• InfinitiZEr0@programming.dev
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    2 hours ago

    I got slapped by my teacher infront of everyone for pointing and showing with my left hand, that the answer I have written on the answer sheet is correct and I should get the marks. Then he lectured me for ten minutes about not using my left hand ever again in his presence. Flamed my parents that they should have taught me that and are bad at parenting. He finally gave me full marks, but I cried the whole day and got humiliated infront of whole class. This happened in 2000s

  • doingthestuff@lemy.lol
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    3 hours ago

    My wife is 50 and she was almost forced to be right handed in late '70s/ early '80s. She is still left-handed, but she is almost ambidextrous. Maybe forcing people to do things with their weak hand isn’t a bad thing, but obviously we shouldn’t mandate they can only use their right hand. What if we had a society full of ambidextrous people? What if we force people to learn how to write with both hands?

    • sleepmode@lemmy.world
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      2 hours ago

      She might be cross-dominant. This apparently confused/annoyed my teachers growing up. I only write with my left hand and do almost everything else with my right side.

      • doingthestuff@lemy.lol
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        2 hours ago

        I’m right handed but left legged. I did long jump and jumped about 4 feet farther using my left leg. Does that count? I know it’s different but I find this kind of stuff interesting.

  • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    You can thank the Romans’ adoption of the Bible for that stigma.

    In Latin, sinestra means on the left side. Left handed people were referred to as sinister. After the appearance of Eve on Adam’s left side in accounts of Genesis, the Christian tradition finds instances of the left side being pinned to immorality. As a result, some time during the Latin Classical Era the definition shifted to its current meaning of evil.

    • kandoh@reddthat.com
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      4 hours ago

      There’s also less left-handed people so they’re easier to pick on, and people in the past really delighted on being assholes

    • KingJalopy @lemm.ee
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      6 hours ago

      Same here but in the 80s. Teacher would slap my hand with a ruler and force me to switch to my right hand. She also regularly told me I was evil and had the devil in me. My mom came to the school after she found out and nearly killed that teacher.

      I’m still a lefty.

      I may or may not be evil…

    • thisNotMyName@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      Started school in 2001, my mother - a lefthanded person herself! - tried the first 4 years of primary school to get me to write with the “correct” hand (unsuccessfully)

    • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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      7 hours ago

      I was gonna say '80s, but you beat me by 10 years. I used to be left-handed, and my physio spotted it immediately: something about early muscle formation.

      But as it was a conservative region of the country, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at the ‘classic’ teaching style.

  • PugJesus@lemmy.worldOPM
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    8 hours ago

    Explanation: It used to be fairly normal for teachers in the US, at least, to ‘correct’ left-handed children by striking their hand or otherwise punishing them for using it for primary-hand tasks. My great-uncle suffered this bizarre form of correction as a child.

  • oyfrog@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    I grew up in the 90s and went to public school, so I didn’t have this experience. What I did experience was using the shittiest scissors in the classroom, and having to share it with 3 other kids because there was exactly one left handed pair.

    Also lots of criticism about my handwriting.

    • absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz
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      4 hours ago

      My handwriting is terrible, I’m right handed. I blame it on being an engineer.

      Well known fact those destined to be engineers and doctors learn to write badly in school, takes years of training to write this badly.

  • rauls4@lemm.ee
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    8 hours ago

    In Spanish the right and left are called diestra (dexterous) and siniestra (sinister) respectively.

  • nevaseerius
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    8 hours ago

    Biologist here, it’s been proven through rigorous scientific research that left handedness actually does not exist. 23 peer reviewed studies all concluded that children start out favoring their right hand. Some children will subconsciously switch to favoring their left hand as an attempt at getting attention. This is usually caused by a lack of attention and/or neglect occurring at home.

    • gift_of_gab@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      For anyone even remotely considering this troll, left-handedness is polygenic (multiple factors).

      Anecdotal: I have twins, and one was drawing left-handed from the moment they could draw.

      • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
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        8 hours ago

        There is no source, you can easily google this. Its a combination of genetics, cultural factors, and maybe even birth circumstances, i.e. birth weight, sex, whether you’re a twin, could all be factors. But the web also says we really don’t know why there are less left handed people than right handed people. This person is a bozo spouting off misinformation, maybe to be funny?

        • imaqtpieA
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          8 hours ago

          Look at his profile and account name, he’s trolling.

          In the original sense of the word from like 20 years ago before it got applied to a million other types of behavior.

          • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
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            7 hours ago

            I mean, that’s great and all, but with the huge rate of misinformation and intentionally disinformation today, people don’t really appreciate (don’t know if we ever did), trolling like that anymore. Hence the huge amount of downvotes.

            • imaqtpieA
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              7 hours ago

              I hear you but trolls are usually trying to get downvoted anyway.

              Plus, trolling can be funny sometimes, when it’s done well. On the topic of being left handed, it seems pretty harmless to me. If they were trolling about political topics and such, that’d be much less funny and more problematic.