Xennial Lefties - any conversion attempts?
Posted by TheJasperCollective@reddit | Xennials | View on Reddit | 100 comments
The only teacher to ever have an issue with me being left handed in school was my 4th grade teacher, Dr. Shorpe. When we would be practicing our cursive she'd walk up and down each row to check on our progress, and whenever she'd get to me she'd say things like "ugh, I just can't see what you're writing because of that hook" or "you know we used to be able to slap your hand with a ruler if you used your left hand
Literally no other teacher ever cared, and also LOOK FROM THE RIGHT SIDE AND YOU CAN SEE WHAT I'VE WRITTEN.
psilosophist@reddit
Forcing a left handed child to write with the opposite hand is abuse. It happened to my grandfather, they tied his hand down.
That cannot be good for a developing mind.
In an odd twist my entire immediate family is left handed.
Apositronic_brain@reddit
I've read there's higher rates of dyslexia among people who were forced to be right-handed.
caramelpupcorn@reddit
My mom said she tried to make my older sibling become right-handed but stopped because she noticed trying to force the other hand caused her to start stuttering when she spoke. I'm sure you're probably onto something about it affecting the mind to use the non-dominant hand.
remoteworker9@reddit
Wasn’t a thing at my school.
Wonderful_Kale_7995@reddit
My mom was forced to use her right hand so she was adamant I had to use my left for everything. Still snuck some righty shit in that was just easier. My kid is left handed too and idk but she broke her left arm and decided to be amidextrous. Power to her.
MioMine78@reddit
I got the opposite. My mom thought I needed left handed versions of everything even though I could use right handed items like scissors and can openers just fine.
DoubleRightClick@reddit
I remember trying to hunt down lefty scissors for school supplies, but I realized I naturally use my right hand for those. Ha!
orangesigils@reddit
I was in a small kindergarten class and there were 6 of us lefties, but only 3 pairs of left hand scissors ( yeah they had green handles!). I was usually one of the last ones to get them so I learned right hand scissors. Can use both to this day, but I have to think about LH.
ShowMeYourHappyTrail@reddit
I just use righty scissors in my left hand. lol I could never cut with left-handed scissors.
sundayfunday78@reddit
Me either. They’re weird lol. I can’t get my hand to hold them at the right angle…@the correct angle 😆
MioMine78@reddit
That’s what I do.
TheJasperCollective@reddit (OP)
You got the lefty version of a PFLAG mom 😹
Least-Task276@reddit
My mom didn't try, but I was told my very superstitious grandmother would hand me things to my right hand. Wouldn't make me do anything, just passive nudges.
She used to ask my mom "You don't think she's going to be left handed do you?!"
"Yeah, Ma. I think she is."
She did "cure" me of the evil eye once once when I said I had a headache. I didn't have it after she was done.
Persis-@reddit
My mom got me these scissors that were green with an owl design on them. They were able to be used by either hand. She wanted me to be able to use whatever hand I preferred.
I did end up being right handed for scissors…
djdecimation@reddit
Emannuelle-in-space@reddit
A substitute in 2nd grade suggested a lefty try writing righty. When the main teacher returned to work and found out, she told us that she’d gone to British boarding school and was beaten with a ruler if she wrote with her natural leftiness, and that she wanted to beat the substitute for even suggesting it. British boarding school scared me after that.
TuckerCarlsonsOhface@reddit
How do you deal with smudging the ink as you write? Is your hand always covered after writing?
Impressive-Cod-7103@reddit
Yes, shiny gray from pencils, blue/black from pens, yellow from highlighters. And indentations from the spiral notebook binding.
CommonNative@reddit
I hated when I was forced to use the erasable ink pens. I finally learned to be what's called an underwriter and now use fountain pens.
ShowMeYourHappyTrail@reddit
Turn your paper and write normally.
roonilwonwonweasly@reddit
Use your binder and notebooks backwards, slightly lift your hand so it doesn't drag across the paper and smudge.
No one tried to make me into a righty but nothing was made for left handed people when I was a kid. Everything I do with my right hand except hold utensils and write.
alwaus@reddit
You float your hand or write reversed, bottom of the page up and write upside down.
Woodworker1982@reddit
This was never really an issue for me because of how I angled my paper (almost 90 degrees). Also, I never 'candy-caned' my hand. Just wrote from underneath.
