Schoolteacher thinks left-handedness is evil!

Claire Milne 02 Feb 2025

When I entered kindergarten in 1959, I, too, was encouraged to use my right hand. I was already clearly left handed, and when the teacher came around to my table, she gently took the pencil and placed it in my right hand, saying “We write with this hand.” I paid no attention whatsoever. The moment she turned her back, the pencil was back in my left hand. A neighbor boy in my class had the same experience and told his mother, which resulted in a conference with the school. All was resolved. The fact that this is STILL happening in the 21st century is shocking. Such archaic, fundamentalist notions, rooted in superstition—which have real neurological consequences—have no place in the classroom.

Graeme Stickings 02 Feb 2025

You posted this in 2021???

I will repeat what I said some years back.

This this teacher did not know her Bible that well, as Ehud, one of the judges of Israel, called by God, was left handed. (Judges 3:15)

The Bible was not at fault here, the ignorance of the teacher was.

Anyhue, she did the same to a girl and was made to resign,

Lynn 02 Feb 2025

It’s been SHOWN (not just “said”) that FORCING a leftie to write with their tight hand often causes a stutter! Messed with the brain.

Yeah, if you WANT to teach yourself to write right handed, too, that’s great. And if you suffer some injury that leaves you unable to use your left hand, learning with the right hand is vital. BUT, forcing it, because others believe it is backwards and evil to write left handed, is just archaic, discriminatory, and actually physically/mentally harmful to many.

Darshan Dhanda 01 Feb 2025

It's been said a person who is left handed & learns to write with their right hand helps them to become ambidextrous.

Little known thing there are more left handers in MENSA than righties.

I mean who want to be as common as a right hander. There are 3 of us in my immediate family, my older brother & my eldest daughter too

Jim 31 Jul 2021

Growing up in the 50's & 60's was difficult. I had to keep my left hand in my pocket or sit on it when in class. There was even a kid that "snitched" me out for using my left hand. My penmanship was ridiculed and I was put in extra instruction because of it. When I started work, construction, I was referred to as "crippled". Today I inform people that I am,"sinister", most people don't get it.

Bill Brown 29 Mar 2021

Away back in 1955 when I was the only one in my primary school class who was naturally left handed, the teacher tried to force me to write with my right hand. even at 8 yrs old I was able to tell my parents about this, and it was resolved that I COULD continue being a left handed , and indeed on one of the exams one takes as we progress through life, it was found that I was probably the most left handed person the examiner had met.
Always been very left handed since the time I was 8. Wab

Graeme Stickings 28 Mar 2021

As this thread has been resurrected, in all fairness to Christianity I need to repost.

This this teacher did not know her Bible that well, as Ehud, one of the judges of Israel, called by God, was left handed. (Judges 3:15)

Incidentally she did this to another child, (a girl), and she ended up resigning.

Claire Milne 27 Mar 2021

It’s hard to believe this archaic thinking persists in the 21st century. This happened to me in 1959 in kindergarten. The teacher was constantly plucking the pencil from my left hand and putting it in my right hand. Being an independent kid, I put the pencil right back where it belonged as soon as her back was turned. Evidently I said something to my mother about it, because after parent-teacher conferences, the pencil switching stopped. As a teacher myself, I was always on the lookout for lefties to give them all the accommodations they needed to write comfortably and legibly.

Darshan Dhanda 27 Mar 2021

Two words that have never been more appropriate.....

Home schooling !!!

Marlene K. Goodman 18 Mar 2021

It is long known that forcing left-handed children to switch can cause stuttering in their speech and other problems. This lefty is an artist who also loves writing, music and invention. I always tell others, I’m a lefty. I’m in my right mind.

David Baxter 01 Feb 2021

Im totally left handed. My 1st teacher used to hit me with a ruler to try and force me to learn to wrte my alphabet right handed. She told me left handed people were evil too as per the bible (satan sat on the left) . My parents eventually found out and went mad. I had to change classes and my writing was very poor to start and way behind the rest.

Rick 13 Aug 2020

While learning to write, my kindergarten teacher would take my pencil from my left and put it in my right and make me use that hand. 4 and a half decades later I still hold writing instruments incredibly tight because of the subconscious fear someone will try to move it to my right hand.

Alan JS 04 Feb 2020

A cousin of mine, brought up in the middle part of England in the late 1950s, was stopped from using his left hand when at school. His parents, my aunt and uncle, we're unaware of that.
The local doctor was dealing with another local lad who had a bad stammer. My cousin had a bad stammer, as did his father.
The doctor came up with a theory. He asked both boys if they were left handed. They were. They were persuaded to reveal what happened to each of them at school. My aunt and uncle we're shocked.
The doctor wrote a stern letter to the school's headmaster telling to cease the practice of forcing left handed children to use their right hand.
Reluctantly the policy change was made, and the headmaster apologized to my cousin and the other boy per the doctor's instructions.
My cousin's stammering ended within two weeks.

Jerome MacMillan 26 Mar 2019

I have been left handed all of my life and I will be 78 in July. I have never had a teacher come to me and tell me I had to write with my right hand nor have a ever heard/read that being left handed was evil. I don't think I lived in a shell nor did I live in a small city. I grew up in the Minneapolis area.

Claire Milne 27 Mar 2021

I think the “evil” connotation comes from the root of the word “sinister.” From the Online Etymology Dictionary: “early 15c., ‘prompted by malice or ill-will, intending to mislead,’ from Old French senestre, sinistre ‘contrary, false; unfavorable; to the left’ (14c.), from Latin sinister ‘left, on the left side’ (opposite of dexter), of uncertain origin.”
That a 21st century educator would take this archaic usage as fact is disturbing.

Anita 15 Mar 2019

I was so fortunate to have had parents who let my sisters and I be left handed, and while I started school in 1955, had no teachers who were ignorant enough to make me switch. Nor did my sisters have any trouble. We were allowed to be who we were, and we appreciated that.

I am ambidextrous, eating and writing, using scissors and tools lefty. I toss a ball and bowl right handed, bat and play badminton or tennis with either. While I didn't keep it up, I had no problem with the bass keys of the accordion being left handed. But I noticed the other kids did have trouble. To the point, sadly, that they all dropped out of the Tuesday night band practice session and I was the only one left.

My sisters are totally left handed for everything, although my youngest sister taught herself to use a knife with her right hand so she wouldn't have to switch.

Interesting that these ignorant people want to brand the Devil as a lefty and therefore all lefties must be evil. How do they account for so many right handed criminals?

In the Bible, Ehud, who became a judge to the Israelites for about 80 years, was a left handed man of the tribe of Benjamin, He was called by God to deliver the people from the king of Moab. Being a lefty let him do the deed more easily than had he been right handed.

This tribe apparently had quite a few lefties among them. In a later chapter, it talks about 700 of the men of the Benjaminite army being slingers of stone, all mighty men, all left handed, never missing their mark. I found these accounts pretty interesting and not at all insulting to lefties.

There's nothing ever mentioned about Satan being left or right handed. Any depiction of him as a lefty is simply an artist's rendition and not scriptural.

You would think, that in this day and age, people would have grown a brain. Yet, in other countries, the left hand is used solely to wipe oneself after using the john.

I would rather think the hands are partners, helpers of each other. We need them both. Having said that, I am proud to have the privilege of being left handed!

Angela Steele 19 Feb 2019

Wow. I recently did a study to see how many actors were left handed. This is any and all actors including extras and commercials. This number was a staggering 90 percent out of 245 I watched. I was totally shocked. Omg I guess all actors are evil according to this lady lol.

Marny CA 29 Jul 2018

When using my left hand to write I position my hand on the paper as a mirror image of how I position my hand when writing right handed.

I never could understand why the left handed kids scooped their entire hand/wrist up over where they were to write.

Are there other people here who are ambidextrous and write the way I do?

Lynn R 29 Jul 2018

Whether you "scoop" your hand to write is mostly innate (i.e., you are born with it) - it's REALLY interesting to see RIGHT handers crooking their hands when writing. Weird. Another possible reason for the awkward positioning of the hand might be due to the way teachers tilt the paper for left handers when they are learning to write. The nuns who taught me (reluctantly -they would have preferred to just switch me) turned the paper OPPOSITE to the slant of right handers. IF I had accepted that and written without a crook in the wrist, it would have resulted in the backwards slant of the writing lefties are known for. Well, I was a stubborn kid and would immediately turn the paper back to slanting with the upper right corner at the "top" as soon as their backs were turned, resuting in a nice forward slant and no bending of my wrist. Mostly, it's innate, not learned, to bend your wrist. Happens with a small minority of BOTH left and right handers.
Nancy Keithley 29 Mar 2021

I am a created ambidextrous writer (third-grade teacher whacked my hand with a ruler every time she caught me using my left hand so I taught myself to use both adequately!). I am also now an educator and advocate for lefties, and advise teachers on how to help their lefties when appropriate (I have been a school counselor and am now an Educational Diagnostician - ie, I conduct Special Education evaluations).

I write with a correct slant, but it took me some time to get there. The paper should be slanted in the same direction your forearm is, with whichever hand you write! As a lefty, my paper slants this way / and so does my forearm, and my hand is NOT hooked. As a righty, it should slant \.

Karen Mader 28 Jul 2018

Wow Marny - that is interesting.

Dr Billy Levin 29 Jul 2018

I have written repeatedly from a medical point of view why some are left handed. Please refer to all my comments at various times.

Dr Billy Levin 28 Jul 2018

AS a specialist treating ADHD/ADD, 59 years experience, 22.000 cases. 1/2 million rating scales and world wide recognition ad more.

