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Old books on left-handedness

Anything Left-Handed Left handed life, Facts & Society
Left handed life Facts & Society
We were recently sent the names of a couple of books that got us thinking about how things have changed and how much more positive the attitude to left-handedness is now than it was in the past.
 
Prevention and correction of left-handednessThe Prevention And Correction of Left-Handedness In Children by J.W. Conway was published in 1935 and we believe also had the subtitle "On Curing the Disability and Disease of Left-Handedness".
 
At this time, he and others saw left-handedness as a deterrent to succeeding in the newly industrialized world.  The 39 page booklet recommended the training of children from infancy to overcome left-handedness, which came as a result of parental "indifference to the seriousness of the handicap", which was a "sinistral condition", a "disease" that needed to recognized along the same lines as "rickets, pneumonia and colic".  Much needed to be done to "stamp out the newly recognized disease, the curse of left-handedness". 
 
Well, that tells us!!
 
Another useful guide at the time (not), The Mental Sorrows of Left-Handedness (1924) by Dr. William. S. Inman was published as an article in The Lancet on the causes of left-handedness, stammer, and squint.  He concluded that all 3 are caused by emotional stress and can result from "too severe parenting".  Also, one can become left-handed as "an unconscious revolt against authority".
 
Happily this sort of thinking is not applied to our children now (although we do still hear of some pretty strange stories). We would be very interested to see the full content of these books or any others like them so if any of our members have a copy or know where to find one please do let us know by posting a comment on this article below.
 
UPDATE
Here is a link to the full article by William Inman in The Lancet in 1924
With grateful thanks to Professor Clare Porac - sites.psu.edu/clarep

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Comments 41

  1. Jean Meehan
    Is it possible to download a copy of Prevention and Correction of Left-handedness in children by J W Conway?

    Happy to pay costs/

    Thanks, Jean
    1. Admin
      Hi

      I'm sorry but there is no way we would condone any of the practices in this book - so it is not something that we could sell or help to promote.
      Children should be encouraged to use their natural hand not disadvantaged in their education and life skills development because of the failure of adults in their life who did not understand how forcing left handed children to use their right hand can seriously harm their future.
  2. Debby Bradley
    Is there any way I can purchase this book?
  3. David Major
    Not everything's tilted away from lefties! Check that tube of toothpaste on your sink counter. If the last to use was a right handed brusher, then odds are that said tube labeling is upside down.
  4. Cassandra Everton
    My parents were told to break my arm and make me right handed. Glad they didn't listen to the left handed jerk! When I started school in 1970, they tried to get my mom to make me right handed. Didn't happen, awesome mom. Throughout my life I have met some challenges for lefties, from scissors to shifting a stick shift, which I drove semi long haul for a number of years. And there's forever running.....always backwards from everyone, because I lead with the left. I taught my nephew how to write in cursive writing, he still writes like a lefty but he's not! My family seems to have one lefty each generation. My niece is the newest one, but her twin brother isn't.
  5. William F Parkin
    Is there anywhere I can get a copy of this book
  6. KEITH DAVIES
    I write left handed and when younger kicked a ball left footed, batted at Cricket right handed, bowled left handed, play Golf right handed, Badminton, Tennis and Snooker left handed.
    Ye Gods - I must be all shook up ......
  7. William F Parkin
    Where can I get a copy of this book
    1. Sandra Zellick
      We lefties are special.
  8. Mary Lopez
    Where can I get a copy?
  9. Teresa Carpenter
    I would love a copy of this book.
  10. Elizabeth Cossar Pryor
    I am a left handed writer as is my older sister. We are two from a family of four children.
    Our father was made to change to use his right hand at school, but I suppose it was from him we inherited our left handedness??!! Our mother noticed that Dad used his left foot when to digging with a shovel or spade!
    I find it more natural to use stepping stone by putting my left foot forward first?! No problem with Scottish Country Dancing using my 'right foot first though.
    We have 2 adopted children...one is a male who is left handed the other a female, she is right handed.
    Has anyone else out there noticed that Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge and Heir to the British throne is left handed? They must have a few lefties in the European royal families, since they interbred frequently in the past.
    I always notice left handed people when watching TV or am out and about.
    I use scissors with my right hand and when ironing also, so I must be
    ambidextrous to some degree.
    I've no problem using a right handed mouse at the computer.
    I hold a telephone to my left ear with left hand so have to change when writing info. and using the phone at the same time. I play guitar with my right hand but our son restrung his and plays left handedly. His 2 kids are right handed.
    I don't know if I am right or left brained!!