TheJasperCollective@reddit (OP)
The way I used to tense up while writing I usually ended up looking like a gremlin hunched over the paper protecting it like a precious. I tried the 90 degree thing but I could never get the hang of it
TheJasperCollective@reddit (OP)
I can remember by the end of a two page paper the side of my hand would be just as dark and glossy as the graphite in the pencil. I very early developed a way of holding the side of my hand up as I wrote so it didn't touch the paper at all. This did require me to hold the paper steady with my other hand.
I genuinely don't want to talk about spiral bound notebooks. I would have indents up and down the side of my hand, and being autistic with sensory issues that i wasn't aware of, i felt like I was in agony the entire time.
CaptainSneakers@reddit
When my mom first took me to school, she told my kindergarten teacher I was left handed. The teacher gave her a look and said, "We'll see about that." And my mother rose up from the fiery abyss, loomed over that woman, and said, "No. She. Is. Left. Handed."
My uncle was hit with a ruler so much while growing up that he developed a stutter. My mom made very sure it wasn't going to happen to me. Every other teacher commented in a positive way about my being left handed, so it wasn't an issue after kindergarten.
ketamineburner@reddit
Nobody ever tried ro convert me, but I ofte. Dif not have access to lefty scissors in school.
WendyPortledge@reddit
No, everyone was fine with us being lefties. There were always like three of us in a class.
rinky79@reddit
Nope. In fact, my mom sent me to kindergarten with right-handed scissors (because I'm actually only lefty for writing and using silverware and very few other things and I can't use lefty scissors to save my life) and the teacher had a conversation with her about how it was harmful to try and force a kid to change. My mom just laughed and said "you try to get her to use the lefties."
FinallyKat@reddit
My brother was a leftie so I ended up ambidexterous as a child because of having to use his things or switch sides when eating
Mysterious_Carpet752@reddit
I’m a lefty and they were trying to force me to not be one in kindergarten but then my uncle broke my collarbone and the only hand I could use was my left one.
Persis-@reddit
Nope. My mom would have fought that battle, if anyone had tried.
The only other person in my family that was left handed was my great aunt, who was born in 1912. My mom knew she had had teachers try to convert her, and HER mother forbid it. So, when my mom saw how I was headed, she ensured no one tried to “correct” me.
Bizzy-99@reddit
Nope, I have been Left Handed my whole life and like it that way
Anxious-Cupcake-84@reddit
I'm a lefty but never had an issue from teachers. However, this will have me ask my grandmother about how she was treated by teachers while being a lefty.
Sufficient_Turn_9209@reddit
They never could make me choose! My first grade teacher was the worst for requiring me to use my right hand, but many of my elementary teachers would fuss when I would randomly switch, and would tell me I needed to use one or the other. Over the years I've become more mixed handed rather than ambidextrous, but "choosing" one never stuck.
Ok_Industry3016@reddit
Righty here most of my family are lefties. I look at the person not affiliations.
tettoffensive@reddit
Nope. Never. My greatest generation grandfather was converted.
HuckleberryLogical63@reddit
Yes, my first grade teacher was a really old woman, she tied lefties hands to their desks so they had to use their right hands to write. Worked though, I am no longer left handed. Wish it would have made me ambidextrous instead I've just always had terrible handwriting.
saison257@reddit
I can't believe that happened still in our generation. I grew up in Texas, as did my dad, and he talked about how they did this to him as a kid in the 40s and 50s. He used to get his hand slapped with a ruler if he used his left hand. My baby sister (born in 89) is ambidextrous but much more of a leftie and my parents were very careful to let her (and all of us) use whichever hand felt most natural to us. We are all right-handed except for my sister, and I still kinda wish I was ambidextrous like she is.
HuckleberryLogical63@reddit
In California no less, She probably started teaching back in the 40's lol, she was ancient. I'm pretty sure that was very much frowned upon, and possibly illegal, but nonetheless it happened, and from reading this thread more than I would have expected. My mom was pissed when she found out, but the damage had been done by then.
TheJasperCollective@reddit (OP)
I am SO sorry that happened to you!!! You deserve to write the hand your body decided was dominant, not be forced to change and ruin your handwriting.
Stop_Already@reddit
Yep. My first grade teacher Mr. Bissonette tried to convert me. He was a dick. He also yelled at me and insisted I was spelling my own first name wrong and made fun of the way I walked up stairs (I have a foot deformity. Plus, a year earlier, I’d seen my older sister fall down a flight at grandma’s resulting in her spending two weeks in the hospital. I was cautious/slow)
My mom had to come in and set his stupid ass straight.