Marny Fischer 28 Jul 2018

Does my being ambidextrous mean I'm only half evil?

I love being ready, willing, and able to use both left and right hands for whatever comes up.

A 'natural' rightie who found out that being leftie worked out great for a variety of different tasks, depending on whatever goes on in my brain - works for me.

For instance: when painting - I use my right for broad strokes and for fine detail my left hand is used.

I sew/cut leftie - but screwdriver/hammer and that sort is based on whether a wall interfers.

I throw a ball leftie, golf rightie, bowl leftie. Batting a ball was either way, depending on the pitcher.

I write either hand but rightie is my legal signature; printing is neater with my left hand.

I used to be able to write two different things at the same time while using both hands.

Comb/brush hair leftie, brush teeth rightie. So??

I'm approaching 80 years old and can't think of any reason why anyone would consider me evil for any of these gifts.

Teachers who believe such nonsense do not belong in a school with children.

Mrs. A.J. Millington 27 Jul 2018

Being born left-handed only to be told by parents and teachers it's wrong, sinister/evil is insulting. Another ridiculous example I can use is this: not only am I left-handed, I also have natural curly hair!

I am a biracial woman who had a white mother (Jewish & Irish) and a dark-skinned father who was British, Cherokee/Choctaw Native American and Jamaican. My mum straightened my natural curls for years..she didn't know what else to do. After years of fighting it with relaxers, I quit and embraced my curls since 2012.

To say that having straight hair is better than natural curly hair is just as ignorant and completely baseless. That is, unless the prejudice is directed at the woman with natural curls. Same thing with being left-handed. We've got to get rid of our archaic prejudices. I'm glad to be a lefty with natural curly hair. It makes me unique!

Mrs. A.J. Millington 25 Jul 2018

Archaic, totally. If being left-handed is evil/sinister, then what does it make meshuggina right-handers? Hmm, I smell prejudice and bias here.

Don Ruhl 26 Jul 2018

I had to get out my gargantuan dictionary to discover the meaning of "meshuggina." Online sources helped but not enough. Whew! That was exhausting.

Mrs. Alicia J. Millington 25 Jul 2018

After reading this article, I'm appalled at the level of ignorance and stupidity of right handed people. As a member of this site, I wrote about this nonsense a while ago. I am the oldest of 5 kids, born to meshuggina right-handed parents.

At age 4, I too, was forced to use my right hand. Often, my mom would defer to my ignorant father, exasperating the situation. Whenever she saw me coloring with crayons in my coloring book, she often discouraged me by slapping my left hand. As I grew older, it resulted in a sloppy and illegible right-handed script. I imagine my parents wanted me to "fit in" with other kids and not stand out. Whatever the reasons, they were wrong (I never wanted to fit in). Attempting to change the wiring of an obvious left-handed child, believing the lies that left-handedness is sinister/evil, wicked is discriminatory and unwarranted.

March 2017, my husband and I went ice skating. Before the rink closed, I attempted to get in one last lap. It ended with my legs and skates going out from under me, causing damage to my right arm and wrist. A visit to the hospital and orthopedic doctor confirmed a hairline fracture. It meant wearing a cast for several weeks, followed by a brace until it healed completely. In the meantime, I was completely dependent on my LEFT HAND. For EVERYTHING. I decided to undo [most of] the damage and became a southpaw again.

Has it been easy? Not with everything. Also, an amazing thing happened: In the mid-late 1970s, I decided to research my ancestry and found out the left-handed gene is on my dad's side of the family! What are the odds of 5 kids, 4 being lefties? Both my brothers and a sister are all lefties; only my younger sister in Brooklyn, NY is right-handed. Go figure.

In closing, the teacher should definitely be fired. She shouldn't be allowed to teach her stupid, outdated paradigms on her left handed students. It's positively Byzantine in this day & age. It's the way we're wired because the bias against us is prejudiced. We're not like the rest. I love being different that way and not like the rest of the right-handed meshuggas out there. Wake up world, we're not going anywhere!

Karen Mader 25 Jul 2018

Very glad that you were able to use your left hand for everything after the accident. My mother kept putting a spoon in my right hand when I was very young - then I started stuttering so she quit. A grandmother who lived next door saw me using my left hand eating jello and told me that I would have my hand tied behind my back. I was terrified but my Mom told me that they don't do that anymore. That was in B. C., Canada in 1948.

Dr Billy Levin 24 Jul 2018

Left handedness is often associated with behavior problems and behavior problems that can be diagnosed and treated medically.

Marny Fischer 28 Jul 2018

Dr Billy Levin, is that your belief? If so, by what authorities do you base your knowledge?

ERIN A. WELCH 24 Jul 2018

TEACHERS KNEW THEY HAD BETTER LEAVE ME ALONE!OK, SO TGEY SAY LEFT HANDERS ARE SUPOOSE TO "EVIL" OR "WICKED"? WELL MY "EVIL" WILL COME OUT IN SPADES IF THEY EVER TRIED TO/FORCED ME TO BE SOMETHING I WASN'T,THEY LEARNED FROM EXPERIENCE ESPECIALLY WHEN IT CAME TO WRITTING W/MY LEFT HAND!

William Brooks Hull 16 Apr 2018

As a six-year-old child in first grade, my teacher (a woman of my grandparents' generation) had a policy of "No Child Left Left-Handed" in her classroom. My parents attempted to work with her but she was adamant.

During the course of the school year the teacher became ill and had to retire. The substitute teacher that took over had an open mind toward left-handedness and my life became much better.

This experience definitely left a mark on me that continues to raise my awareness of prejudice and coercion to this day.

Marny CA 29 Jun 2017

I love being ambidextrous! When my right hand/arm is out of commission my left is ready, willing, and able to take over with few restrictions.

Evil? The way the Christians burned at the stake anyone they deemed to be different. Or murdering Jews who refused to become Christian yet praying to a Jew.

Evil? The majority continually trying their best to destroy a tiny minority!

Sad that Jews were not allowed to do their own crafts!

Marny CA 06 Oct 2017

More info: I can write with either hand - but am a righty. Lately, it's been more convenient to write lefty. My right arm/elbow are resting on the arm of the recliner so doing crossword puzzles are lefty.

I bowl lefty, golf righty, tennis serve is better/stronger lefty so I hold the racket lefty, too; catch a ball either hand but throw lefty so using a left handed mitt was tough.

When painting, right hand is used for palette knife but for miniature/fine details, I use my left hand.

I can also write with both hands at the same time - and used to be able to write two different things at the same time. Upside/down and backwards, too, along with mirror-imaging, which is fun to do.

All of this must mean I am more than evil. Hot dog!!

or quite talented. wink.
Mrs. Alicia J. Millington 25 Jul 2018

That genealogy search I did in the mid-late 1970s showed this: my dad's ancestors emigrated from Liverpool, England to Kingston, Jamaica. Don't know how long they stayed. They left, settling in the Panhandle of Florida, intermarrying with the Cherokee and Choctaw Native Americans.

My mom knew bupkis about her ancestry so, I asked my bubbe. She mentioned how we Sephardic Jews were kicked out of Spain (by queen Isabella) because we refused to convert to Catholicism. It was convert, leave or be killed. They left, settling in Ireland for 300 years. Fearing for their lives, they set sail for Ellis Island, NY. While being processed as new immigrants, they were told to anglicize their last names (to avoid further persecution).

I am all of the above and also left-handed. I wasn't thrown a curve ball, rather, I was blessed by God and given a gift few people will ever experience. Comfortable in my own skin, never caring what others think, I'm proud of my rich heritage. That is not only being Jewish/Irish/Native American but being left-handed as well.

Nick McCormack 29 Jun 2017

Nothing much changes, almost sixty years ago when I was attending a Roman Catholic Primary School I was forced to use my right hand and was told by teachers and the priest that being left handed was "a sign of The Devil".

Mrs. A.J. Millington 25 Jul 2018

Based on what???
Marny CA 29 Jul 2018

A year later --- were priests told that molesting children was evil? Or just move the offender to a different church ... which is what was done for mega-decades.

Mrs. A.J. Millington 28 Jun 2017

As the oldest of five kids, at age 4, I was forced by my [meshuggina] parents to be right-handed. Yet, I have 2 brothers & a sister; all lefties like me. It was awkward & uncomfortable resulting in a somewhat sloppy [right-handed] handwriting script. My parents had me believe there was "something wrong with me," that I wouldn't fit in with other students in school (who cares!). I did excel in art: drawing/painting, music and foreign languages. However, I was terrible in math but that was largely due to the teachers. A recent ice skating accident resulted in injury to my right wrist (a hairline fracture). Although I always eat with my left hand, switching back to being a southpaw again was also a bit awkward. However, I realized this is how I was wired at birth, therefore, I am not switching back. Anyone who thinks being left-handed is evil has the problem. Like arguing that the earth is flat it stems from the paradigms of ignorance and utter foolishness; that somehow by being right-handed that you're perfect (not). It's a discriminating form of prejudice, coupled with paradigms must be broken. Right-handers need some serious education on the matter!

Karen Mader 30 Jun 2017

Were your 2 brothers and your sister forced to use their right hand also?

Vera 20 Feb 2017

I am 54 years old and out of 9 siblings I am the only one left handed growing up I've never experienced anything so profound God has been so good to me that I didn't have to endure the cruelty of this world as I grew up anyone who has left handed children should always make them feel no different than any of their other children because they use the other hand today people shouldn't worry about what hand we use but about helping people that are different and being understanding maybe they should read the bible about a left handed person that was good

Takaba Akihito 15 Feb 2017

just a fact to all left-handed like me... mostly if not all, left handed have a gift. I can create a story scenario in my head and would eventually happen in a few days or so and I have a friend who's left handed too who happen to have third eye, she can see various supernatural creature, but unlike any other esper she can see heavenly beings too and saw angel of death, TWICE

Dr Billy Levin 21 Sep 2016

Unfortunately ignorance regarding left handedness prevails in many schools throughout the modern world. As a leftie I had to put up with it as a child. Today as a specialist in the field I still have to put up with it when children are referred to me. One day one hopes all will know what science has known for 50 years about brain functions and left handedness.