    Interesting recent fact. Our son had a Left temporal brain tumour removed at the end of last year.(It was the size of a tennis ball.) One sign that he had the tumour was that his left leg was numbing and he had a severe headache just as this was fading. (No other typical seizures) Apparently this is classed as a seizure. He was on epilepsy medications and was having up to 15 of these each day prior to his 11 1/2 hr surgery. Fortunately none after ward so meds have now been fazed off.
    Even better he has negligible residual brain damage.
    He is a barrister and solicitor as well as a university language professor...which side of HIS brain works more...can anyone tell me?
    We were all educated in New Zealand BTW.
    That's all for now.
  11. Ruthann L
    I found this interesting. My grandfather changed me from left to right handed when I was small. Wonder if he had a copy of this pamphlet.
    Now I have a left handed grandson and will not be changing his writing habits. Oh how things have changed!
    1. Kathleen
      My maternal grandmother was forced to be right handed. I am a leftie. All my siblings are right handed, as are my parents. My granddaughter is left handed, like her Nana!! I remark on it as much as I can.
  12. valerie stafford
    Where can i get a copy of Conway's book? I would love to read it!
  13. tony
    Completely True. This was our experience in |North London (Barnet) at a Convent School until I complained to the Head Teacher who was 'apparently' oblivious of her staff bias and actions.
  14. Thelma rose
    Where can I get a copy of Conway's booklet, if at all possible?
  15. David Roberts
    In mid-2016 Disability CanDo persuaded Caerphilly County Borough Council to let members of the public who were users of their library computer terminals reset the mouse to left-handed, after this facility had been blocked.

    So we don't have to go back to the middle of the last century to find this discrimination.
    1. Kevin
      I have two left handed children and they were taught to use a mouse right handed by two different teachers, both of whom were left handed. This means unlike my other children the left handers can write while they scan the net.
  16. Pam Mischanko
    My dad was born in Pennsyvania in 1923. A new school year started, the new teacher forced him to write with his right hand. My dad started stuttering so my Grammy asked him what was going on at school, he told her. They lived down the block from the school, she marched up there madder than a wet hen. The next day my dad was back writing with his left and the stutter was gone.

    I'm 55, I went to school in Indiana. Just like my dad I went my first few years writing left handed until 4th grade. I got a teacher who would say "left handedness is a sign of laziness" and then would crack me with a ruler every time I used my left hand. Unfortunately I was one of those kids that when my parents said you "obey your elders" I did, and never told until my dad told me about himself. Oh, well I'm ambidextrous now.
  17. Karen Mader
    Brian - I just read your reply to me today Sept. 21 as I just get sent the posts sometimes and I don't know why I don't get them all the time. I don't know what I said that you replied to and I don't know what you said that you now say is rubbish but I really like your comment on Sept. 1!!!!! Thanks.
  18. Dawn Plumb
    I'm thinking of making myself a T shirt with the slogan my left handedness is "an unconscious revolt against authority".
  19. Tony Baker
    I started school in Surrey just 10 years after the publication of this booklet.

    I wasn't allowed to write lefthanded until I got to secondary school.
    My dad was a school teacher and I was quite advanced in writing, reading etc.

    I hated school from day 1 and still do to this day, although I spent a good part of my childhood living in them.
  20. Jon
    Recently read about an amazing tidbit of “history” in one of the local Sydney newspapers
    that nuns were still punishing left handed youngsters as recently as 1991!
    here in Sydney.
    Regards,
    Jon.
  21. Steve
    We've come a long way in the past ~90 years haven't we! On a related note to this topic -- My son and I wrote a book about a fictional society where lefthanded people are treated as a lesser class, even segregated. I'm a lefty (and proud of it) and I wrote independently for the left. My son is right handed and he wrote independently for the right. The book is titled 'The Underhanded and the Right." It is available for Kindle out on Amazon. I will send you a note when I have the next free book promo. #LeftiesRiseUp!
  22. Sandra Z. Zellick
    I would love to get a reprint of either or both of the books.
    1. Keith
      I have now put a link to the full article on the second one in the post.
  23. Ike Garlington
    I was in first grade in 1958. I was the only left hander in the class. My teacher made note of it to the class, but not in a demeaning way. All the kids gathered around my desk to watch me write and draw with my left hand. I felt very special and liked being different. My parents and my teachers never made an effort to change me.
  24. Lou
    My grandfather was beaten at school until he 'overcame his lefthandedness (he was born in 1912 and grew up in the countryside in Ireland).

