I used to get smacked with a ruler in private school. At one point, I was perfectly ambidextrous (but had to keep that hidden from sight). Since I could not practice using my left hand while being watched, which was almost all the time, I ended up developing an advantage while writing with my right and ended up becoming right-handed. I can still write with my left, although not as fast as with my right and it's slightly wobbly... I can cut my food with both hands and hold my fork with both hands and will unconsciously alternate while I am eating, which confuses people.

Both of my parents were right handed. I am left-handed. All three of my boys are also left handed!

I am a right-handed mother of 5. My oldest and youngest are boys, both left-handed. All 3 girls are right-handed.

Ignorance, vanity, greed, and fear are the ills of our society. When people don't know something or know about something why does our society hide, sneak, oppress, or want?

Sad that left handed, right handed, or ambidextrous people could not celebrate their differences and share with one another the positives of our gifts. Being right handed I find it fascinating to see a left handed person write, swing a bat, throw a ball, paint a drawing, use any tool or utensil. When I try to use my left hand, I am wondering what are the thought processes and calculations my brain is going through and the difference a left handed person processing. I wonder if the brain is calculating everything in reverse image. If so, how does it do that?

It is amazing to me as you can tell. I always wonder how some things work and this is one of them.

I remember in grade school the powers that be tried to force me to write right-handed. I still remember having a wire contraption strapped onto my right hand to help learn to hold a pencil and to steady my hand when writing. My mother, who was left handed insisted that they stop and to let me write left handed. My handwriting was so beautiful that I did not have to sign anything, they know it was mine. The main problem I had and still have is being left handed growing up in a right handed world. Some things I do left handed and other things right handed. It really messed with me. I still cannot play baseball. I bat right handed, catch left handed (mitt on right hand) but throw right handed. I would catch the ball with the gloved right hand but had to remove it in order to throw. Never won a game. LOL The good thing was I could copy my mother's handwriting to a "T" and wrote excuses to get out of classes.

I don't understand it either. It's like why are lefties opressed when it's scientifically proven we think with the right side of our brains. If we are truly right in mind is it really a birth defect to be left handed

I am left hand and my teacher used to change the pencil all the time and I put it right back. Later in life if someone mention turn left or right I had to stop and think. She messed me up. I now can write and do things with both hands although I am still left handed. I don't think the righties could adapt like us left handers. We are able to adapt to anything. What is so odd about that ? Nothing, we are good. I don't have any problem using either hand.

What I cannot understand is:

why are there so many of THESE WEIRD RIGHT HANDED PEOPLE

Who's to say that being right handed is not a birth defect or brain damage? This article is stupid.

I did my Doctoral Dissertation on left Handed People. I found that True left handers, Ipsilateral Sinistrals, were better at Spacial Reasoning, While Contralateral Sinistrals, the ones who curve their hand while writing, did not do as well as right handers on Spacial Reasoning tests. The Curve handed lefties were not meant to be that way, something happened in the womb, to switch the brains lateral preference. Parents and teachers who try to switch left handers are damanging their brains, ever so slightly...I hope people stop doing that. Using both hands is not good either, the brain wants to specialize. Write with one hand only.

WAY back in the day.....

People ate with one hand and wiped with the other. The "unclean" hand was very carefully managed so as to not touch anybody else. Guess which and was "unclean".

Merely back in the day, the Big Man, cheif, Lord, of what ever the head honcho was called would , with some regularity, need to eat with his men. His warriotrs, or dukes or suh cheiftans or what ever. The most dangerous (to the big man that is) sits to his right so that the honcho can with ease strike with his right hand using a carving knofe say? Now a dangerous underling who is left handed will be able to defend himself and may even have an advantage since the big man feels safe with his most dangerous underling sitting safely at his right.

This the seat immediately to the right of the head of a formal table is still a positiojn of both honor and (now) conversational danger.

I only write (paint/draw) with my left hand. Some tools are right handed so I have to use the other hand, such as scissors. I use other tools with my right hand, such as hammers and it feels weird left handed. I have no sisters and three younger brothers. None are lefties. I think the Catholic nuns tried changing it in kindergarten but it didn't work out, nor did I get a punishment. I don't curve, I turn the paper.

Despite living in a world designed to accomodate right handed people, I consider being left handed to be a gift.