Chris 17 Sep 2016

I am left handed, and unfortunately I fell victim of this evil-ness. Before even going to primary school, my kindergarten teacher forced me to write with my right hand... I'm 29 years old, and I still remember her holding my right hand and really forcing me to learn to write that way. Maybe it's also a bit my fault for not mentioning this to my parents, but, hey, I was five years old. Now I can not express how jealous I am when I see left-handed people writing with their left hand, as intended by nature.

Lora Johnson 14 Aug 2016

I started first grade in 1957. My teacher saw me trying to write with my paper turned in the direction righties use. She simply turned my paper the other direction. I realzed much later that she was ahead of the times, as many people my age had teachers who tried to switch their handedness.

Nick McCormack 21 Jul 2016

This happened to me in Primary School nearly sixty years ago, it was a Roman Catholic school and the teacher said that I should tell the priest that I was left handed the next time that I went to Confession, when I did he said that I should strive to use my right hand as the left was a sign of the Devil and he gave me penance and told me to make a good act of contrition.

Judy Kuhel 18 Jul 2016

When I was in first grade in 1948, in California, my teacher kept moving my pencil into my right hand. When I began to complain of stomach aches to avoid going to school, my mother, (a righty) questioned me about it. When I finally confessed, she visited the teacher, and I never had another problem after that. My father was ambidextrous, but favored his left, which worked to his advantage in sports, and I think my mother informed the teacher of that fact.

Doreen 08 Jul 2016

I had a similar situation to the left handed 4 year old. My first grade teacher was from the Philippines and they really beleive that leftyS are evil. Every time I pice up a crayon, scissors, or a pencil with my left hand she smacked my hand with a ruler and put the object in my right hand.

Kathy Segura 10 Jun 2016

I'm a 54 yr old (lefty) female, & the same thing happened to me in 1967. I was in Kindergarten, & was told to practice writing my name at home. While I was sitting at the table I naturally picked up my pencil with my left hand. Within 15 seconds I put it down, put my left arm behind my back & picked it back up with my right. Ofcourse my mom asked what I was doing & I told her this is the way my teacher told me to do it. Needless to say my mom was livid. She came to me & put the pencil back in my left hand. The next morning you better believe my mom was at the school waiting for the office to open. She did not leave until she witnessed the teacher being fired from her duties as a kindergarten teacher! I love my mom! :)

Red Ranger 04 May 2016

It is ridiculous that in this day and age, the damned 21st century, left-handedness is seen as a sign of some sort of devilish evil and that it is associated with the devil. The teacher involved is clearly a religious nut and a headcase of the first order. She oughtn't be teaching young children or be anywhere near young children. Only in America!

Dr Billy Levin 03 May 2016

Unfortunately many lefties have ADHD which presents as a behavior problem and a talent for first doing or saying before thinking. This often gets them into trouble. 40% of people in jail have undiadnosed and unreeated ADHD. At an international medical conference an American expert suggsted if we do not wake up we will be incarcerating people with an inherited neurological condition, instead of diagnosing and treating them.

Carrie 02 May 2016

My dad went to school in the north east of England in the 1950's and was forced against his natural left handedness. Although he still writes with his right hand he had always considered himself a lefty. I'm proud to be his left handed daughter :-)

Karen Mader 19 Mar 2016

Because I am left-handed, when I started teaching I tried to help a boy who was left handed hold the book at the other slant to help him. I had a manuel that showed how to help left-handed children hold the book for cursive writing. (at the opposite slant). This was in 1962. I was teaching Grade 3 in Prince Rupert, B. C. Back then the children started cursive writing half way through Grade 2. The boy's Dad came for an interview and asked me to please leave the boy alone because he was getting frustrated and the Mom was nagging at him. So I let him do it the way he had learned. (When I was in Grade 8 I tried to change my way of writing and use the opposite slant but it was too hard by then so I gave up.)

Marny Fischer 03 May 2016

I'm sure you meant to write 'manual' not 'manuel' ...

Is cursive writing still taught?? I thought it was being stopped in the USA.

If a right-handed child can be ambidextrous, so can a left-handed child.

For me, each hand has different chores - and most chores can be done with either hand.

I'm a happy camper.

Karen Mader 19 Mar 2016

I tried to comment after the last new comment under this heading and it would not go through. I will try again. When I was 5 and living in Trail, B. C.(Canada) in 1947 a Grandma next door told me they would tie my hand behind my back when I started school. I was terrified but my Mom told me that they don't do that anymore. (She had tried to get me to use my right hand but when I started stuttering she quit). I started school in Abbotsford, B. C. in 1948 and nothing happened to me. My husband's sister who is 6 years older than me was made to write with her right hand.

June 19 Mar 2016

That happened to me years ago, a ruler slapped across the knuckles for writing left handed. My dad pulled me out of the religious school and I went to public school. I felt bad that I was different, but later after playing softball, I made a great pitcher, then felt great about myself, built my confidence.

Teachers can be great, its too bad there has to be a destructive teacher around.

Rachel Mims 10 Feb 2016

This is awful. I can't believe a teacher could be so cruel to a little boy who is just doing what is natural and feels right to him. I would be furious if a teacher did that to me. Thankfully, I am homeschooled and did not have to deal with this insanity. My mom, being right-handed, just let me figure out how to write, after teaching me how to read and spell. People should stop being so rude to lefties.

Dr Billy Levin 10 Feb 2016

The inherited dominant right brain feeds the left hand ,eye foot and ear and is associated with ADHD. Most inherit left brain dominance making us naturally right. Occasionally there is mixed dominance. ADHD not recognized and not treated will often result in behavior and learning problems ranging from mild to very severe

Karen Mader 09 Feb 2016

Very glad to see that that teacher resigned.

Karen Mader 09 Feb 2016

Am wondering if you asked Dr. Billy Levin for the article he has published and if you have where is it?

Dr Billy Levin 10 Feb 2016

I have posted the article on left handedness

susan berry 09 Feb 2016

I am lefthanded and all the teachers tried their best to force me to use my right hand. When they realised they could not, they abandoned me so I was never taught to knit, crochet etc. I was the only one in the whole school they could not crack.

John E 25 Jan 2016

I guess some states and some school systems are more progressive (in a positive sense) than others.

Both of my maternal grandparents grew up in New Castle, a small mountain town in western Colorado. My grandmother's youngest sister, born circa 1910, was fully permitted by family and teachers to be left-handed. Similarly, my father's cousin, born in the late 1920s and raised in Houston, grew up left-handed with no real pushback from teachers.

Growing up as a lefty in west Los Angeles in the 1950s, about the only "problem" I ever encountered was a second-grade teacher who asked me to try briefly to write with my right hand. When I got home that day and asked my mother about the incident, she replied that the teacher probably just wanted to make sure I really was wired to be a lefty. No one ever tried to switch or "set me right," beyond an occasional "right arm on the wrong shoulder" joke.

Contrast this with the experience of two of my contemporaries who attended east coast Roman Catholic schools, where they were forced to switch hands. (Writing with the left hand reportedly earned the sting of a ruler slap across the back of the hand.) One of them did end up as a somewhat socially awkward stutterer.

TR Anderson II 21 Sep 2016

"I guess some states and some school systems are more progressive (in a positive sense)"

The word "progressive" is always used in a positive sense, since it is a word that is based on "progress" which itself is a positive word. Regress, regressive, and regression are all negative terms.

Dr Billy Levin 27 Nov 2015

I am a doctor specialized in ADHD .Very often these children are lefties. Do you want a article I have published on the subject to educate teachers and others?

Karen Mader 28 Nov 2015

Yes we would love an article on the subject to educate teachers and others.

Lucille Burns 21 Oct 2015

Well, kids, I started public school in the 30's, and, with Dad being left-handed and notifying the teacher, I've never had problems. But, still, one must remember to place your paper parallel with left arm. During WW1, Dad taught telegraphy at Great Lakes Naval Training Station--bet it was easier for students to learn with a left-handed teacher.
This "sinister" idea, I believe, started in the middle ages when men would greet by shaking right hands to show they were not holding a weapon. Therefore, a leftie could prove to be a danger, because he could shake right-handed and still carry a weapon! What's under your cape????

Robin Kohler 13 Oct 2015

As an educator I am ashamed that this is still happening. My grandmother was abused in school because she was left handed. That was 100 years ago. If I notice a student is left handed, they are treated special by me. I never want any child to go through what my grandmother did. I'm left handed and am happy to be so!

Ruth A. Duey 13 Oct 2015

There have been remarks that children in the 50's were made to write with their right hands. That was not true in my case. My grandfather though had his left hand tied behind him in school. He wrote beautifully with both hands. I still have many of his letters.

sandy willingham 11 Oct 2015

that poor little boy , being a lefty is hard enough with out having people like that teacher ,maybe we should change something about her we don't like or ( is evil ) she needs to get a life . stop picking on leftys .. we are great people and guess what teacher im not no where near a devil ..

Rachel 10 Oct 2015

As a left-handed English teacher from Oklahoma, I am appalled by this. It is hard to believe that such ignorance can still exist in the world today. I myself have taken strides to make my classroom as left hand friendly as possible. My first year as a teacher I removed all the desks, which were all right-handed, from my classroom and instead acquired several hand neutral tables. I hope that all teachers, whether left handed or not, can learn to embrace all types of students so this kind of discrimination will never happen again.

