately so I remain a southpaw for writing. Back then I was graded for penmanship and block printing which is so prominent now was a definite no-no. I can still do Palmer and to a certain extent Spencer although I think my capital "W"s and "V"s look wildly misshapen.

One of my sons spent much of his grade school years in 1980's France and has amazing handwriting. Think the style they used was a variation of Spencer.

Oh and my Nana told me that she started left handed but was forced to switch as lefthandedness was considered a sign of the Devil.

 

[bcla]

I remember a TV show where a guy's dad admits that he forced him to do everything left-handed on the premise that it would be an advantage in sports. There was an MLB pitcher who threw left-handed but did everything right-handed. It really looked like he learned it. One of the weird things was that other than his delivery, it looked rather awkward when he threw for any other reason

I've known a couple natural lefties who were effectively right-handed for sports. But nobody forced them to write with the right hand.

 

[jaybirdsmommy]

My Grandfather was left-handed, forced to write right-handed in school. My Dad was also left-handed and allowed to stay that way (1950s). Youngest DS writes with his right hand, but does everything else left-handed. His handwriting is so bad we've actually tried encouraging him to write with his left to see if it improves but no luck.

 

[Tay N Evie's Mom]

I was recently on a DCL cruise and I kept putting my coffee cup on the left side of my plate with the handle towards the left. The server kept moving my cup to the right side and turning the handle out to the right. I finally told him I’m left handed and need it on my left. He said he understood. He came back later and asked me how long I had been left handed. Um...since birth!

 

[mjkacmom]

My oldest writes lefty, but everything else righty. With ds21, in preschool,his writing was equally bad with both hands, so we decided to make him righty. He does everything else lefty (golf, hockey, throwing, catching...). Ds17 only kicks lefty, everything else righty, the other girls only righty.

 

[TCRAIG]

My dad is a lefty - in the 1930s when he was in elementary school - they tried to have him write right handed - but finally gave up
I’m right handed but my penmanship was so bad that I had to skip recess and practice my writing every day in the 4th and 5th grade (Catholic School) - it’s still really really awful.

 

[cabanafrau]

my grandfather was born in 1894, attended catholic schools and had stunning cursive to the day he died in his late 80's. i have some of his writings and it always struck me that there was something a bit different looking to it vs. traditional cursive, i had never seen anything quite like it until last summer when i visited an old catholic mission in idaho founded in the mid 1800's. there were displays of letters written by the priests and other religious staff. i noticed immediately that some were identical cursive to my grandfathers. when i read the history on display it appears that they were educated/subsequently taught in schools in the same geographic area my grandfather grew up so with the information you've provided i'm guessing it was that region's particular style.

thanks for the missing piece of the puzzle!

That really makes me think of my step-father-in-law. Now he's right handed and always has been but his cursive is slightly different and he has told us in the past how the nuns at the Catholic school he was at were extremely strict on handwriting lessons.

Interesting to hear that phenomenon is common to other areas as well.

 

[LSUmiss]

I remember a TV show where a guy's dad admits that he forced him to do everything left-handed on the premise that it would be an advantage in sports. There was an MLB pitcher who threw left-handed but did everything right-handed. It really looked like he learned it. One of the weird things was that other than his delivery, it looked rather awkward when he threw for any other reason

I've known a couple natural lefties who were effectively right-handed for sports. But nobody forced them to write with the right hand.

lol! My DH always says that about DS that he hopes DS is left-handed so he can be a left-handed pitcher.

 

[Lynne G]

Yep, left handed since little. Every time my mom gave me a crayon as a toddler, I put it in my left hand. I think my mom was left handed, but taught in the early 30's to only write with her right hand. While now in her 90's, she still writes with her right hand.

The only thing I do odd, is I use my right hand for my computer mouse. That is because then I can type with my left hand. And a haha, apparently I file in a backward order according to my right handed sister's way of filing.

And yeah, as the only left hand person in my family, was hard to show the kids how to tie shoes.