I’m not bitter or anything. 😂
Certain_Chance_4797@reddit
My kindergarten teacher--who was my mom's 1st grade teacher, so she was old--made me sit on my left hand. If I didn't, she'd smack it. I still write with my right hand, but in every other way my left is my dominant.
Pumperkin@reddit
My folks are both left handed. That argument would not be merited for discussion at all. lol
WeTravelTheSpaceWays@reddit
I switched hands until 3rd grade. Then a teacher told me I should pick a hand and I should go with the right one because most desks were made for right handed students. Now I’m right handed but it still feels wrong.
ineffable_my_dear@reddit
My dad actually forced me to write left handed, so I’m technically ambidextrous as I use my right hand for almost everything else.
Lefty scissors were the worst and I’m so mad teachers kept foisting them upon me.
firewifegirlmom0124@reddit
My husband and I are both left handed. My kindergarten teacher tried to make me switch and my mother came into school and I never heard another word and was allowed to write with my left hand. My husband was forced to write right handed and to this day does everything else except write left handed.
Traditional_Entry183@reddit
Not me, but my mom was forced to be by the nuns at school when she was a kid. Her hands were beaten with rulers when she tried to naturally use her left hand. As a small child. I can't imagine.
Im weird in that I do some things right handed and others lefty. Not ambidextrous. Just one or the other.
One of my two kids is pure lefty and always has been. Can't do anything right handed. Lefty are very strong in my wife's family.
Apprehensive_Hat8986@reddit
Sounds like someone was angry about not going further with their education. As a failure myself, game recognizes game. I just try to only call out bullies as I see them.
TheJasperCollective@reddit (OP)
I will never forget the first day of class. "My name is Dr. Shorpe. Not Miss Shorpe, not Mrs Shorpe. I earned this phd and I will be addressed as Dr.
And it's like.....I get it, especially for an older woman in the 80s but like.....we were eight and nine year olds so maybe not so stern? Lol
Hatecookie@reddit
Reminds me of a French teacher I had. I was goth in high school, and at the end of my freshman year, Columbine happened. That teacher just had it out for me the next semester. She was an excessively prideful woman, too. Her son had a PhD "from a prestigious private university." She finally got under my skin and I said some things that made her very upset. By the end of that semester, half the kids in class were talking back to her when she would pick on them. I got detention for that first offense, afterward she would just send me to the office and they would be like, "oh, you again?" and send me back to class with a minor admonishment. I wonder how many students had this kind of relationship with her.
Blackbird136@reddit
Former teacher here (not a Dr. either lol).
I know it was a different time when we were in school, but that was a wild choice. When I taught elementary, my way of earning respect was being the “cool teacher.” Not their friend - that’s different. I could still be strict when necessary. But because they saw me as a human being who remembered what it was like to be in 4th grade, management was pretty easy for me.
I can’t imagine someone this stern having much success with elementary. Tho things were different in our youth.
You couldn’t pay me enough to teach post-Covid.
CommonNative@reddit
So, my parents sent both me and my brother (both lefties) to a parochial school, thinking we'd get a better education (we did not) and my righty mother was up at the school almost every other say arguing with my teacher on how my paper needed to be angled.
jrunner6@reddit
Yeah, my parents didn’t want me to be a lefty. If I did something with my left hand they’d make me put it down and do it over with my right hand. I ended up ambidextrous and bisexual. Go figure!
gwmccull@reddit
I was told to bat right handed in elementary school because the coach didn’t know how to coach a lefty. But I fielded and threw left handed
It was also suggested to me to wrestle right handed when I was young which I did for years but eventually I learned both (as did everyone else)
Scissors were also a problem. Sometimes they didn’t have left handed scissors but even if they did, they were always worse than the right handed ones so I mostly just used the right handed scissors
ElmoZ71SS@reddit
I probably could be fully Ambi, but my kindergarten teacher basically told me to pick a side and stick with it. I chose right hand as that was the neatest. I most other things left dominant except write
red286@reddit
Didn't happen to me, but I recall one kid in my grade 3 class being forced to write with their right hand, being told it's "wrong" to use your left hand.
I just got shit for holding my pencil wrong. They forced me to stick these weird things on my pencils that supposedly forced you to hold it correctly, but I could still hold it the same way I always had. Still hold it "wrong" to this day.
