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Related: Culture Forums, Support Forumsquestion for you southpaws
do you curve your hand this much when you write? I've only noticed southpaws doing this. An ex-boyfriend claimed it was from having to learn to write left-handed on a right-handed desk. What sayeth y'all?
Suich
(10,642 posts)we did that so we wouldn't smear the ink from the fountain pens we were using!
petronius
(26,602 posts)with the fold-up lid and the separate chair). I don't recall encountering the smaller desks or the swing-up-table amphitheater seating until college - and the illegibility of my penmanship was firmly developed by then.
I suspect it's not the desks, it's because it would be difficult to 'push' the pen when writing left to right...
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)and yes, I got lots of ink on it.
Happily, we now have puters and email.
onehandle
(51,122 posts)Demoiselle
(6,787 posts)I remember being surprised when I realized that other lefties often do. It was never an issue .or at least I don't remember if it was...
RebelOne
(30,947 posts)And when I went to school all the desks were for right-handers. The only time I had to curve my hand was when writing on a spiral notebook. Why is it taken for granted that everyone is right-handed?
Arkansas Granny
(31,518 posts)It was considered "wrong". The word sinister means of the left or left handed.
RebelOne
(30,947 posts)but teachers could not change my left-handedness.
Skittles
(153,169 posts)we were all, of course, teaching him all wrong
Dyedinthewoolliberal
(15,577 posts)is of my mother trying to teach me to tie my shoes. She literally said "Aha!" and smiling at me said, 'I realize now what I've been showing you is backwards, for you. No wonder you weren't learning" She figured out that showing me as a left hander would make it easier for me, a left hander, to learn. She was right!
mcar
(42,334 posts)For that reason. I tried the backward thing and it just didn't work. My husband had to teach them.
Skittles
(153,169 posts)if I recall right he said, "What are you all.......stupid?" We thought he wasn't learning because he was autistic.
RebelOne
(30,947 posts)No one taught me when I was a kid and I learned on my own which was backwards and I still do it that way.
murielm99
(30,745 posts)by doing it backwards for me. But I have a lefty brother, so it was easy enough to figure out. Teaching him to bat a baseball was much the same. But I do remember going to speak with his Little League coach about how I had done it. He was nice about it, and found it useful.
I do a lot of things with my left hand anyway. Maybe it comes from learning to play the cello at an early age.
blogslut
(38,002 posts)Proper cursive inclines to the right and it's cramp-inducing for a lefty to write that way. In 1960's penmanship, vertical or 'back-handed' cursive was forbidden. There were two ways to deal with it: Curl the hand over the top of the line or turn the paper diagonally.
magical thyme
(14,881 posts)but curve my hand specifically to avoid the smudging.
blogslut
(38,002 posts)I think, with me, penmanship was mostly taught in second/third grade. That's when I adopted the diagonal paper thing. After third grade, my handwriting techniques went all over the place, back-hand, vertical, print only...
As an adult, I write in a mish-mash of print/cursive that's mostly vertical with a wee lean to the right for my signature.
riderinthestorm
(23,272 posts)They both curl their arms that way when they write. They're 26 and 17...
Tuesday Afternoon
(56,912 posts)I always had a left-handed desk in school if that has anything to do with, maybe.
LumosMaxima
(585 posts)magical thyme
(14,881 posts)drags your hand over the writing, so you curve your hand to keep it from smudging the ink or pencil. If we wrote right to left, it would be the righties having to curve their hands.
Skittles
(153,169 posts)with my right hand, going to the left (using block letters) and I don't touch the writing at all - I will say however that when I curve my hand it does seem easier on my wrist - a more natural positon
davidpdx
(22,000 posts)I don't curve my hand.
Response to Skittles (Original post)
Chan790 This message was self-deleted by its author.
Munificence
(493 posts)and I bend my wrist like this.
Outside of spirals, ink smears and right handed desk complicating the problem I think it boils down to the fact that we are "pushing a pen" across the paper to write where right-handed folks get to "pull the pen". If you are pushing something in your finger tips and requiring detail (like writing) then you need to "cup" your wrist to add stability for accuracy.
If you are pulling something with your fingers then it "flows" easier by not having a cupped hand.
Skittles
(153,169 posts)that does make sense
and "bend your wrist" does seem more accurate than "curve your hand"
KatyaR
(3,445 posts)My mom taught me to write. I don't do the curl thing, thank goodness, I think that would be really painful after a while. I also can write beautifully perfect cursive backwards. I used to take notes like that when I was in college and then go back and rewrite them the "right" way. I had clearer notes and it reinforced my learning as well.
Long live lefties!!!
trixicopper
(62 posts)When we were taught cursive writing we learned to tilt the paper. To the left for righties and to the right for lefties. I don't write backhanded, but I do always wind up with ink on my little finger.
I did have a teacher in elementary school who tried to make me use my right hand. Until my mother heard about it and told her to leave me alone. Thanks mom!
Skittles
(153,169 posts)my mum did the same with my autistic brother - said if he wanted to write with his left hand then bloody well let him
DFW
(54,405 posts)But, then, Bill Clinton's handwriting is nearly illegible, too!
Skittles
(153,169 posts)Last edited Thu Feb 27, 2014, 12:45 AM - Edit history (1)
we write badly because we think faster than we write
here's a pic of Clinton signing:
DFW
(54,405 posts)But he asked I give it back to him, so I did. I do have a handwritten note from him that he wrote me after he left office. When it came, it took me about half an hour to decipher. I thought he had written it in Urdu at first.
Enrique
(27,461 posts)i'm not sure why we do it that way
Skittles
(153,169 posts)mcar
(42,334 posts)But most of the other lefties I know do. I don't know why I don't. I sure get tired of smearing ink all over the page, though.
myrna minx
(22,772 posts)Lydia Leftcoast
(48,217 posts)Right-handers were taught to slant the paper with the right-hand corner up, and left-handers were taught to write with the left-hand corner up.
When I arrived in college and encountered those chairs with writing arms for the first time, I solved the problem by sitting next to an empty chair and using THAT arm as a writing surface. Nowadays, I notice, they have a few left-handed chairs in most classrooms.
By the way, the only things I do left-handed are writing, eating, and using a needle and thread. I'm not SO strongly left-handed that I need to tie my shoes or knit "backwards" or buy a left-handed scissors.
Left-handed supposedly occurs in a constellation with musical ability, language ability, allergies, and math. I was cheated out of the math.
lunatica
(53,410 posts)She wrote the same way right handed people write without curving her hand. Maybe the desks in her school were not the same shape as the modern desks are. She would have learned to write 80 years ago.
Orrex
(63,215 posts)I simply voice my will and the words are scribed on the page by wisps of unholy fire.
Skittles
(153,169 posts)YES INDEED
LibertyLover
(4,788 posts)and yes, in part it was right handed desks, although lack of proper instruction when learning cursive writing also played into it. It's also to keep from smearing the ink. I will say that when I was doing Middle Egyptian in university, being left-handed was an advantage when we had to write hieroglyphics from right to left. For once it was all the rightees in the class who were smearing ink on their hands and not me.
GreenEyedLefty
(2,073 posts)I write like Bill Clinton, except my writing is legible.