Carol 19 Feb 2017

Bless you for thinking of your left-handed students!!! I wish someone had removed the desks when I was in school (class of '82). I always solved the problem by turning the desk sideways so that I had the full desk to write on and I also did this in college, but occasionally I caught the business for doing so when someone had to walk by me and my sideways desk was blocking the aisle.

Eddie Chu 07 Oct 2015

Why is this still happening???????? Just because we're left-handed doesn't mean we're associated with the devil!It doesn't happen here in Canada, but to think this would still happen... it's preposterous!

Lynne Stevens 07 Oct 2015

How utterly ridiculous that a so-called 'educated'woman should be so ignorant as to inflict such utter nonsence on impressionable children!It makes you wonder what other antiquated rubbish/ideas they are being brainwashed with,if this is the standard of education deemed acceptable, not only by this-at best,ill-informed-'teacher',but also the school she 'teaches' in.Utterly shocking!

L. Bannister 07 Oct 2015

This teacher obviously has yet to master reading comprehension. Did she even read the rest of the article?
There's a reason public education is, in general, crap.

If that happened to my child (who is left-handed)I would probably be in jail for smacking that idiot! I'm proud of my left-handed daughter!!!!

NJK 06 Oct 2015

Being lefthanded myself, I find this to be mean and quite disturbing to treat anyone that way especially a child. I'd like to use my left foot and put it in.

Thanabalan 06 Oct 2015

I think the teacher doesn't know most of they famous people as bill Gates, Nicola Tesla, Valentino rossi, Leonardo da vinci also left handed.... This kinda teacher should not suppose to be in the education field as this would create a discrimination between right handers and left at this young age.

Peter 05 Oct 2015

This teacher should be banned from teaching.

kim Coleman 05 Oct 2015

This really upsets me. As a child my father use to make me color and try to right with my right hand, he would say no child of mine is gong to be left handed. In doing this the only thing i do with my left hand is write everything else i do right handed. But as i have come into my mid age out of my employees it is about 60/40 big increase in left handed people. 40% is alot.

Valerie 05 Oct 2015

I was deeply concerned that a child was so badly treated for being left handed. I am a 72 year old left handed. Yes they tried to change me, but my mother insisted that I remain left handed. I wrote this verse for my five year old grand daughter, as she also was spoken to regarding her left handedness, though not in such a dreadful manner.

I am so sorry you are feeling sad,
Cos you think being left handed is "bad"
Some of the world's very best,
Have passed the left handed test,
Some very famous, have played guitars,
Many are musicians, artists, and movie stars,
Some are songwriters, singers, Princes and Kings,
And some Inventors of very clever things,
Being left handed, brings no shame,
In fact it may be your claim to fame.
To write with your left hand, is not wrong,
One day with that hand you may write a song,
Left handlers are clever and very smart,
Because they write with the hand closest to their heart.

Hope these words help the young left handed lad.

Karen Mader 15 Oct 2015

Wow! I absolutely love the poem.

Lisa J Tipton 05 Oct 2015

I have 6 left handed grandchildren. My Grandmother was left handed and her teacher would tie her left hand behind her back and make her use her right hand.

Mark Ballard 05 Oct 2015

I had a similar experience in 1st grade but luckily it was not my teacher but one from another first grade class. Our 1st grade teacher, Miss Rudd, said that being a lefty was fine but that my handwriting would probably not be precise.

I learned the basis of writing in first grade but essentially taught myself how to write from 2nd grade forward.

Ellen 04 Oct 2015

I was really hoping this kind of thinking had gone by the wayside. When I was in school, in France, the nuns tried to get me to change my handedness. My mom, who at that point spoke no French marched herself to school and had words with the nuns through an interpreter (me). The nuns ceased their attempts. The next year in North Carolina in the US she had to have a talk with my teacher who took me out of my row and put me in a spot of shame until I learned to color "in the lines." 55 years have passed - and we haven't advanced that much. Sad for all of us.

Judy B. Childs 04 Oct 2015

-so sorry. In 1954 when I was 1st at Springfield Elem. School in Springfield, WV, I was not allowed to use my left hand - in those days, parents did not question teachers. I just complied, although, I did everything else left handed. I did not know that this is a form of discrimination. The teacher needs to be removed from Oakes Elem. in Okenah, OK, not the child.

Jon Noble 04 Oct 2015

In first grade my father saw me practicing letters, grabbed the pencil, put it in my right hand and said, "do it that way". The following day my teacher at school also forced me to do things right-handed. This continued through secondary school. Year 1963.

Parag 04 Oct 2015

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Right-handed-AIIMS-doctor-clears-UPSC-with-left-hand/articleshow/47942708.cms

Can any right-handed person on this planet give explanation for this article ?

Use this as an evidence against all people who are against Lefties. There is nothing called as good or bad that can be judged by a person's bodily characteristics. It is the inner attitude that matters a lot.

Why can't people understand this simple thing ?
Is it so difficult ?
Are all Righties thinking logically ? Are they at least carrying out their routine tasks normally using their right hand ?

Angel 04 Oct 2015

Oops, that should be write, not right...guess I'm getting tired.

Angel 04 Oct 2015

I can't believe in this day and age, that a teacher would do such a thing. I started school in the '50s and never had a problem with any teacher trying to change my 'handedness'. My only problem was in the 7th grade, when my English teacher held my paper up and asked if anyone could read my 'hen scratching'....One student, a boy, held up his hand and said, that's the way she's supposed to right...she's left handed. I was slanting my letters back instead of forward, like a right handed person does. Left handed and proud!!!!!!!!

JOHN LAM 04 Oct 2015

How shocking in this day an age.
In 1948 when I was about 5 or 6 I had my left hand ruler attacked every time I put my hand out for so a called present. They also tried tying my left hand to my back.
Now I have a deformed left thumb with a nail which needs to be trimmed every few days.
I have discovered that left handedness is an inherited trait that happens to almost every first born on my mother's side.
I am still lefthanded.

Jenney 04 Oct 2015

My father had instructed my learning disabilities teacher to use "any means necessary" to change me. I ended up with 4 broken knuckles from being hit with a metal object. I made my older brother call my mom, who brought the police and was taken to the ER. She was arrested, but retired shortly after. All this, and I'm still a proud leftie! (And 46 years young).

john billen 04 Oct 2015

The teacher should definitely not teach. The Catholic school I attended in the first through third grades tried to get me to change, but it was the holding of the pen between the middle and index finger of the left hand instead of between thumb and forefinger, something I resisted. I met another person, left handed, who holds a pen the same way I do. Two of us

Keith Levett 04 Oct 2015

I attended a Roman Catholic infants school in the mid 1950's. I was made to write with my right hand, as my left arm was tied behind my back. I started to suffer very bad headaches. When my mother asked what I was doing at school I told her. My mother took me to see our GP, who was also the school's doctor. He went to the school, and I was allowed to write with my left hand.

Christina 03 Oct 2015

As a child in Denmark, I was (eventhough they where warned) forced to write with my right hand - at the end of the day i began to stutter. The treachers stopped, but to late. Today I'm 35 years old and have a light stutter. I do not hope this boy gets any problems because of mean ignorance.

Sharon Penberthy 03 Oct 2015

I am 60 years old and left handed. When I started school my mom had asked if they changed kids to write right handed. They said no. They did try to change me to place my paper in a certain direction. I would turn it to what was comfortable for me. My hand writing slants to the right. My mom was hand was hit with a ruler till she changed to write right handed. That's barbaric to try to change a child. It's not evil or sadistic. We are in our right minds!

L J Bird 03 Oct 2015

This woman's ideas have nothing to do with any religion. There is nothing in the Bible about Satan being left- or right-handed. In fact, there is a reference to left-handedness in the Old Testament. In Judges chapter 3, Ehud is a left-handed hero who assassinated Israel's oppressor, Eglon - he had his sword on his right side and so the guards didn't find it.

Denise Harmon 03 Oct 2015

I am 60 and my husband 62 and we are both lefties. I have 2 brothers lefty and 3 right. Even split. I NEVER was forced to change hands or criticized for it. I would have this so called demented teacher removed. Gooooo lefties.

Mary A Spialek 03 Oct 2015

This teacher needs to be educated in the art of helping lefties adadt. There are so many ways to makes us more comfortable. I am left handed due to having polio which paralized my whole right side. Two of my brothers are natural lefties. The story is that my mother was a lefties until she started school and the nuns made her change, in the early l900's When I started at the same school in the late 1940's there were three of us in first grade (all lefties.) Sister just told us to turn our papers to the left in order to write better.I became a teacher andnever had a problem with teaching children to adapt.

Roxanne Brayford 03 Oct 2015

To clarify, I am a lefthanded teacher with two lefthanded children, who does see the right hand being pushed to be used over the left hand on occasion. However, it is my opinion that the article that was sent home was only explaining a belief about left handed people. This doesn't mean that the teacher believed that the child was evil or sinister. Was it the best article to use - probably not. Should she be forcing a student to change hands - No! However, this is not usually considered a huge priority within the educational system on a whole, unfortunately. I'd be willing to bet that neither the superintendent nor the principal, let alone the teacher, have a whole lot of knowledge about lefthandedness in general. We need to educate!!!!

Catherine taylor 03 Oct 2015

Absolutely appalling in this day and age, this teacher has no place in education I went through a terrible time in school in the 70's not in the classroom but in the dining room, each pupil was assigned on a rota basis to set the dinner tables everyone complained that it had been set wrong by me, I was punished and could not understand what I had done wrong, it wasn't until an enlightened dinner lady realised I was a leftie, but even now 40 years later I have never forgotten the stress and upset it caused.

