Comment on insert mental health condition here

gandalf_der_12te@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• StarvingMartist@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I remember my dad would tell me his teachers (mean ass nuns) would make him put his knuckles on the desk and smash that shit with a ruler until he stopped using his left hand

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  • fartographer@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I remember my classmate telling me that they did the same to her in Louisiana public elementary school in the late '90s. The teacher even told her that it was because she was using “the devil’s hand.”

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    • scytale@piefed.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Can confirm. My kindergarted teacher in the early ‘90s slapped my hand with a ruler. Not sure if it was for religious reasons (there was no indication) or she just thought it was wrong. I write with my right hand now and my penmanship is shit.

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    • Auli@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      80s I was told I was holding it wrong. Don’t known if I would have been left handed as penmanship from both hands sucks.

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  • gandalf_der_12te@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    i had one like these at school too. i often think about whether i should visit her again … just as an “update” sort of years later …

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  • notwhoyouthink@lemmy.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Holy shit, I’m so sorry your dad went through that. Like how is smashing a child’s hand less of a problem than that child using their ‘other’ hand to write?

    Honestly, I’d really like to know what people were so concerned with. All I ever heard was ‘it’s not the correct way’, and the only evidence my mind can stretch to support this is based on the fact that sure, it’s a right handed world and certain things are more efficiently and even safely used with a right hand. I’ve also heard a few cultural reasons regarding cleanliness but these are from cultures far removed from mine and obv never given as an actual reason (to me directly) why using one’s right hand over their left is preferred.

    Idk shit like this and many other examples just remind me of how quickly others turn to control and rigidity when faced with something they don’t understand/doesn’t ‘fit’ into their mental presets. This post officially has me in my feelings this morning.

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    • StarvingMartist@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I mean it was jersey in the 70s, he’s never been too broken up about it

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  • mx_smith@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Yep my mother and grandfather both went through that shit. It made my grandfather very ambidextrous.

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• notwhoyouthink@lemmy.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  share.google/ZIV41eaL04Agou1zB

  Ah since some of us are sharing our childhood experiences with being left handed:

  I am ambidextrous, like many lefties. While learning to write my letters in Kindergarten (age 5 for non-US peeps), my teacher noticed that I’d switch hands when the one writing got tired. She didn’t like this at all and kept telling me that I needed to choose one. She actually made quite a stink about it so I chose my left, idk why the left specifically.

  I still write with my left, despite trying to retrain back to writing with both at different times in my life. I feel like a mini superpower was taken from me.

  Interestingly enough, I’ve noticed that my large motor skills are best used with my right side (arm, leg, hand), and my small motor skills with the left. I think it’s a leftover from being truly ambidextrous, or it may be common amongst left handed people. Idk…the very few others I’ve asked seem to be left handed/sided exclusively.

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  • TubularTittyFrog@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    nobody is really wired to me one hand or the other, we can all learn to be ambidextrous. your are that way because you just feel more comfortable/experienced doing certain things with one hand than the other, it’s a formation of neuromuscular habit.

    it’s just a matter of practice, but yes, as children the adults around us often DEMAND we be one or the other. just like they demand gendered behaviors, etc. And children conform because adults like conformity.

    it’s interesting as an adult, like getting coaching and having to re-learn basic bio mechanics you ‘assume’ are some sort of default, because well, nobody ever told/taught you you could/should be doing things differently. like there are different way to hold pens for different styles of writing…

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    • AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I don’t believe that’s true - handedness is a real thing. You might be able to learn to perform well enough with the other at something with practice, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a naturally dominant hand for most people.

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  • callyral@pawb.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    She didn’t like this at all and kept telling me that I needed to choose one.

    i hate it when someone sees something cool and unusual and immediately feels the need to correct it… as if it were a negative thing.

    oh - a kindergartner is so good at writing that they can write with either hand, and you see a problem in that?? it’s such a sad way to think! it’s counterproductive pedantry

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  • binarytobis@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I think if I had to choose a hand I would choose the right, just because we write left to right and I wouldn’t want to track my hand through fresh pencil and pen marks.

    My friend in highschool was left handed and his left hand was always completely covered in graphite.

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    • notwhoyouthink@lemmy.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Yeah I definitely didn’t think it through, because too small lol.

      I too suffered the graphite mark and even had it transfer to my face via scratching an itch. Very embarrassing as a kid!

      I also had a tough time with spiral notebooks, markers, and craft scissors.

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  • mnemonicmonkeys@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    While your teacher most likely acted out for entirely wrong reasons, there’s some logic to picking a preferred side and sticking with it, especially while. It allows you to devote more resources to develop better fine motors skills than you could get if you trained both hands

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• Duamerthrax@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Looks like another victim of leaded gas. /s

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• glibg10b@lemmy.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Was this survey taken among alive people? If so, it might be subject to survivorship bias. Left-handed people might die earlier on average.

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  • walden@wetshav.ing ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    They asked the deceased, too.

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