TheJasperCollective@reddit (OP)
Were the things they put on the pencil triangular? I used to wrap my first two fingers around the pencil and use my thumb to force it into the crook until I had to use those
red286@reddit
Yup. I hold my pencil in a pinch-grip, with my index and middle on top, pinching it against my thumb on bottom. The triangle thing didn't affect anything though, other than forcing me to pinch harder so that it didn't slip out.
RelevantElection2962@reddit
Thankfully no conversion attempts, but I really hate when someone says something like “We’ve got a south paw over here! HAHAHAHA”.
Sodamyte@reddit
I'm ambidextrous for writing but mostly left handed for everything else
Tedanki@reddit
No, never experienced this. My father (a boomer) did, though.
LongjumpingJaguar308@reddit
I'm not a lefty but my mom is and remembers the shitty nuns slapping her hand. She did't let it get her down and got all the lefty things so I got to have the experience of trying to use the wrong scissors.
Imaginary_Attempt_82@reddit
Mine did too.
TheJasperCollective@reddit (OP)
My 4th grade teacher was fairly old so I'm sure she still believed in the Old Ways.
everybodys_lost@reddit
The only person who ever tried to convert me was my mom, she would make me write over and over in a notebook with my right hand...
To this day I'm pretty ambidextrous, my writing isn't too terrible with my right hand, but I also have a preferred hand for everything I do... For example, I brush my teeth with my left, but when I use a knife I use my right hand... I throw and catch with my right, but kick with my left... Etc.
Greedy_Diver4552@reddit
I don’t really think I was a true lefty because I took to the “correction” just fine. But I very clearly remember my kindergarten teacher regularly taking my pencil out of my left and putting it in my right. I suspect, I was probably ambidextrous and didn’t have a strong preference for left or right. But I was definitely coached to develop as righty. I’m still quite good with my left hand.
IceSmiley@reddit
I don't think this was very common in our generation at least in America but my grandfather told me he was forced to write with his right hand in school or he'd get whacked by the teachers. He did do stuff left handed when I knew him but he showed me how he could also write pretty legibly with his right hand as well 🙁
I actually tried more to make my left side more dextrous and practiced on my own to write left handed so I could learn to bat and throw left handed for baseball but it didn't really work that well
lavasca@reddit
My mom was ambi and so am I she told me I had to do things right handed and she didn’t want the nuns to beat me. I think she would have stopped them.
ShowMeYourHappyTrail@reddit
Nope. None of my teachers cared.
nochumplovesucka__@reddit
Turns up Crass and Dead Kennedys
NO ONE WILL EVER CONVERSE ME!!!
Fly-by-Night-@reddit
No one tried to convert me to right handed, but I did have several teachers take exception that I hold my pen "wrong" and supposedly didn't have enough control (I use my middle finger as the primary stabiliser, rather than my index). Given I went on to do a fine arts degree, they can get in the sea.
sassypants450@reddit
Luckily my dad is also a lefty and he put a stop to that immediately. Thanks dad!
Joliet-Jake@reddit
No. At least one of my teachers tried very hard to help me write better left handed. My mom was converted when she was a kid though.
I’ve developed a lot of ambidexterity over the years anyway though.
LeftHandedGuitarist@reddit
No problems here, it was fully accepted at all of my schools. They didn't do anything special to assist with awkward things, just let me figure it out myself.
jaqattack02@reddit
My granddad tried. He managed to convince me that I threw a ball better right handed than left, so I more or less learned that way.
RJRoyalRules@reddit
I’m right-handed so I didn’t get it directly but I lived in a few small towns and it was definitely hard for the left-handed kids in school. My mom is left-handed and boomer so she got it really bad.
bearsdiscoverfire@reddit
No overt conversion attempts but no effort to accommodate me either. I used right handed tools and desks through school and all requests for left handed versions were declined.
A random substitute teacher in middle school freaked the fuck out at me for writing left handed, though. He physically recoiled and yelled at me to get out of his sight, if I "was gonna do that in front of him". Then through the rest of class he kept coming back to me to call me weird and wrong. Maybe it was a religious thing IDK
I complained but of course no adults believed me or my classmates.
kiipii@reddit
My parents successfully converted me.
Moxie_Stardust@reddit
Yeah, I'm a '77 and I got pushed into writing with my right hand pretty early on, 1st grade I think.
spaceporter@reddit
My teacher for grades 5/8 tried both years. He was also a pedo who was finally removed from the school nearing the end of grade 8 so I didn't take the attempts more seriously. He was probably just trying to wrap himself around me under the guise of conversion. Unfortunately, the police never took the claims seriously and the way he was removed was via promotion to the school board office.