 

[NotUrsula]

My late MIL also was a leftie forced to write right-handed; she never got good at it but somehow also never abandoned it to switch to the more dominant hand; for all her life her handwriting was just awful, and very difficult to read.

My son had the worst handwriting in the younger grades but when his private school started teaching cursive around 2nd or 3rd it was the difference between night and day. The kid's cursive (left handed) is beautiful and he could write so much faster. He would say 'it's doesn't hurt to write anymore'.

We later learned that for a significant chunk of kids on the autism spectrum it's much easier to write in the continuous flowing manner of cursive vs the up and down/on and off the paper practice of printing. it's just the mechanics of how their brains work.

I think both printing and cursive should be taught in school-then let the kids use whichever suits them better.

Our Aspie kid had the same issue with dysgraphia. He had real difficulty with spacing letters when he printed things; teachers were always grading him down; they said that they could not read what he had written because he scattered the letters all over the page and they couldn't put the intended words together. He was in Catholic school, however, and the style of cursive they taught was difficult for him. We bought Handwriting Without Tears and had him learn a simpler cursive style at home, and that took care of it; suddenly the words came together properly. He was MUCH happier once he switched, and to this day, as an adult, when he has to print something on a form, it's still cursive, but with spaces between the letters.

My Grandmother was always trying to get me and my brother to eat with our right hands. Thankfully my Mom corrected her and insisted we eat with whatever hand we wanted to. Hard to believe that used to be controversial.

The issue of which hand you eat with is generally not considered an issue of handedness, it's cultural etiquette. (In some countries the prohibition against eating left-handed has the force of taboo, because of traditional toileting practices.)

I'm right-handed, but my Irish immigrant parents taught us to eat left-handed, as they grew up with the Continental "fork in the left hand" style that is standard practice in Europe. American-style table settings assume that one is eating with the fork in the right hand. (The US is the only culture that does that fork-switching maneuver to allow diners to use the knife with the dominant hand when cutting meat.; which natural lefties obviously do not need to do.) The nuns at my US school (who were mostly not American-born, btw) were instructed to teach us American table manners, and insisted that we use our forks right-handed. My mother was appalled by what she saw as sloppy American table manners, and insisted that we keep our forks properly tines-down in our left hands at home. So in my family, we children all developed the habit of eating left-handed at home and right-handed in public. As an adult, I've mostly gone over to using Continental style full-time, and that is how I normally set my table if we are having a formally-set holiday dinner. However, people who meet me for the first time in a restaurant setting sometimes assume I'm left-handed, which makes my DH laugh, as he IS left-handed.

PS: Most Catholic schools used Palmer Method in the early part of the 20th century, but switched to Zaner-Bloser in the 1950s, while a method called D'Nealian was most popular in US public schools during the postwar era. This nifty chart shows a whole lot of different styles: https://www.christianbook.com/page/homeschool/handwriting/handwriting-comparison-chart. The REALLY pretty script that you tend to see in letters written in the 19th century is Spencerian script; that was very labor-intensive to learn, and lost favor in most schools around the time of WW1.

 

[NYCgrrl]

Yep, left handed since little. Every time my mom gave me a crayon as a toddler, I put it in my left hand. I think my mom was left handed, but taught in the early 30's to only write with her right hand. While now in her 90's, she still writes with her right hand.

The only thing I do odd, is I use my right hand for my computer mouse. That is because then I can type with my left hand. And a haha, apparently I file in a backward order according to my right handed sister's way of filing.

And yeah, as the only left hand person in my family, was hard to show the kids how to tie shoes.

I do the same. I can't knit either since my stitches come out backwards.

 

[AndreaDM]

My great, great grandmother (born very late 1800s) was ambidextrous because of these rules. Alcohol and left handedness were evil.

Good think I only drink right-handed!

 

[firefly_ris]

Left handed except for scissors and instruments. I also pick up coffee mugs with my right hand I think. There may be a few other things that I do right-handed but can't think of them at the moment, I think I don't pay too much attention, just whatever feels more comfortable. I definitely cannot write with my right hand though.... my left-hand handwriting is bad enough!

