Let’s hear it for lefties! August 13 has been designated as left-handed day. I am not one myself, but some of my favorite people are – including one sister, one brother-in-law, and one son.
I’ve always had an interest in how lefties worked and coped and noticed that a large percentage of them seemed to have at least a modicum of artistic talent. My sister, one of four girls; my brother-in-law, one of four boys; and my son, one of three siblings are the only ones in their generation with leanings into artistic endeavors. My sister saved time in her education classes drawing the pictures for her flash cards instead of searching through old magazines for them. My brother-in-law drew architectural designs, cabinet plans, and designed and built jewelry chests for his three sisters-in-law. My son drew weird pictures on essays he sometimes had to write for me to correct some misbehavior and, as an adult, burned my favorite quote in calligraphy for me.
I was intrigued enough that I wrote my master’s research paper on whether or not lefties had an artistic advantage in the world. I had to survey more than 40 left-handers. Finding them was my first challenge. My survey turned up answers that would have proven the point, but not to the degree of statistical significance. I realized after the fact that I had left a question off my survey that might have been the tipping point.
Today, I think of all those students I taught who had to handle living with right-handed desks and right-handed tools in the classroom. I tried to do what I could to accommodate those in my class, scrounging up left-handed desks if there were any to spare in the school. One of my favorite parent stories came from a left-handed intervention. To be fair, I found parents usually to be very caring and cooperative for anything I suggested that would help their child academically. This parent was no exception once he saw the problem. The father had come in for conference (not an oddity in a military community), and I suggested that he get his daughter her own pair of left-handed scissors. He was taken aback and said something to the effect that scissors are scissors. I handed him the left-handed pair I kept on my desk for children who needed to borrow them and a sheet of paper and asked him to cut it in two. He took several swipes. The paper crunched and remained uncut. He handed the scissors back to me. His daughter had a brand new pair of left-handed scissors the next morning.
There are other statistics, including an unusual number of left-handed presidents. There are also questions such as does the coping with the difficulty make lefties stronger? I’ll leave it with the thought that lefties are worthy of celebrating, maybe more than just once a year and with gratitude that parents and teachers are no longer trying to “fix” their handedness.