Every person has a dominate eye, if you were born with a right dominate eye it will be natural for a child to pick up and throw with his or her right hand. The problem is when you are left eye dominant at birth and a child starts to pick up the ball to throw with the left hand, its the parents who are teaching their kids to become right handed. If you are left eye dominate and were taught to use your right hand, you would be cross dominate. This is why cross eye dominate baseball players will have a better batting average, their dominate eye is closer to the ball then the right eye. Same go's for putts when golfing. To find out which eye is dominate, point to a small object at least 20 yards away. If you are right handed, point to the target with both eyes open. Once you feel you are on target close your left eye, you should be right on target or very close. Now open your left eye, with both eyes open aim at the target again. Close your right eye and you should be off considerably, take turns closing right and left eye. One of your eyes will be right on target, this will let you know if you are cross dominate

This is quite interesting to read the comments herein, all in support of left-handed folk, proudly mentioning how many children are left vs. right, and commenting that left-handed is a gift. And all rightly so. But such would not have been the case, even 50 or 60 years ago. We've learned, and are ashamed, daresay we laugh, at our former ignorance.

It was only in the last century that children were beaten, abused, and tortured for being left-handed. Many of you recall being mistreated as such. Religion too, upheld left-hands as the "hand of The Devil." I am personally acquainted with men and women, born as late as the 1940's, each has his or her story of their torments.

But just a bit off-topic: How many of you can draw a correlation between the abuse of lefties, and the abuse of those persons born homosexual? Perhaps, some of you may be able to make the comparison of the undeserved abuse, but some may not. And why is that?

My hope is that in some decades hence, people shall discuss homosexual children with the same commonplace normality that you all venture toward lefties. It will happen. I'm not a homosexual--indeed a heterosexual, Catholic, Republican (how do you like that?).

The article and comments gave me pause for thought.....

In regards to writing only: why do some people hold a writing implement like a clubbed fist, while others hold it deftly between the thumb and fore and middle fingers? Manual dexterity and motor skills? Do they show any statistical difference between handedness distributions?

Curious - gotta get that government grant ; D

Hot in Miami:

I must comment on your quote: "I can cut my food with both hands and hold my fork with both hands and will unconsciously alternate while I am eating, which confuses people."

First, about cutting your food with both hands, may I suggest you use a knife. It's easier and keeps your hands cleaner. Second, holding your fork with both hands is quite easily solved. Use a smaller fork.

By the way, for those who are interested, keep a tab on actors and actresses. It may be true that left-handedness is a trait of only 10% of the population, but in the acting community, it is much, much higher. See for yourself; you'll be amazed.

@Richard H. Pratt: What, in your dissertation, did you say about those of us who write both ways (curved hand, as well as not). I find that about 50% of the time I write "curved handed", the rest of the time i write as the mirror image of a righthanded person. My penmanship both ways is quite legible ( my wife has commented before that she loves reading things that I've written because of my penmanship). To me switching from one to the other is unconscious, I don't realize im doing it.

My left hand was never an issue for anyone, not my teachers, not anyone. Why is it that right handers seem to believe they no so much about someone's left hand.

If you believe a left handed person can't do something because of their hand you will make it so.

I had a younger brother who got sent out of his private school classroom while his classmates took calligraphy lessons because he was told he couldn't do calligraphy by a right handed teacher. At that time I was self-employed in my own successful calligraphy business using left-handed pens b-cuz no one ever told me I couldn't. dah! Left hand calligraphy pens and stenographers notepads are the two adaptions I have made to live a full life. Ask President Obama if being President is harder because he's a leftie. Ask Prince William? Leonardo DaVinci? The body heals itself; when my left hand was out of commission my right hand compensated, end of study. My left-hand is a no-brainer, non-issue. it is and it does. One thing I know is that I am neither left-brained or right-brained. I use both sides of my brain equally and I do not feel fully challenged unless I am engaged in stimulating work that engages both sides. I have always blamed my extraordinary creativity/artistry on my left hand. I've done my own survey of my friends and they are too. We are in great company, us lefties!

here is a fascinating factoid - 70% of Naval Aviators are left handed. Half of all Air Force pilots are left handed. 55% of the astronauts who were on Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab and who were pilots or mission commanders on the Shuttle were left handed. 50% of Cosmonauts are left handed. 45% of general aviation pilots are left handed. 30% of baseball players are left handed.

There is a huge correlation between vocations and avocations which require a spatial kinesthetic sense and left-handedness.

Does not make us better or worse than anyone else - its a very interesting correlation.

