Dave Bartel
Church of Jeff
Kris Samsel
Samhain Night@jeffowski Being left handed until the 1970’s, actually. I was in third grade when the controversial at the time decision was made not to force left handed people to write right handed. My teacher had NO idea how to teach cursive to a left handed student like me.
@stevewfolds@samhainnight @jeffowski In 1960’s, I smeared fountain pen ink across exam blue books. Used to write in a big hook to let the ink dry. Ball points were a blessing. :)
Nebulous Menace (Sandy B.)@samhainnight @jeffowski yup. All the handwriting advice I got made things worse. [And my wife, in Greece in the 70s, was literally told that was the Devil's hand by old ladies.]
bodhidave@nebulousmenace @samhainnight @jeffowski
Traveling in Italy with a group of American teens in the 70s, we stayed for an afternoon at a nunnery.
When one of the nuns saw my friend writing in her journal with her left hand, the nun took the pen and placed it, with a smile, in my friend's right hand.
My friend moved it back to her left and continued writing.
The nun did the same thing again.
My friend again put the pen in her left hand and now looked at the nun and said,
"And I'm Jewish."
@nebulousmenace @samhainnight @jeffowski
The nun crossed herself and walked hurriedly away.
.
You may know, the Latin word for "left" is ....
"sinister."
🙂 🙏
Irina@samhainnight @jeffowski I was in first grade in 1964 in the Netherlands and there was a left-handed version of the early writing curriculum. Didn't get to test it, because I was ambidextrous with a slight preference for left but had broken my left arm in the summer holidays so learned to write right-handed. (Reflexes are still left, fine motor control went to right)
Tucker@irina @samhainnight @jeffowski I'm the opposite. Fine motor went to my left with gross motor and strength to my right. Very confusing to people that I play ping pong left handed and tennis right handed.
KarlOnSea@jeffowski see also: being left handed in a convent school in the 1950s (my mother, not me).
Erik@jeffowski my mum in the 1960s, too
Torb 🇳🇴@syklemil Jeg gikk på kristenkonservativskole på en i klassen min inen diskusjon om homofili sammenlignet det med venstrehendt som argument for at det var galt og unaturlig. Han var venstrehendt selv.
Han var i noenlunde konsekvent da, men faen så jævla trist.
Ian Tindale@jeffowski it’s far worse now
Betsy Bee@jeffowski My parents' generation were forced to switch hands. Education systems in some countries still do this. It's awful but also shows how intolerant humans are for anyone who isn't in the majority.
Scott 🏴😷@jeffowski middle ages? More like the 1950s 😂 😭
Naomi@jeffowski Apparently the middle ages lasted until at least 1983 in CofE primary schools.
When I started learning to write it was 'You're holding it in the wrong hand' and being called 'wicked' whenever I was caught using my left 'because it's easier', and then 'Well what hand do you write with?' for everything else, then for the whole of the rest of my compulsory education every teacher constantly complained about my handwriting, which was so bad I failed all my GCSE and A-Level coursework, while 'it would be unfair to the other students' if I was allowed to use a computer (then a couple of years later the younger sister of one of my classmates gets to use a laptop in class, because she has dyspraxia).
A pox on the Church of England for that alone, never mind the cPTSD and social anxiety they gave me by encouraging my family and carers to emotionally and psychologically (and peers physically) abuse me into the closet for 40 miserable, lonely years.
Anja@jeffowski My mother, born in 1948, was smacked on the left hand multiple times untill she learned how to be right handed. And that was considered a mild 'correction'. No midde ages there.
Golden Bunny of Destiny 🕯@jeffowski Not just a Middle Ages prejudice. Some “evils” persist a long time in small minds.
Dark Matter Zine@jeffowski I have albinism. I have been told repeatedly over the years that I’m demonic etc. Apparently “proof” includes things like photos of me taken by my peers in primary school show me to have red eyes “more than the usual red eye”. Later I learnt that light passes through my irises so yeah, my red eye is bigger than for nondisabled people. I couldn’t help wonder, even as a kid, if the parents were responsible for some of that crap.
Coyoty@DarkMatterZine @jeffowski Like left-handedness, you're not disabled by albinism. You're disabled by those against it.
@coyoty @jeffowski mmm. I partly agree with you. I used to be 100% in accord because even my vision isn't as much of a problem as bigots. But now... my albinism is a symptom of HPS, which causes other problems too like bleeding (it's kinda a cousin to hemophilia). I took meds for bleeding for 3 wks, stopped, now have massive bruise on toe altho I didn't stub it!
@coyoty @jeffowski I seem to be becoming very very fragile. Small bumps are becoming big bruises and blood blisters. This isn't about bigotry, it's about existing in the world. And an average life expectancy of 45-55 that I'm close to exceeding.
@coyoty @jeffowski And I just looked back up that thread. In the context of our discussion, you're 100% correct. But in a broader context you're "only" mostly correct.
Giles Edwards@jeffowski As they say, "If you're not right-handed, you're necessarily wrong-handed."
Shantell Powell@jeffowski my uncle was severely beaten by nuns in residential school for being left-handed.
WCOW The ArchersIt wasn't far from this in the 1950s
Jim Nauer@jeffowski Also up to the late 1940s-early '50s, in my mother's case (she was in the last generation to have left-handedness "corrected" in school by ruler-wielding nuns)
Tony Fisk@jeffowski The evil derives from the moldedness of scissors.
Neil Joinson@jeffowski And when left-handedness stopped getting persecuted, the number of left-handed people seemed to skyrocket. But of course, they were there all along, being forced to hide their orientation.
Efi (nap pet) 🦊💤@jeffowski you don't have to go to the middle ages, this happened tomy mother in the 70s
Martin 🎶💻🤓🐱@jeffowski I remember an incident back in the 80s when my junior school headteacher was sitting in for a class.
She walked up to me and without speaking rotated the exercise book I was writing in to be right angle to me, making it less comfortable to move my hand across the page.
I promptly changed it back and carried on.
The Almighty Tallest 🇺🇦
J. Brian Coyle@jeffowski
Saving this for August 13th!
Saving this for August 13th!
Antranig Vartanian 
@jeffowski MIDDLE AGES? PLEASE this was very normal to see just 50 years ago in many countries.
Uli Kusterer (Not a kitteh)@jeffowski Not just in the middle ages. My dad still got re-educated into right-handedness in the 40ies.
Crochetcat@jeffowski Laughed out loud. And yes, I was born sinister 😏