The Educator (Volume 45) - IAMPETH

At Forest Park School, Fort
" Wayne, Indiana, the left-handed children
are receiving very fine instractions.
The accompanying photograph
shows a left-handed club in the Forest
Park School, which meets every
Monday afternoon to practice writing
and to work out their left-handed
problems together. These pupils have
mutual problems and understandings.
Their get-together is not only beneficial
from a standpoint of handwriting,
but also from a social standpoint,
and we predict that some of
the friendships formed in this club
will be very lasting.;
Left-handedness is the exception
rather than the rule and it is the
duty of teachers to try to find out
the "whys" and "wherefores" of the
left-handed children.
The first thing which teachers
should do is to determine if the child
is really left-handed. If he is lefthanded
he will, more than likely, do
many things such as play ball, comb
his hair, etc., with his left hand. Mrs.
Smith believes that this type of children
should be encouraged to write
well with their left hands with their
papers properly placed and the pens
pointing over the left shoulders.
If a child does everything but write
with his right hand, it is possible
that he could secure better results
with his right hand. Some teachers
encourage children to change over if
possible, when they first start to
school. It is not well to force children
to make the change. Teachers
today are hesitant in making changes.
There is a possibility that an injury
may be sustained by children forced
to change. We as right-handed people
do not know just how much shock
can be caused.
Dr. Prank N. Freeman, in Correlated
Teachers' Manual No. 1, sums
it up in the following words: "Some
scientists believe they have evidence
which proves that to force a really
left-handed person to write with his
right hand is injurious to his nervous
system and may cause speech difficulty.
The safest practice is to try
gently to induce the child who uses
his left hand to use his right—first
at the blackboard and then at the
seat. If he yields to persuasion without
difficulty it may be assumed that
he is not strongly left-handed. If he
resists strongly or comes back again
and again to his left hand it is better
to allow him to use it.
"A great deal of the difficulty in
left-handed writing is due to the fact
that the child is not taught to take
the position suited to the left hand.
He places the paper in the position
for right-handed writing and then
twists his hand over above the v^riting
or shoves the pen along. He
should, of course, place his paper in
the reverse position from that required
in right-handed writing.
"If a child in the intemiediate or
upper grades writes fairly well %vith
his left hand, in the proper position,
he should not be disturbed. If he
writes in the incorrect position an
The Educator
attempt should be made to induce him
either to use his right hand or to
adopt the correct position with his
left hand."
There was a time when teachers
tried to change all left-handed students
to write right-handed. This
was a failure in many instances, especially
where the student was decidedly
left-handed. In some cases
students did learn to write with the
right hand in the writing class and
used the left hand out of school.
Teachers today realize that one can
be a good writer by using either the
right or the left hand. They also
realize that the change from one
hand to the other requires a lot of
effort on the part of the students.
After determining that a child is
left-handed one of the first things
naturally to do is to get correct position.
The second important thing
is to encourage and to instill confidence.
The third thing is to teach
the forms of the letters and movement
in the same earnest manner in
which you teach right-handed students.
Give attention to position at the board.
17
This second-grade girl is showing
the proper position for the left-handed
student. The top of the paper is
tilted towards the right, just the
opposite of that of the right-handed
student.