Angela Eccleston 03 Oct 2015

When I was at school in the 1970s, I remember telling my needlework teacher that I do things differently because I'm left handed. Her reaction was; "no wonder you always get things wrong." I thought we were more sensible now, but this is still one of the most disturbing things that I've read in a while.

Karen Mader 04 Oct 2015

Most people who are not left-handed or are not close to left-handed people have NO idea the challenges that left-handed people face. A friend recently thought that someone who made a comment that peeling potatoes was harder for a left-handed person was surprised and asked me and I said "Yes". (I have a special peeler that is for either hand and I LOVE it.) Here is a positive for you: A friend was going to teach me to crochet by using a mirror!)

Sandra Kurtz 03 Oct 2015

This is a shocking story. I am left handed. When I was a first grade teacher many years ago, I taught my students, both left and right handed to write. No child ever asked me why I was writing on the board with my left hand. This teacher needs to understand that there is separation of church and state. Her religious beliefs should not force right handedness in others in this day and age.

DARREN STEELEY 03 Oct 2015

Teachers like this idiot in today's world should be removed/sacked full stop (in my ideal world will be shot in the right hand and learned to write as a lefty, see how they like it lol)Public/school apology is needed here for a start especially to the parents and the young child in question who will not have a clue to what they've done wrong in a common right handers/lack of common sense mind.

Al 03 Oct 2015

Although many people find this ridiculous we have to remember this state is very religious.
We cannot also make people do what we consider as "right". No pun intended.
This is down to the guidelines laid down by this particular state, not followed by this teacher. I also do not think this merits too much press as if it was widespread it would be in the news more often

Graeme 03 Oct 2015

This is not an issue with Christianity per se, the teacher just did not know her Bible.

Nowhere does it say the Devil is left handed, also Judges 3:15 refers to Ehud, a man called by God as being left handed.

However the fact the school took no action indicates they agree with her and I suspect the new teacher may take a similar line.

Dr Billy Levin 03 Oct 2015

ADHD is a genetically inherited neurological dysfunction where either the left brain is immature or right side to well developed. One or other or both in various degrees from mild to severe. The brain feed the opposite side of the body. Roger Sperry received the Nobel Prize for his split brain research teaching us exactly what each can do. As most are right handed we interpret most are left brain dominant. There is thus a strong tendency if you have right brain dominant there will obviously be a tendency to left handed. This tendency is more in right brain dominance than left brain immaturity. If forcing the child to write with the right hand does not change which eye or foot the child will use or which brain is dominant. It can only cause problems and does not cure ADHD. Thus the teacher must be educated and stop molesting the child or take legal action against the ignorant teacher. Most important does the child have ADHD and in urgent need of a neurological investigation. It can be suspected as early as at 2 years of age.

Dr Billy Levin 05 Oct 2015

A left handed child with ADHD ,prior to coming to a remedial school was forced to write with his right hand, which he did poorly . He broke his right hand playing football and while in plaster was told to write with his left hand. When the plaster came off he refused to use his right hand and what is more his writing improved,

Jacquie 03 Oct 2015

That teacher and any other teacher that calls a child
evil just because he or she is left handed, shouldn't be allowed to teach children, people like that are the evil ones!!!

Pua 03 Oct 2015

I am a female 72 yrs old, attended school in Northern California and never had a problem with being left handed from any of my teachers and after hearing about others who were punished for doing what came naturally I feel very lucky!! I am not sure if my mother spoke to them ahead of time (she's ambidextrous and her mother and other siblings are left handed and they were not forced to changed). but I am happy being a lefty. I did have a roommate who was bothered that I was sewing with my left hand so much so that she insisted on doing it herself. I just laughed and let her do the job while I got ready to go out with her ex. Had a great time. He's a lefty too!

Steven Alt 03 Oct 2015

That "teacher" should be terminated and have her license revoked. There is no reason for her to hurt a child like that. It's revolting and deserves to be addressed by the city administration.

Ross Lugton 03 Oct 2015

Once again religious and ideologically fuelled ignorance rears it's ugly head. Some if us are living enlightened lives, many still dwell in the dark ages.

Louise Fitinghoff 03 Oct 2015

This is terrible, I really hope something is done about this teacher. The issue about left handedness needs to be properly explained to her, so that she does not impose these archaic views and methods on poor children anymore.

Ryan Clarke 03 Oct 2015

People say that we have to remember to respect other people's culture and religious beliefs but I also feel that we need to also respect hand dominance just as much. Studies have shown that if people are forced to use their less dominant hand for too long seizures can occur and I am happy that the problem was solved before that happened.

Louise 03 Oct 2015

I am a 53 year old left handed woman. Many people are ignorant and definitely should not be teaching children. It's a fact that the left side of the brain develops before the right side while in the womb and left handed people are known to be more intelligent. If you go back in time, you will find many amazing people who were left handed. And I thought that the "devil" belief was an old school Italian thing. My in-laws tried to change my two kids from being possessed due to their left-handedness...

Sydney 02 Oct 2015

I live in the states, Ohio to be exact. When my mother started school, her teachers made her change from her left hand to her right (she was born in 1930) hand. When she started having children, she vowed she would never allow anyone to change the handedness of her kids. Well, out of the 7 of us kids, I am the only one who is left handed (even my twin is right handed!). None of my teachers made me
change. I feel so bad for the mother of this little 4 year old boy, who was made to feel he was evil by a superstitious teacher. One can only infer this teacher to be a religious fanatic with a misplaced fervor for her religion. If her religion is Christianity, then she needs to repent because Jesus isn't into superstition, nor does He take kindly to those who attack His little ones! I think this teacher would do well to research all the wonderful left handed people who made great strides in medicine, music, invention, etc. she just might find herself to have benefited from many left handed people! there needs to be some kind of disciniplary action taken against her and a warning made to ALL teachers who wrongly believe left handed children are evil and who want to change a child's handedness.

Donna 02 Oct 2015

Out of 10 in my family 5 or left handed. There is no excuse for this teacher. My question is how long has she been doing this? If she is this outdated about being left handed there is no telling what other wrong things she is telling her students. I guarantee if she did that to one of mine I would not being sending her a note. She the principal and the superintendent would have me in their face. And my child would not be in that class one more minute.

Tricia 02 Oct 2015

This is very unfortunate for the little bob who is just doing what comes naturally, using his left hand. The teacher sounds totally ignorant and her ideas regarding left-handedness should be addressed ASAP! I just can't imagine this situation happening in 2015, but obviously it did. Good for his mother for filing a formal complaint with the Oklahoma Board of Education. Where has this teacher been all these years...hiding under a rock?!! Shame on the teacher!

Shannon M. Taylor 02 Oct 2015

Thank you for posting this... I read this story originally on yahoo. I was horrified when I read it and amazed that the school district did absolutely nothing for this child. I've been an avid reader of your site for years now. As a proud lefty and the proud parent of a lefty, I have used your resources with ignorant people, particularly my daughter's teachers since she was in pre-K. I even had to have it written into her school file that she be allowed to use her notebooks left-handed and that when seated, the left side of her desk not be pushed up against another student. It was a real chore to get righties to comprehend lefty kids. I so hope that this family gets justice and that the teacher and any others like her are re-educated before they hurt another child.

Anya 02 Oct 2015

Unfortunately, this is a sad representation of the many radical religious conservatives who hold positions of authority in the United States. They have a total disregard for science and are intolerant of the religious beliefs of others.

Andrew Ball 02 Oct 2015

PS, Possibly the most evil man in history, Adolf Hitler, responsible for the Holocaust, - right handed!

Michael 02 Oct 2015

As a Lefty myself I believe that this teacher should have nothing short of Their teaching credentials permanantly revoked. Is this person really this stupid or is a member of such an extemist religeous sect that is actually more evil than any lefthanded child because this teacher has basically condemned this child to the cruelties of their God. This is shamefull and the moving of the child does not solve the problem. The school is basically condoning the teachers actions when they should be dismissing this person. Do they plan to audition all students in the future so that only righthanded students go to this teachers class?

Rich Gallien 02 Oct 2015

As one of those people who experienced that I can sympathize. I was forced to write with my right hand in school and for the most part still do, and actually believed I was right-handed for a long time. When I did things in a left-handed way I assumed that was the way righties did it and just assumed I was clumsy. Lefties are already at a disadvantage in a right-handed world, but forcing a leftie to do things with the non-dominant hand makes things even worse. Unfortunately, my parents thought this was best for me and pushed the issue at home too, but if your child is a victim of something like this, trust me, it's not the right thing to do, let him or her be left-handed.

Andrew Ball 02 Oct 2015

This teacher should be banned from ever teaching again! It is child abuse plain and simple. Absolutely disgusting behaviour from someone who is supposed to be aleader and role model for young minds.
The school should have sacked her immediately, Alisha remove your precious son from this school of hatred and sned him somewhere that his talent and potential will be realised not punished.

Roland Hayward 02 Oct 2015

Something like this happened to me 68 years ago. My father was incensed and gave full vent to his feeings at my school. Safe to say I'm still left-handed and have enjoyed a full active life without any more religious idiots intervening in my career in industry. This reacher such leave her mediaeval beliefs in the cupboard at home and concentrate on teaching students about the wonderful world we live in, free of barbaric old wives tales about left-handedness.

Regards,

Roland

Maggi 02 Oct 2015

My husband is ambidextrious and has scars on his left hand from "teachers" not allowing him to write with his left hand. Of course his handwriting is illegible. His Mother was very upset when she found this out and pulled him from that school. That was 50 years ago, I didn't think it would still happen today. I was very fortunate, and have always used my left hand!

