Points Left …

Oh, bless! I’ve had just had Doctor Paul — he of Doctor Paul’s quiz site — leave a comment on my post about left handedness.

Nice to get one, I know that.

I also know I’ve had an email in from No Idea’s Adrian, who’s also another south paw.

Fascinating read, I should add; but here, let me quote …

“ Like most children of the 1950s and 1960s, I started to attend Infant School at the age of five. Within a few months, we were taught basic arithmetic. I was told to put the "big number" on the left hand side and the ‘small number’ on the right hand side. On asking which side this was, we were told that our right hands were the hands that we wrote with.

I proceeded to do the sums as follows:-

• 7 + 5 = 21 (i.e. 12 with the big number written on the LHS) - X
• 8 + 9 = 71 X
• 9 + 9 = 81 X
• 6 + 6 = 21 X
• 3 X 5 = 51 X
• 2 X 8 = 61 X

etc.

This continued for the whole year. I still have the arithmetic exercise books, with the reversed answers marked ‘X’ and not corrected. The left/right problem only came to light, when I took the school exercise books home at the beginning of the summer holidays and my Mother spotted what was going on.

I can still remember that I already knew that something was wrong and I must have guessed that it was to do with right and left, because I kept asking various teachers which hand was my right one. One Teacher pointed to my right hand (WOW) the others ALL said that it is easy to remember, because it is the (left) hand that I write with. The fact that even the teachers could not agree what was left and what was right, only helped to confuse me even further. Even now, if someone says ‘Turn left’ when I am driving and very close to a junction, I need to think first. The directions ‘left’ or ‘right’ aren’t instant, as they should be.

Reverting to infant school, despite having an I.Q. of 135 and being good at English etc, I was put into the ‘B’ class, rather than the ‘A’ class.

The school policy at that time, was not to keep moving children up and down the classes, so I had to stay in the ‘B’ class until the Eleven Plus exam. There were only twelve places available at the Bridlington High School for pupils from all the Hornsea schools and there were over 30 pupils in the ‘A’ class (and over 30 in the ‘B’ class) of my school so the school did not bother to put the ‘B’ class pupils through the Eleven Plus exam. I was therefore never given a chance to earn a place at the High School.

Fortunately, we emigrated to Ghana and I passed the entrance exam for Mfantsipim, Ghana’s Number One school (in the town of Cape Coast) so I got a year of excellent education (but I fell well behind in English History and European Geography).

I spent a year at the Ghanaian school, two terms at a high quality, but low morality boarding school at Ramsgate in Kent, then spent the remainder of my schooldays at a good (outward bound) school in Scarborough, Yorkshire.

Towards the end of my school career, I gained the ‘O’ and ‘A’ level entrance requirements to study for a degree at Coventry and duly passed the degree exams at the end of the course. The degree award ceremony was cancelled, because of the I.R.A. pub bombings and I received my certificate by post, but I was chosen to represent my college at a degree congregation and shook hands with the Duke of Edinburgh.

Fortunately, I got a good job after getting that degree. It is shocking to think that the ignorance of my infant school teachers, which gave me that very poor start, could have continued to have had an effect throughout my educational life. Furthermore, it could have prevented me from getting my degree and that would have stopped me from getting the good job that I wanted.

I believe that the effect of that bad start is still with me.

Apart from having to think about left and right, I still do not trust my own arithmetic. I always feel the need to be pedantic and I need to recheck my answers, whenever I do any mental, or written arithmetic.”

And I’ve got to admit, I know exactly what Adrian’s talking about, especially when it comes to Infants and Junior school.

I can still remember, through the long years, those early years at school. Especially — and constantly — having various teachers asking me “Well, wouldn’t you feel comfier using your other hand …?”, whilst having a bossy school teacher putting a pen into my right hand.

Or non-left hand, I should maybe say.

It’s still with me.

Whenever I need to physically write with a pen and paper, I usually find myself picking up the pen in my right hand and putting in my left.

The layout will also look fairly strange as well. The first line will be pretty much like this,

whilst the rest of the paragraph will be over here.

Mostly because I’ve needed to

give my hand some space to rest on.

I can also remember being called a ‘thicko’ at school — lovely how kids can be so nice, isn’t it? — because I got sent a long to a remedial teacher, to deal with my poor hand-writing. Who — as far as I can recall — put a rocket up my First Year senior school form tutor to let her know she didn’t have a dim pupil.

She had one that was LEFT HANDED!