The bias against using the left hand comes from the silliness of superstition-Christian type in the USA. I suspect teachers were forcing me to learn to write with my right hand. After time and myriad complaints I think my dad paid the school a visit. After that they left me alone. I can write with my right hand, but I have to think about it. For me, I bat and golf, back-handed, for me-probably why I could never get my legs to be part of the 'motor'.

I suspect my younger brother is the same way-although parents were divorced when he started school. He cannot write cursive and has to block print (with right hand) and its still hard to read.

I jokingly point out left-handers are the only one's in their right minds. :)

six to one half a dozen to the other Scott.

same thing

I say, six dozen of one, half of an other.

I have an identical twin and we are both righthanded and ambidextrous. Baseball was great cause we could mess up the pitcher after batting right one inning and then left the next. But I still don't see the point about all this. Left is left and right is right, so why keep looking for something thats not there?

Well my older sister and two older brothers were all lefthanded My three younger brothers were all right handed and guess what I throw lefthanded and bat righthanded

I was born on leap year 2/29/52, red-headed, left-handed, to a father who was an April Fools child who's father was born on St. Patty's Day. Does that count for anything?

As a lefty, its a right handed world. Commercial doors open for rightys, even toilets have the flusher on the wrong side

Amen!!!!

I would imagine I'm ambidextrous (sp- same reason). I agree with the person that said "I use my right hand for the mouse and the scissors". I also bowl right hand, write left handed, and bat a baseball right handed. I guess I use whatever feel right.

Thanks for the info. When I was a child my father bought a left-handed mit that I was suppose to use for t-ball, but I threw like a girl with my left and had to switch to a righty's mit. It was much better but I was always ribbed about it by a lot of people, especially teachers, and never knew there was a term for it because I'd never heard the term Cross Dominant before.

That's interesting. When asked what hand I use I've always had a hard time explaining that I use both but I'm not ambidextrous. For sports I'm right handed, for fine motor skills I tend to be left handed (eating, writing). There are so many exceptions thought; I'm right handed for use of scissors and computer mouse, for example. I'm not really ambidextrous so I never new how to answer that. A physical therapist recently told me that I'm left hand dominant; determined by what hand I eat and write with. By the way, my parents, my siblings, my wife and three boys are all right handed.

My parents - both righties, had three kids, two girls and a boy. My older sister is a true lefty. I am right handed. My younger brother is pretty ambidexterous. He writes left handed, bats switch (and from what I recall had similar batting averages on each side), throws right handed, among other things. It's just funny that two right handed parents had two kids who were (mostly) lefties.

I'm both right and left. How did I get so screwed up? Does the author give any opinion? My parents didn't try to change me, just thought I was odd.

I have a daughter, 5, who is the ONLY left-handed person on both sides of the family. My husband is one of ten siblings and they are all right handed as well as their kids and I'm an only child and I and my parents are right-handed.

I am a leftie with two write-handed parents. I think lefties do somethings (like useing a computer mouse) because they have to addapt to it. I have done many research papers and long talks(and a few arrguements) with people weather left-handness is a nature or nurture thing. I have to say I believe it is a nature thing as I have a right-handed sister. We were raised by the same parents and if it truelly is a nurture thing, wouldnt i have also been right-handed. When I was in school my teacher tried to make me right-handed. To this day I use scissors with my right hand. I think us lefties are special in our own way. LEFTIES RULE

Like "Old Paul", I use which ever hand feels right for any given application. Although I only write with my left and use right-handed scissors exclusively. I've found if I think about it too much, I can't do anything with either hand...

I have identical twin uncles (mirror). They tried to force the lefty into a righty - it didn't work (late 1950s). Actually cause some major phych issues later in life. My elementary school tried to change me and my mom and grandma told them no (thank goodness); this was 1974-1975.

As in the article, I've heard that being a lefty was a sign you were to have been a twin. I can believe it, as there are 4 generations of twins in my family. It's also interesting that so many Presidents have/are lefties. If you watch TV/movies carefully, you'll spot a ton of left-handed actors too.

I object to the entire premise. Since lefties are great at math and science (not "just" music and art) why not assume that righties are brain damaged?

Yes, I noticed that also. I'm an engineer and at least 50% of the engineerings I work with on a regular basis are left handed.

Bruce H.