Mark G Frankum. 02 Oct 2015

this teacher should be fired . this is the 21st century after all not the time of the salem witch trials . There is no excuse for this kind of backwards thinking this "teacher" is more SINISTER than the child he/she claims to be.

Richard Fourzan 02 Oct 2015

It absolutely amazes me that their are still people who still think this way. I think the teacher should be forced to use their lefthand so they can get some idea what it is like when a lefthander is made to do the same thing. One more thing not all lefthanders are evil. There are a lot of right handers that are just as evil perhaps even more.

Lawrie 13 Oct 2015

I am amazed that you people are still blindly commenting on this news. If you did a little research you would find that it was a false news report that was later discredited and retracted by the tv station. The quote shown was taken from a standard brocure given to parents that suspect their child might be left handed and the text printed refers to how left handers used to be treated NOT what happens now. WAKE UP PEOPLE not everything on the internet is true and this story definitely IS NOT.

Shelley Booth 02 Oct 2015

I had a teacher un the 3rd. Grade (1959) who would hit my left hand with a wood ruler. Done to discourage me from using my left hand. My mother was livid with anger, confronted the teacher in class and called the police reporting battery on a child. The teacher ruler whacks had bruised and cut my hand. Next day I was in the 4th. grade class, this teacher said I would be welcome. Her family had many lefties, including her husband, a local college professor.

Mind you, this was a Lutheran parochial school and not a model of progressive education.

Back then this was an adequate solution for the problem. Not now. This teacher should at least be counseled about her actions and be reminded to leave her religion at the door. Sadly nothing beneficial will come of this, Oklahoma is a place where backward looking beliefs and politics encourage such behaviors .

Margui 02 Oct 2015

That teacher behavior is typical of religious fanatics. How dare she scare the boy with a ridiculous statement like this? I hope she is suspended for good.

Steve Marlett 02 Oct 2015

The teacher resigned after a second family came forward about their child. Good riddance to the teacher and her Dark Age belief!

Roy Studer 02 Oct 2015

I wonder what will happen if someone on the Board of Education is left handed!

Hugh Urban 02 Oct 2015

Maybe theachers like that should be forced to retrained to use their left hand to see how hard is to convert.

Penny 02 Oct 2015

I can remember being in college in 1968 & the shorthand teacher asked me not to take his class because he could not teach me the subject. another teacher also smacked my hand with a ruler because I was writing with my left. I had thought that had all changed, but I guess there are still some backward people left out there.

Graeme 02 Oct 2015

That school teacher does not know her Bible

It does not say the Devil is left handed

She also has not read Judges 3:15 about Ehud, a man called by God, who was left handed.

I suspect the school agrees with this teacher as they did nothing to the teacher. I suspect if that boy goes to another class, they will still insist he becomes a right handed regular American.

Ellen Kendrick 02 Oct 2015

I think it's really scary that someone this ignorant & backward & possibly mentally disturbed, or at least deluded, is teaching children. She should not be able to continue in her position because she could do a lot of damage. What happened to separation of church & state?

Diane 02 Oct 2015

I can't believe how stupid and ridiculous the teacher in Oklahoma is. (regarding the left handed 4 yr. old) This is the type of person to teach our children? How uniformed, archaic and just plain stupid she is. She should have been suspended or have had some type of disciplinary action taken against her. I'd take my child out of this school. If they are allowing this, what else are they teaching the children? People should be more outraged about this. This teacher has psychologically injured this child and I consider this a form of child abuse.

PATTI 02 Oct 2015

I,too, am left handed. When I was in first grade the nuns left it up to the parents whether to change the child. However, sister felt
they should be left alone. My parents taught me all my alphabet, etc.
before I went to school and the nuns had me help the other left-handed children. Our nun felt that trying to switch a child threw
0ff their coordination and reading skills. I thank her a lot.

Christal 02 Oct 2015

See, I'm from Oklahoma and I never had this problem when I was in school. It is just crazy that a modern day teacher would use that type of thinking against her students.

Janferie 02 Oct 2015

The ancient Latin language has ' sinister' meaning left, and ' dexter' meaning right ( hence 'dextrous' ).

Clearly one of those ubiquitous righties had decided that.

As a member of a family with many sinister people ( mother, sister, two of my three sons, nephews et al ), It might also be a cause for a high IQ. But perhaps that expecting too much!

Mark Singer 02 Oct 2015

I am an Okie (male). In 1965, my kindergarten teacher started having me concentrate on using my right hand only. Until then I had been happily ambidextrous but primarily left handed. Family lore has it that this teacher thought I'd be "at a disadvantage" and my parents went along with it.
Except for writing, I perform a given activity with whichever hand feels 'right.'

Shelley Gluskin 02 Oct 2015

Obviously Oklahome is a century behind in their thinking. All Teachers need to be re educated about left handedness. I failed a year at school because the teacher gave me a Zero in writing because I wouldn't switch hands.

Paul 02 Oct 2015

This is truly sad! I am actually quite disappointed in the school that they did not take action against this teacher. I'm not saying she should be fired. I am saying she should be reprimanded and corrected. Lefties ain't evil... We are just different. And difference doesn't make use evil. We have always been the minority and I think that is probably where this came from. (Also people like blaming something, so why not pick on those who have always been around a 10% mark of the population?)

Tracey 02 Oct 2015

I started school in 1965 as a left hander and the only problem I had apart from using things meant for righthanders was sitting on the wrong side of a right handed person. My youngest damaged his right hand as a toddler and we were told he would probably never use it. At pre-school he would use his right hand until it got sore then used his left until he could use his right. So yes it is something that is probably pre-determent and so no body should be judge for it.

Patricia Fullerton 02 Oct 2015

I am thrilled to be a 'lefty' . My now deceased and wonderful father, born in 1914, was also one. In school he would write with his left hand. The teaching nun would come over to his desk and put the pencil in his right hand. When her back was turned he would put the pencil back in his left. She threw an eraser at him. He ducked and the eraser went out the window. She told him to go get it. He told her his mother told him to pick up only after himself. As you can imagine this did sit well with the nun. Hard to believe in the 21st century that Alisha and Zayde had to experience ignorance....and from a teacher!

M Barcus 02 Oct 2015

I was outraged when I first heard this on the news. I couldn't believe that there is still someone out there with this archaic view. I was left wondering if maybe this teacher wasn't a bit jealous since she is obvious right handed. Until this became national news the school board where this took place was not going to do anything. I hope that they have gotten a clue and have told this teacher that she is there to teach objectively and not to teach her personal views to these very vulnerable children. This took place at a public school not a private religious school. Let's all remember that there is supposed to be separation between Church and State.

Karen Mader 02 Oct 2015

Oh my goodness!!! This is so hard to believe!!!! I would keep him home if he can't be transferred to another school for a month. She can do educational things with him at home until then. i am 73. When I was young my Mom tried to put utensils in my right hand for awhile and then I started stuttering so she quit. (She told me this). I remember being outside eating jello when I was 5 and an old lady who lived next door told me they would tie my hand behind my back when I went to school. I was really scared but my Mom told me that they did not do that anymore.
CORRECTION: THE WORD IS TRIED NOT TIED!!!!!

Karen Mader 02 Oct 2015

Oh my goodness!!! This is so hard to believe!!!! I would keep him home if he can't be transferred to another school for a month. She can do educational things with him at home until then. i am 73. When I was young my Mom tied to put utensils in my right hand for awhile and then I started stuttering so she quit. (She told me this). I remember being outside eating jello when I was 5 and an old lady who lived next door told me they would tie my hand behind my back when I went to school. I was really scared but my Mom told me that they did not do that anymore.

Joan Simpson 02 Oct 2015

Obviously it's time for this teacher to retire. Her lack of knowledge relating to "left handers", being "sinister and of the devil" are positive proof her education and teaching skills are "far below standards". I'd have no difficulty firing her!

Jeanette K. Bohne 02 Oct 2015

My heart goes out to this 4-year-old. Imagine what this is doing to his self-image. At that age when the teacher speaks, it is almost as if God were speaking.

Annette 02 Oct 2015

This is very sad, I thought we have moved on, from this kind of ignorance.
Poor little child.

Teri Isaac 02 Oct 2015

As a child in elementary school in the mid 1960s I remember being rapped on the knuckles with a yard stick by my teacher when I would used my left hand. I was fortunate enough to have parents that put a stop to that in my early school years. But my grandmother was a different story, I was not allowed to sit at the dinner table because she believed that using my left hand meant I was "lazy, rebellious, evil"

Chas KENNY 02 Oct 2015

This is barbaric. Has the teacher not seen their President write? He is left-handed and almost half of his recent predecessors have been left-handed.

In the UK, our Prime Minister and a future King are both left-handed.

I'm very lucky. I was brought up to be a natural left-hander. No attempt was made to stop me being left-handed at school. Whilst we didn't have equipment designed for left-handers, we were taught how to cope. My home is set up for left-handed use. All of my kitchen tools are left-handed and the layout is designed for the convenience of a left-hander.

Denise Watkins 02 Oct 2015

I'm going to assume this woman also believes the world is flat and you can fall off the edge of it. If your child is in this woman's class, regardless of their handedness, you should be worried. She is clearly an idiot'

Vince Giordano 02 Oct 2015

I wish I knew the teacher,s name I,d have a few things I,d like to call her...and yes I,m left handed you ignorant B

Susan 02 Oct 2015

I don't know at what age British children begin school, but in the US it is typically kindergarten starting at age 6. Most American kids go to preschool of some sort, but it's not typical for public schools (the government schools) to have pre-kindergarten or preschool programs except for children with disabilities (but they do exist, so don't assume this is a child with a disability). Preschool teachers aren't likely to have a college degree or teaching credential, probably took some child development classes at high school or maybe community college (two-year precursors to university), and are low-paid. I don't want you to assume this is typical of an American credentialed professional teacher holding a master's degree in education.