That's catholicism in a nutshell.
throwitallaway@reddit
No conversion attempts. I also play sports right-handed. I suspect I just copied what my coaches did and because they were right-handed I did the same.
Comfortable-nerve78@reddit
Nope my mother taught me how to print and write in cursive before I started school. I’m a true lefty and my mother made sure I stayed a lefty. Scissors were a different story as a lefty you had to adapt to certain things in school.
Possible_Funny@reddit
I was never corrected by any teacher or adult in my life that I can recall. No one made any accomodations though so I learned to be pretty capable with right handed items. Statistically speaking I should probably be dead.
Jokes aside I had a middle school history teacher who talked about being born left-handed and forced to write as right-handed. Looking at his handwriting it was a wonder no one looked at the result and said he could go back to his natural hand. Nearly illegible (but not smudged I suppose).
_NoleFan6@reddit
I stayed true after all the attempts of teachers trying to convert me. Only thing I can do with my right hand is use a mouse and shift gears lol.
Soft-Faithlessness60@reddit
Nope - until I was in 5th grade, my mom talked to every teacher prior to the first day of school to tell them not to try to convert me.
She was overly cautious with me because one of my older siblings was also a lefty and their teachers were brutal in their conversion attempts and she didn't want me to be dealt the same fate, so she set those boundaries right away.
MaraScout@reddit
Maybe for a day or two? But they gave up very fast and just left me to figure out stuff on my own
JeffFromTheBible@reddit
Nope, but I have two Lefty parents and one's a teacher.
A few other lefties in the family and one of my sons is, too.
justtapitin65@reddit
I was left handed in preschool and the old church ladies who ran it told me I would do better to be right handed and they switched me. I was quite upset at the time as both my Dad and Sister are lefties so I felt I should be too. (1984, Ontario, small town outside of GTA). I’m definitely a right-hander now.
BrokeAssZillionaire@reddit
You would get a smack with the large wooden ruler if you wrote with your left hand.
trustme1maDR@reddit
Thankfully no. My mom is a lefty and she got her hand slapped by a ruler as a kid. I'm sure she would have hit the roof if anyone said anything to me
Emergency_Process622@reddit
We had to use 3 ring binders in 6th grade. Had a teacher that didn't accept my homework because I started it on the "wrong" side of the page. Stopped doing my homework after that.
herseyhawkins33@reddit
My mom (boomer) was taught all sports in summer camp righty lol
ThisIsACompanyCar@reddit
Not me (I’m right handed), but my husband who grew up in a very rural area and is a leftie sure was. The teachers would smack his hand with a ruler and make him switch when he was a younger elementary student. They gave up by the time he was as big as them.
lifeat24fps@reddit
No, nothing like that. Most seemed to like that I was a leftie. They gave me left handed scissors but I don't think those ever worked great. I do a lot with my right hand actually like use scissors, bowl, use a knife.
i_am_randy@reddit
My grandfather was a lefty and raised me for the most part. I’m pretty sure I’m left handed and he did everything he could to convert me out of it. I now consider myself right handed but I’m still pretty good with both hands. And at the same time not great with either hand (when it comes to writing, or things that require a lot of dexterity.)
GlenBaileyWalker@reddit
I was the only lefty in my Kindergarten class. Apparently it was too much of a burden for hurt so she forced me to be a righty. At least now I’m ambidextrous
MoveCompetitive5742@reddit
my mom told me she took things out of my left hand and put them in my right hand when I was very young. I guess it worked out as I’m primarily right handed now but ambidextrous for the most part.
DJmagikMIKE@reddit
I went to elementary school in a small town in Southern MO. I have a vague memory of being in first grade and the teacher, I feel like had to be in her 70s. My grandma was in her 60s and this lady looked way older than my grandma. I was right handed, so I can remember this lady being downright mean to the left handed kids. Insisting that they use their pencils “the correct way, with their right hands like god intended”. Telling them that being left handed means they would go to hell. All kinds of weird shit. I do remember she wasn’t a teacher the following year.
AstuteStoat@reddit
No conversion attempts. I did try to practice writing right handed in middle school a lot though and sometimes practice with my right hand as a kind of mindfulness mind clearing exercise.