It was a routine visit to the pediatrician with our 7-year-old son Karl. The doctor looked at the chart and frowned.
“I don’t think he’s a real lefty,” he said, placing a sheet of paper on his desk in front of Karl. He then took a pencil and aimed the eraser end at Karl’s midsection.
“Write your name,” he instructed. Karl took the pencil in his left hand and wrote his name. The doctor frowned again.
“Now write with your other hand,” he said. Karl took the pencil in his right hand and wrote his name again. It was a mirror image of “Karl.”
The pediatrician never raised the matter again.
Karl’s pediatrician gave in rather readily, in the face of the evidence. However, other lefties have been less fortunate. There is a long history of discrimination against left-handed people, even in language itself. The Latin word for “left” is “sinister,” and we all know what that means in English. And when we say that someone is “gauche,” the French word for “left,” we are indicating that his behavior is awkward or not quite acceptable. There are many examples in other languages as well.
Efforts at suppressing left-handedness are found around the world. In Christian lands, there has been an association of left-handedness with evil: “The righteous will sit at the right hand of God.” You can guess who sits at the left. Thus, in many North American schools — at least as recently as the 1930s — teachers tried to suppress left-handed writing with the rap of a ruler. This was also the practice in Catholic schools. Southpaws Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig were both forced to write with the right hand.
Among Muslims, there has been a similar prejudice. Part of the reason may be related to the custom among Arabs to use the left hand for toileting, in the absence of toilet paper.
One boy wrote to a Muslim website because he was told that he would go to hell because he is left-handed. While the Muslim religious expert responding assured him that such is not the case, his question in itself is an indication that these views persist in his culture.
Many of our implements are designed for right-handed people. As a result, there is a market for specialty items made for lefties — computer mice, scissors, golf clubs, cork screws, and even knives, with the serration on the right side.
While teachers in this country no longer force children to write with the right hand — at least I hope not — there is one aspect of left-handed writing that demands intervention: Many lefties have a tendency to hook their hand around, to see what they are writing. They need to be encouraged to write in a more comfortable position, holding the writing instrument the way right-handed people do.
As for me, I would give my right arm to be ambidextrous.
Reuel Amdur is a social worker and freelance writer living in Quebec.