    I'm a very proud leftie and my parents where very strong in their words to my school should they even think of trying to make me write with my right.

    The only problem I've ever had in school was when I was 7 and broke my left arm. The teacher came down really hard on me because my writing became unreadable - erm, maybe because I was writing with my right hand (durrrrr). My mum soon educated the teacher hehe.

    When I joined the army I got terrible grief off one of the training staff because I wasn't trying hard enough when playing hockey - not one bit of consideration that the hockey stick was right handed and no other alternatives.

    I'm flabbergasted that there are still people out there that believe it is a disability...as forest gump says "stupid is as stupid does".
  25. Paul Millette
    The Prevention and Correction of Left-handedness in Children - Google Books
    https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Prevention_and_Correction_of_Left_ha?id=UPb9HAAACAAJ
    1. Keith
      Thanks, but that search result doesn't seem to lead to anywhere you can see the content or buy the book?
  26. Cheryl Watts
    That is amazing. I would love that book. My mom was left handed too and she remembered teachers trying to make her right handed.
  27. Tracey
    My mum was born 1939 and uses her left hand, not sure if her twin was left handed but being identical I would say so. My father was right handed and so in our family 2 children are right handed , my brother was left handed and so am I. Mum never said she had any problems at school apart from seating arrangements.
    I do know the hand you use can be very strong urge as my youngest smashed his right thumb at 2 year old and he was determined to use that hand. He would use his right hand and when it was sore would go to his left hand, then back again when his hand was better. Have been told him being so determined to use his right hand strengthened his thumb. He had a steel rod in the thumb but was taken out when infection set in and they were worried about the skin graft. We live in Australia maybe using the left hand was not as bad as other countries.
    1. Christa H.
      It is actually fairly common for identical twins to be mirror-image; on right-handed and one left-handed. They also often have opposite personalities, but not always; it depends on a variety of different factors in pre-birth development.
  28. divine
    wow. And my classmate wants his baby brother to overcome RIGHT handedness. His brother is lefty, he is a lefty, and he wants the three of them to be called the LEFT brothers instead of the WRIGHT brothers.
  29. brian vaughan
    At my first school in the 50s. 1950s not the dark ages I had a teacher who said she would tie my left hand behind my back if I kept using it. My mother took me out of that school what a stupid ignorance fool
  30. Dr Billy Levin
    Ignorance is decided not "bliss". Left handedness is genetically inherited in almost all cases. It is often linked to right brain dominance which is in itself a neurological dysfunction.(not an abnormality).We are all supposed to be left brain dominant and right handed. Some right brain dominant people have behavior problems and left brain immaturity can have learning problems. Both can be diagnosed and treated.
    1. Dr Billy Levin
      Brian, i feel so sorry for you. You are not only ignorant but typically shoot you mouth off with no insight, typical of right brained dominance. I have 54 years experience in ADHD, a genetic neurological dysfunction, have treated over 22,000 cases, and have lectured to almost all universities in my country on this subject. Moreover I was appointed to give advice in the USA on and in the UK on on brain functon. I have been nominated by my medical association on 2 occasions for a national award for my involvement in this field. Adders have published many of my articles on this subject. If you would care to do a bit of intelligent research or even review some of my articles published internationally you might change your mind about me. By the way, I am also left handed.
  31. Linda Graham
    I really chuckled at our "disability or disease". At times I really do think it is a disability, especially when I am trying to swipe a credit card in a store and I have the angle wrong to make it work. However, many, many times I have considered it a special gift that very few have. I can do some things no right-handed person would even attempt.
    1. Percy Romair
      I am left handed, but mostly in writing and eating. I shave with my right hand also throw right handed.

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