One who, like many of us lefties, tends to suffer a bit with written English. Because, of course, English, like most European languages, is written from left to right.

Right handers get to pull a pen, elegantly and comfortably across the page.

Us lefties have to push the pen, and, as I think many of us will tell you, that’s very uncomfortable.

Cramps, ink-stains, weird calluses.

And that’s without the ongoing debate about whether any given lefty uses the Hook method of writing; something I’ve seen right-handers use as well, incidentally.

•••••

This is something I can go on about for hours.

In fact, I intend to. Once I can get a metaphorical nail to hang a post on.

But it’ll be after I’ve had some sleep; it IS getting rather late.

But, much like Adrian, I feel my early schooling — scarring? Maybe, although there’s others I’ve known, and know, who’ve had worse childhoods — I feel my early schooling has left its mark. I always mix up left and right, in giving directions. And usually find it easier to point …

And feel that it has dented my confidence. Maybe not drastically, but I believe it’s there.

•••••

But, talking of pointer’s, I had Dave and Paul over last night.

I loaned Dave my ’net connection, so he could set himself up a gmail account.

He’s a northpaw, so you know. One who found getting the hang of left and right clicking difficult.

Based on that, I’m going to suggest to any right-hander’s who wish a taster of lefty life that you — come Left-Hander’s Day, August 13th — switch your mouse over to left hand use; you’ll need to alter the settings in the either the system preferences or control panel, depending on your operating systems, and not just move the mouse from one side to the other.

Frustrating, isn’t it … ?

It’s partly why I believe left-hander’s have many accidents; the world isn’t built for us.

And that those of us around are somewhat more adaptable than many right-handers, when it comes to scissors, guitars, and heavy machinery.

We’ve had to be.

Left Handed Mice.

You know, that’s something I meant to mention.

Mice!

Computer mice, at any rate.

Hmmm; you know I still haven’t managed to ever ask any one if it’s computer Mice, or computer Mouses …

At any rate, I’m digressing.

I’m left-handed, and, for me as for many lefties, life can be a bit of a pain, at times. Things aren’t set up for us.

Scissors are a good example. Grab hold of a standard pair of kitchen scissor: they’re in the drawer, there.

You’ll notice that when you cut something with them, your thumb is the digit that’s moving the cutting blade, and that the cutting blade is the one that’s on the right-hand-side of the pair, and the one that is — if you will — the bottom blade of the pairª.

Obviously, with a ‘proper’ pair of left-handed scissors, the cutting blade is on the left hand side of the pair. They’re the mirror image of a right-handed pair, in other words.

There’s other things as well.

Again, little things, for the most part leap out at me in day to day life.

The ‘on’ button on my TV is on the left; the actual volume and colour controls …

Remote controls are laid out for right-hand useº.

The controls on the oven in my kitchen, and the door of my freezer, likewise.

Most European languages are written left to right. Very handy for right handers.

You take my point.

So as a leftie, getting my first Mac — a Performa 6400/200 — was something of a revelation.

Because of the standard one button Apple Mouse*.

One that you didn’t have to fiddle about with, to switch to left-hand use; you just put it on the other side of the keyboard.

The equivalent of a right click was almost as easy, as well. Instead of using the extra button on a two button mouse, you just hit the ctrl button, when you did a mouse click. And it didn’t matter which ctrl button, as there’s two on every keyboard.

Now, granted, I’ve got my wired Mighty Mouse set up for two-button use. But for two button, left handed use. I love confusing people.

Setting the mouse couldn’t have been easier.

Actually, now I think of it, seeing the mildly confused look when right hander’s use a left handed mouse is fun too.

Especially when I tell someone to left click …

Just as a final point, there’s an interesting article from ABC news, here, an interesting site by E. Stephen Mack on lefthandedness, here. You can also read about this year’s International Left Hander’s Day, here.

* Pictured above are the current wireless Mighty Mouse, and the Apple Mouse that shipped with the Performa. Oh, and my left hand. Ummm …

º Something that doesn’t seem to be an issue with the older model iPod I’ve got, nor the remote control that shipped with the Mini.

ª A long time ago, I worked at Arnold’s Gift Centre, in Brentwood High Street; a shop that sold enough near anything. We had a sales rep in, once, from kitchen-ware company Brabantia. Complete the company’s latest product, their ‘left handed’ scissors. The boss got me to have a look at them, to see what I thought. I made a point of laughing. Derisively. The scissors in question were a ‘normal’ right handed pair … with left handed handles. And a fat lot of good to anyone. You can imagine, can’t you?