I'm a left handed molecular biologist. I've always found more left handed people in the sciences than the published aveages of other fields. I read that the side of the brain a left dominant people uses is gear more towards math and science. I have no idea if this idea is backed up with repeatable science but it makes alot of sense given the higher numbers of us in the science and engineering fields. Also I found myself agreeing with the article where it stated we learn at an early age to deal with a right handed world or figured out how to "re-arrange" things to work for us. That may make us puzzle solver earlier than right handers but that's just my theory. :)

Definitely noticed the number of lefties in engineering fields, myself included. Recently, I had a grad level math class that was an elective course taken by engineering grad students. The professor looked up and noticed that all six students sitting across the front row were lefties, as well as the instructor himself. That would be an extremely unlikely event if the 90/10 mix of the general population were in effect. Lefties must certainly gravitate toward engineering/sciences. Of us four kids, two of us are lefties. Both have BS and MS in engineering and work as practicing engineers.

Well I'm a lefty and if it's hereditary I'd like to know who passed it on to me. Both my parents were right handed. My sister was right handed and my brother is right handed. My grandparents on both sides were all right handed. I'm the only lefty going that far back. My mother tried to get me to change hands when I was first starting to write until the doctor told her there was nothing wrong with me and to leave me alone. As to the theory of left handed people being geared towards math and science,math was always one of my best subjects in school and I have worked in the accounting field for 40 years so that theory fits me.

As a lefty, I was never made to feel bad, but special. Interesting comments about lefties being in math and science fields. I always heard they tended to be artistic, i.e. Paul McCartney, a famous lefty

DAZ55, I'm the last of 6 kids, all the rest were right-handed, and there are no lefties anywhere in our background for as many generations as our parents and grandparents knew of. I feel honored to be the only one graced with left-handedness.

Half of my Grandmother's, and my Mother's, and my children are lefties. My Uncle was "changed" very young and stuttered all the rest of his life. I refused to switch hands, got slapped a lot, called names, punished, but I persevered. They never bothered my brother. He's a lefty too. Teachers made me turn my paper the other way so I would not write "upside down" like so many lefties do.

I also noted that a lot of mechanics, engineers, etc. are lefites, and the best of the bunch. I love to figure out things, and fix what others throw away. By the way, I also worked with machanics, and I am a lady. I guess our brains are wired differently.

I am left handed and right eyed dominant. When I broke my left hand I found that I was just as comfortable with my right, in most tasks, as my left. My great-grandmother had 3 sets of twins, my grandmother included, all right-handed, but then they were living in an era when lefties were forced to change. My grandfather was left handed and was never forced to change. I had one cousin left-handed and now a grandson lefty. There are 5 sets of twins , in our family and none are lefties. At times I found being left-handed frusterating but learned to adapt. I was a dental assistant for many years and found being left-handed to my advantage. The first time I found a left-handed laddle I was so excited the store employee thought I was crazy. I have no theory why I am left-handed it just happened.

I too am a left handed engineer. I had quit a few classes where there was a 50/50 split between the lefties and righties. I also work with a number of left handed people. I always thing that it is funny when a rightie picks up a pair of left handed scissors and tries to use them. They make a big deal about how difficult it is, but us lefties can usually pick up what ever pair of scissors are available and use them with no problem.

I have seen this. I am an electrical engineer, and have seen this exact thing where over 50% of the group is left-handed. . I am one of three daughters in my family. My mother was left-handed until she was forced to change, and my daughter is left-handed.

I am also an left handed engineer and I completely agree. Over the years many of my friends and colleagues in engineering were also left handed. Especially in the classroom during testing it was very obvious. I got used to taking exams on right handed desks very quickly because the left handed desks would always fill up!

I never really paid attention to this except one meeting I had on an automation project in a certain very high-tech (as in: sending experiments into space) medical industry company. At the table we had an ex-military civilian nuclear scientists, two computer scientists, 2 automation/robotics techs and 2 mechanical enginners. All but one in this group were left-handed (one computer guy).

In the study I explained above, where I compared 3 handedness types, we found many of the true left handed people were much smarter in Spacial Reasoning, an ability that is essential in Math and Engineering. There seems to be an advantage, to the Sinistral brain wiring, for Math and Science.

Laura - You are so correct! I work in the Biology Department of a large university and have always noticed a staggering amount of left-handed scientists in the dept. As a 'lefty' myself, it's very exciting to see my 'theory' about the high number of left-handed scientists as a reality. For most of my life, I've never looked at it as a 'handicap' since we often must adapt if we are to move forward. Like others on here, sports can use either hand, but eating and writing - strictly left-handed. When I was young, my grandmother got very frustrated with me trying to teach me how to use scissors (they didn't have left-handed ANYTHING back then). Learning to tie my shoes took forever and it was actually my younger sister who taught me how - BUT to this day I do it 'backwards' and people are still intrigued when they see my tying my shoes (embarassing!!). There are NO other lefties in my background so I don't feel there's enough evidence to show this as being 'genetic'.