 

[DeniseJH]

I do the same. I can't knit either since my stitches come out backwards.

I remember my right handed grandmother trying to teach left handed me how to crochet. It was frustrating for both of us. I know some left handers can learn this way, but not me.

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

View attachment 467192


My mother said the nuns in Catholic school forced her to write with her right hand. Late 1930's. And students were graded for penmanship, and my mother would always receive a C-.

My dad was born in '35, and was a lefty. Well, until he started school and would get smacked by the nuns on his knuckles with a pointer stick. They ended up tying his hand down on his desk every day to get him to write with his right. His handwriting always sucked.

DS was lefthanded when he started using crayons. He jumped off the stairs, and fractured his left wrist when he was 3; ended up in a cast. Started coloring with his right hand and just continued, even without the cast. He can throw better with his left than his right, just like his grandfather (who was scouted for first base, but chose to go into the military). I am right handed, but shoot left handed, lol

 

[littlejimmy]

I was born lefthanded, but forced to live right handed. I really feel I am dexterous fluid or nonbidexterous. I do tend to be more pandexterous, than simply cis dexterous. however some days, I really feel adexterous, like I am all thumbs. you know what I mean??? try figuring out what scissors to use when you have all this going on...

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

View attachment 467192
My mother said the nuns in Catholic school forced her to write with her right hand. Late 1930's. And students were graded for penmanship, and my mother would always receive a C-.

That's because right handers back then were like Petunia Dursley. FREAKS!!! They were just jealous because they were ordinary and left handers were special.

 

[georgina]

Yep, DH born in 1954, went to public schools and it was not really a problem for him to be left handed (except no scissors that worked for him!). My oldest sister, born in 1949, went to Catholic school, and my mom raised holy hell with the nuns and insisted she be allowed to remain left handed. I was recently talking to a older man who said all the boys in his class were made to switch to right hand writing, while the girls were left alone. It all seems so silly now.

 

[georgina]

Good think I only drink right-handed!

I can drink equally well with either (or both!)

 

[sailorstitch]

I’m going to hell.

Me too!

My daughter is a leftie. No one in our family deterred her from being one. Sad it ever was considered "wrong."

The only issue we had was teaching how to tie shoes. I don't know why it kept getting lost in translation, but it did. Even when we faced each other. I found a YouTube video on left handed shoe tying and after she watched it a dozen+ times it clicked!

OMG! I had the most horrible time learning to tie my shoes. I didn't get the hang of it until 2nd grade. It never occurred to me (or any of the adults that tried to teach me) that it was because I'm a lefty.

I remember a TV show where a guy's dad admits that he forced him to do everything left-handed on the premise that it would be an advantage in sports. There was an MLB pitcher who threw left-handed but did everything right-handed. It really looked like he learned it. One of the weird things was that other than his delivery, it looked rather awkward when he threw for any other reason

I've known a couple natural lefties who were effectively right-handed for sports. But nobody forced them to write with the right hand.

That sounds like Darmah and Greg. The actor that played Greg is left handed.

I was recently on a DCL cruise and I kept putting my coffee cup on the left side of my plate with the handle towards the left. The server kept moving my cup to the right side and turning the handle out to the right. I finally told him I’m left handed and need it on my left. He said he understood. He came back later and asked me how long I had been left handed. Um...since birth!

Has he never met a left handed person before?

Growing up I had a neighbor woman that was born around 1904 and lived to be 101 years old. She was supposed to be left handed, but at school she was forced to sit on her left hand. She learned to write with both hands, but mostly used her right.

I also had issues with learning to drive. I'm left footed too. I instinctively wanted to use my left foot. I got yelled at a lot by my instructor.

I have a phase I use anymore when somebody tries to tell me I'm doing something the "wrong way". I'm left handed! I do everything backwards. Lefties, feel free to use it too.