Karen Mader 02 Oct 2015

I don't think lack of teacher training is an excuse for this type of thinking. I clicked on the link and read where the article came from. It actually shocks me BUT I think it is a text book for discussion of students and is just a comment about PAST beliefs in cultures from past times!!!! The teacher has mis-interpretted it.
Jill Jeanpierre 04 Oct 2015

We start kindergarten in Wisconsin at age five. Even back in early 50's when I went. So doesn't sound like preschool to me.

Peej 02 Oct 2015

My own mother was force-switched as a child, and I know someone my own age who was also force-switched. Often, when I hear of this nowadays, it's usually because of a teacher's laziness - not wanting to take time out to teach a lefty adaptive handwriting skills. But this is, at the very best, misguided.

If I'm responsible for a child, and she's being taught by a school teacher who can't even tell the difference between past and present tense, I'll pull her out of that classroom every time! The force-switching is over-the-top insult.

Teri Fields 02 Oct 2015

This is beyond ignorance! I started 1st grade in 1961 (did not attend pre-school or kindergarten) and my 1st grade teacher tried to get me to write with my right hand but I started out by writing from right to left on the paper. My mom stepped in and told my teacher that I was born left handed and would learn to write left handed. I'm sure that saved me from years of other issues this could have caused.

Corey Burns 02 Oct 2015

This is Crap, my closest family members are left handed including me so naturally this story rubs me the wrong way. This teacher needs to be taught a lesson ....that the year is 2015 !!!!

Margaret Clark 02 Oct 2015

In this day and age-that's crazy. I am left handed-so is my son. Hard to believe a teacher in this day and age would be so dumb.Hope she lost her job. To that little boy--sweet heart-that just means your special !

Sam 02 Oct 2015

My grandmother was very fortunate to have a teacher way ahead of her time who told her to embrace her lefthandedness. I got forced to switch 7 years ago (still a lefty, so it didn't work). Just goes to say, there are some teachers who know the stuff and some who will never learn.

Jane 02 Oct 2015

I am a retired kindergarten teacher. I found that left handed scissors for kids are very different from adult left handed scissors. I am left handed and cannot use the kids' left handed scissors. The blades lap in the opposite way and one must hold them differently to get them to cut.
The handles are the same as right handed scissors. Adult left handed scissors lap the same way as right handed scissors but the handles are shaped for left handed use. If a child learns to control the kids' scissors, he will have trouble with adult scissors. Therefore I did not provide the left handed scissors to my students.

Brian Wettstain 02 Oct 2015

The exact same thing happened to me in 1st grade (Kentucky) in 1970

Malini Chaturvedi 02 Oct 2015

Very shocking that teachers can be so ignorant. worse still a young child has been needlessly traumatised.

Chuck 02 Oct 2015

I hope something was done to this teacher. If she really feels that way she has no business teaching young children. I remember as a kid the teachers would keep trying to make me write with my right hand. They did that till about 2nd grade. I actually got to were I could write with both hand . I guess it was from being forced to try this way so much. Then again I'm not 100% left handed. I throw right handed when I played baseball I could bat from either side. I write and eat left handed. It seams like if I'm doing something small and have to be very accurate I use my left. When it is things that need alot of power and accuracy isn't as important I tend to use my right hand. No child should be told they are evil or something is wrong with them because they are left handed or even if they are different in any other way. Stories like this make me mad and sad.

Melissa 02 Oct 2015

Some 35 years ago, I too had the same problem as Zayde. My kindergarten teacher told me if I would continue to use my left hand I would become the devil. Anytime she came around I wrote with my right hand and as soon as she turned her back I would change back. My mom knew the game I was playing with the teacher and she laughed that a 4-5 year old could play such games.

Luckily for me there was a left handed teacher in the building who had fallen in love with me because of what I was doing to the other teacher. The left handed teacher tried to get me into his class in 3rd grade so he could teach me the correct way of writing. Unfortunately he was unsuccessful.

I did save my brother who is also left handed from having to go through what I did even though he had the same teacher. Because of all of that I am ambidextrous with more tendencies for being left handed. I don't have that great of eye hand coordination because as a child I never knew what hand I was suppose to use. I got really good at mirror imaging to copy what someone else was doing.

Later we found out that my grandfather was switched from being left handed because he was told he would be burned at the stake if he didn't. And because of that he made sure is daughters were not left handed either but my mom writes and eats right handed and everything else is left.

Hang in there Jayde I know it's hard but your mom's doing the right thing for you.

I just have to say that I just moved to Iowa, USA and there are more left handers here than anywhere else I've ever been and of all ages.

Polly R. 02 Oct 2015

As the parent of a left-hander, I too am shocked at the ignorance! I remember our pediatrician saying, we MUST be our child's advocate.

Birgit Nicolaisen 02 Oct 2015

Seemingly it wasn't just to one child..... and now she has resigned... Whew!! https://kfor.com/2015/09/25/oklahoma-pre-k-teacher-accused-in-left-handed-controversy-resigns/

Emma Duffy 02 Oct 2015

This is truly appalling. Starting school and learning to read and write is the basis of our literacy capabilities for the rest of our lives. Feeling like we are 'wrong', and, worse, 'evil' because we are left-handed is medieval in its thinking. This little child should be encouraged and supported, as all children should be, equally. I really do hope Alisha files a formal complaint. She certainly has my backing.

Julian Francis 02 Oct 2015

In the 1950s I was at prep school in London UK and one teacher tied my left hand behind my back to make me try to write right-handed. My mother, at that time a former teacher,saw me trying to write my homework with my right hand and asked me why. I told her that "Mr Ellaby said I have to try." Much, much later I learnt from my mother what happened. She noticed that I had started a speech impediment, a stutter. She went to the school and they denied that tying a boy's hand behind his back never happened. My mother then made a formal complaint to the local Education Authority which made an investigation and, as a result, I received one year's speech therapy free of charge.

Now at over 70 and living in Bangladesh, where left-handedness is not at all acceptable, I do not stammer/stutter but speak slowly which is appreciated by the local people. Every year I write about left-handedness in the local media.

Very sad to know that schoolteachers in USA are so uneducated.

Julian

Ed 02 Oct 2015

Some folks in this country I now call home really do believe everything in the bible is absolute truth.
Pretty frightening.

Erin 02 Oct 2015

@Ed
Anti-Leftyhandedness IS NOT in the bible!

This type of thinking is just human superstition, imposed on an existing religious background, attempting to justify it.

AGAIN, No where in the bible does it speak against left handedness.
Don Ruhl 02 Oct 2015

Nowhere in the Bible does it picture left-handedness as evil.
Kay 02 Oct 2015

This is in response to the comment by "Ed." Sir, you are just as misguided as this pathetic pre-kindergarten teacher. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING NEGATIVE ABOUT BEING LEFT-HANDED IN HOLY SCRIPTURE! A quick search through any complete Bible concordance would have prevented your making this outrageous comment. In actual fact, there are only three scriptures that refer to a person's being left-handed in all the Bible, and all three are of a positive nature. Either their left-handedness was cited as a particular skill (See Judges 20:16 and I Chronicles 12:2), or the lefty was a virtuous person (Judges 3:15).

Please check your facts before you spout venom.

Marilyn Proud to be a lefty 02 Oct 2015

This is just crazy, they need to get rid of that teacher. I wonder how many other kids he/she has messed with..

Judith Parsons 02 Oct 2015

I am appalled. This is thoroughly discriminatory and I can only imagine the effects on this little boy. I started school in the mid 1950s and was never made to write with my right hand, unlike my aunt in the 1930s. I cannot believe that this behaviour still goes on and appears to be tolerated by the school board. No doubt it is not covered by anti discrimination laws because (almost) no one believes left handedness is a disabilty or associated with stigma. We lefties do have to adapt to a right handed world but on the whole we're a creative bunch and normallly have the support of teachers and organisations such as this.

Larry Lavelle 02 Oct 2015

my blood is boiling over this teacher and I have too much to say but won't

When I was a 4 yr old I was beaten by the nuns to use my right hand
And nothing was done, but that was the 1950s I'm 68 now and still a lefty
But deaf from all the head beating's I got from the nuns.

She must think the devil is in the white house as he is black and a lefty.

All I can say is this teacher need's to be removed.

Gina 02 Oct 2015

All the lefty's in Oklahoma should get together and show the little fella some support.

Elise Dee Beraru 02 Oct 2015

I am outraged to learn there are teachers who still believe there is something inherently evil about being left handed. As far as I'm concerned, this should be investigated as a form of bullying or even child abuse. Just about every language except Greek uses the word meaning left or left handed as a synonym for evil or clumsy because the left side was favored by only about 10% of the population, making lefties "other." This must be stopped in all schools, public, private, state, religious, etc. It is abusive, and children who are forcibly switched often suffer other problems, including stuttering and anger management.

Judy Vigurs 02 Oct 2015

This is terribly shocking. But not so different are comments like one a teacher made to a client of mine about her 7-year-old daughter: "Of course she's likely to be uncoordinated. It's because she's left-handed." I worked with the little girl and didn't find fer uncoordinated. She was wonderfully ambidextrous (as am I)!

Samson Iyanda 02 Oct 2015

This is really bad. I wonder what kinda teacher would do that to a kid? if the teacher doesn't need his/her left-hand, let it be put to blade. of course, he/she wouldn't do that because he/she is self-centered. He/she would rather condemn and say all kinda nonsense. Left-hand is a badge we should be proud to wear and no one, no one should stop us. here's a poem i love about us https://www.voicesnet.org/displayonepoem.aspx?poemid=282223

David Robinson 02 Oct 2015

It goes to show that they are not all locked up Not only this teacher but the gun lobby in the US need sorting out too.

Kim 02 Oct 2015

Your born left handed you don't choose we have it hard enough in life with out stupid comments by the people we spend our first few years with other than our parents I was lucky my dad is left handed and helped me cope and mum taught in the same school I even supplied my own scissors and ink pen but nothing is easy for the lefties in this world

Stephanie Norrie 02 Oct 2015

Not too long ago I had a similar experience which at 35 was upsetting so I can just imagine what this little child may have felt. In my case a delivery man wouldn't let me sign for a package using my left hand he insisted I sign with my right. I complained to my supervisor who emailed the company. A Rep from the company called and apologized. I haven't seen this particular delivery man in our office since.

Some people are just too narrow minded to work with the public.

Joy 02 Oct 2015

Horrified! Isn't it part of basic teacher training that one learns that forcing a child to write with the 'other' hand can bring all kinds of problems....speech difficulties being just one of them? I hoped that we had seen the last of this kind of ignorance and discrimination but my own grandson was told at primary school that he would never write legibly as he was left handed. What rubbish. As a left handed teacher myself I often found that I had to challenge that belief in my students...all it took was showing them the techniques they needed and encouraging them to believe they could do it. When at college and learning Hebrew I sailed along whilst my right handed friends found it so difficult. Yey! Welcome to my world! I can remember being told off at school because I could never cut a straight line so finding left handed scissors was such a revelation. I used to make sure that I had a couple of pairs in my desk drawer for my students....

Humberto Ribas 02 Oct 2015

Just a small list of evil, left-handed people: Einstein, Alexander, the Great, Chaplin, Benjamin Franklin, Isaac Newton, Leonardo da Vinci, Beetoven, Michelango, Picassso, Goethe, Gandhi, Joana d'Arc, Madame Curie, Caruso, Mozart, Paganini, Ravel, Schuman, and, last, but not least, myself (in very good company)

Karen Mader 02 Oct 2015

GOOD FOR YOU! SEND THIS TO THAT WOMAN.

Lawrie 02 Oct 2015

I'm a lefty that first went to school in 1956 and although my left handed mother was made to change hands no one ever attempted to change me.
This is either a story of a very deluded teacher OR more likely just an "internet hoax".
Think about it is this really likely to be true in 2015 when just about every US president is left handed or perhaps that's it, must be some American that thinks Obama is sinister and evil??

Louise 02 Oct 2015

Yes, it really is likely to be true in this day and age. A few years back while temping I was approached by a colleague. He had seen me writing and asked how I positioned my paper when writing. It turned out that the teacher of his 5-year old grand-daughter was insisting that - while not trying to make her write right-handed - that she position her paper in a certain way to avoid bumping elbows with the next child. It seemed that that teacher lacked the basic common sense to just get the two children two swap seats.

Barb 02 Oct 2015

Are they living on the 15th century??? I am left handed and when I was in kindergarten, My teacher, a nun, asked my parents if I should be trained in right-handed writing. Thank God, my parents told the teacher to leave me alone, that I would continue to write left handed.
I feel real bad for that boy I Oklahoma being forced to write right-handed.
That is totally archaic!

Jan Hurst-Nicholson 02 Oct 2015

Shocking. If I could find the name and address of the family I would love to send them a copy of The Race (an inspiring story for left-handers).

David White 02 Oct 2015

In Michael Barsley's book, "The Left-Handed Book" {Souvenir Press 1966] he subtitles it as "An investigation into the Sinister History of Left-handedness". The author has dedicated the copy I own with a hand-written fly leaf comment:
To Sinistral Squirrel - the book which serves them RIGHT!
He notes also that Paul McCartney strums his guitar sinistrally. If I understand it correctly, to be dextral is to be right-handed, to be sinistral is to be left-handed.
But there is nothing sinister about it...

Jill Jeanpierre 02 Oct 2015

I was called evil by my 5th grade nun back in 1963. I found out when a classmate told me Sister told all of them not to play with me because left handed people are evil. She failed to remember our 3rd and 4th grade teacher had been left handed. Can't believe how dumb a supposedly educated person can be. Also my daughter checked dozens of devil pictures on internet and only found 1 that looked left handed lol. Hope the mom gets tons of support, I know I'd be very vocal if my child was told such a thing. I probably would have punched teacher for forcing child to use left hand, lol, course she might site that as evidence of my being evil. I'm a lefty and proud of it. Best of luck to this fine family.

Isaiah Jacques 02 Oct 2015

How archaic some people in this world continue to think boggles my mind. She should sue the school and city for discrimination.

Julian Ashley 02 Oct 2015

What do you expect from those Americans.. Most of them don't believe in Evolution either. My father had to sit on his left hand when he was at school. My left handed daughter can play the guitar right handed, even though I got her a left handed electric one. I'll have to restring so that it is a mirror copy of Jimi Hrendrix's, who was the greatest guitarist ever and left handed, and gifted and black..

Birgit Nicolaisen 02 Oct 2015

Hey....I'd say the vast majority of Americans are believers in Evolution and left-handedness. :)

Douglas Ayers 02 Oct 2015

Truly a sad case representing a twisted mentality. There are other more subtle ways that teachers discriminate against left handers. An epiphany moment for me was the day I realized what was really happening. When I was in elementary school, (back in the 60's) those of us who did not have acceptable handwriting on our "handwriting" assignments had to stay in during recess and redo it. Suddenly, one day, I realized that ALL of us redoing our handwriting were left handed. In that moment of clarity I realized that right handed teachers haven't a clue about how to teach a left hander to write. In all fairness they aren't taught anything about it either. So, in the spur of the moment they fall prey to seemingly logical fallacy that one just needs to reverse everything. That might work if EVERYTHING Except not EVERYTHING is reversed.

Lynn 02 Oct 2015

I went to a VERY conservative Catholic school for 1st & 2nd grade - LOTS of backwards/behind-the-times thinking there - but thank goodness, the nuns never tried to change my lefty writing (this was in 1962)! Your comment about the fallacy of "just reverse everything" in teaching a lefty to write rang soooo true. They assumed that since I wrote with the opposite hand, the paper should be slanted opposite to the way the "righties" slanted it. As soon as they moved on from my desk, I would immediately slant it back (with right top corner higher than the left). The result? I have a lovely forward slant to my writing. However, I DO suffer from the "smear problem," as my hand tends to move over what I have just written! I hope that mom not only goes after the administration for being do-nothings, but that she also teaches her child to stand up for himself going through life. Tough to do, but self-confidence is invaluable when standing firm in your convictions in the face of idiocy and ignorance! Sadly, there is no lack of stupidity/ignorance of all sorts in the world - be true to who you are and don't let anyone make you doubt your true self. Be open-minded, but not gullible.

Samantha Belshaw 02 Oct 2015

Is this teacher in Oklahoma been reincarnated from the 1800s!. This is so weird making children to write with their other (right) hand. I can understand the boy's mum being puzzled & outraged by this though. I had a teacher at my primary school back in the early 1980s that tried to get me to write with my right hand too, but it didn't work however many slaps I got on the left hand with a ruler. I am still left handed 2day & I am 40 now. don't let people tell you writing with your left hand is wrong it is normal & a part of life as there are lot of left-handers out there in the world.
thank you
kind regards
Miss Samantha Belshaw

jodi 02 Oct 2015

This made my skin boil. I to am left handed, just like my dad, his dad an now my grandson is left handed. I make sure he remembers that August 13 is Left Handed Day. years ago when I was teaching school I had a book on all things living may be left handed. now reading this book when I was through the book everyone wanted to be left handed. I only had one little girl that had never been told she was special she came up to me afterwards an said thank you an she now was proud she was born left handed. the principal was also left handed an loved the book too. the last I knew Harriet Carter catalog was still selling the book...well worth the money.seems like it was under $ 12

Percy A. Romair 01 Oct 2015

I think those people in Oklahoma needs to be better educated. there is nothing wrong about left handed people. I am left handed, but can also do things with my right hand. I know several people that are left handed, and they are not evil, and neither am I.

Orenda 01 Oct 2015

Hi - I suggest that someone starts a petition on www.change.org to have this teacher disciplined or re-educated or whatever people feel is appropriate.

Orenda, London, UK

Hewlett 01 Oct 2015

what century is this so-called teacher in Oklahoma living in? Thinking like hers was laughed out of existence years and years and years ago. Seems to me Oklahoma better vet its teachers more carefully before letting them try to force our children into molds where they don't fit! There is one leftie in every generation in my family and in over 100 years not one of us has been found to be evil, or stupid or devils or anything else unsavory. how sad is it that ignorance like this teacher's still survives.

Nannie Annie 01 Oct 2015

I think this us terrible. All my family (parents and siblings) were/are left handed and all my children are. My mother was born in 1914 and at school the teacher tried to force her to right righ handed but she refused. I would also have refused but it didn't happen to me. It's not just a left handed thing it is also about the brain. It has been said that left handed children made to write right handed often develope a stammer. Hope this teacher is reprimanded.

brian vaughan 01 Oct 2015

In this day and age how stupid .-this woman's the one with problems she's backward...twisted she's the witch .poor little boy .but it happened to me at my first school some sixty ears ago. But thought that was well dead

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