Lefthandedness involves different parts of the brain and includes overall better abilities at spatial reasoning. Hence architects engineers, sciences, and even people in social skill arenas which require the ability to have holistic views for success (politics, law) often tend toward having more left handedness.

I surmise genetics plus the initial formative years spent in a world designed and catered to those of righthandedness helps create more synaptic pathways and in turn a greater holistic spatial type of intelligence: people who can 'see or think' things from multiple perspectives. This ability whether in ambidextrous or lefthandness cross pollinated by a righthanded dominant world leads to strengths in holistic thinking.

A mixed ambi left dominant. Fine skills prefer left (write, eat, brush teeth) can throw and bat both L and R (more strength). I don't recall eye dominance but I theorize for physical activities that eye dominance combined with handedness relates to the final choices made in different sports, tasks, and activities.

Interestingly there isn't as much of difference of skills to test 'footedness' or 'leggedness' but, as example I punt a football with left and place kick right. So go figure!

Another test I'd like to see results from would be differences in the geographic home southern hemisphere versus northern hemisphere (i.e. toilet bowl swirls opposite) also roadway data from countries with opposite rights of way orientation. Just thinking holistically - haha. Read Buckminster Fuller and check out his "map" of world. It's all a matter of perspective and 'training'. As a society we get conditioned to think within our boxed / packaged perspective.

I am a leftie. I've found that us left handers tend to be more ambidextrous than right handed people. I do just as much with my right hand as I do with my left hand. Only thing I can't do with my right hand, well very well anyway is write.

I do agree to an extent. Am currently in a travelling play in Ireland/UK involving 4 of a cast. Myself and the lead lady are both lefties. She teaches geography, I currently as a mature student am studying geographical science. Both sciences, and both of us are heavily into the arts. They do say, again, that lefties tend to enter the scientific and artistic fields. Doesn't make me any better of an actor though....

When I was in school, there weren't any right-handed scissors! So, I still use scissors with my right hand. Many things are made for right handed people. Can-openers, for one. Many other things too. Remember Phone booths? Everything placed for the right handed person. Being a knitter, I always wondered why, when sewing a seam on a sweater that the yarn unravels. I didn't know the reason until I read the comment on sewing thread! Must be the same thing. Every few stitches you have to twist the yarn or thread as you go. Many lefties appear to be ambidexturous because, out of necessity we have been forced to use things invented to be used by right handers. Even doors in public rest rooms are hinged onn the wrong side.

I know what you mean, I hated those left handed scissors also, and hated when they tried to make me bat left handed, and bowl left handed. It's so funny, I had been bowling right handed for years and my father bought me a bowling ball and had it plugged for a left hand. I couldnt bowl at all with my left hand. I played baseball at school, and when the coach found out I was left handed, he wanted me to bat left handed, like it was required. I couldnt bat left handed to save my life. My thought was use whatever hand is the best for whatever it is you are doing. I write left handed and do everything else with my right hand. I never understood the hype about being left handed.

I am offended that there is only one appliance that is always supposed to be used with the left hand. The toilet.

Thank God, finally an inteligent answer. I am left handed forced to wright right handed. Consequently, I catch the ball left handed, throw the ball left handed, kick the ball right footed, shoot a rifle and bow and arrow left handed (left eye dominent), etc. I have learned to swith my dominate eye to shoot left or right handed.

That's right, right handed people utilize the left side of their brain, so that means left handed people are the only ones in their right mind.

LOL! A Veteran, that's what my lefthanded brother says!

A lefthanded person living in a righthanded dominant world causes forced cross pollinating of synaptic pathways hence better brains (in certain types of intelligence) as they have more connection sort of like a cloth with a higher thread count. : D

Now I need to apply for a government grant for a few million to test "leggedness" and "footedness"!

I am a mother of three left-handed daughters. Neither my husband or I are lefties, nor are our parents. I always wondered if 3 of my 4 daughters were lefties because of the way I handed things to them as babies. Two of them are very gifted in math and sciences and the other is a very talented artist. Usually it is the lefties that feel left out but our right-handed daughter feels "different".

See my comment below.

Kite flying? Nose picking? Ping-Pong?

If by 'ping-pong' you mean ping-pong, then no.

I am a leftie, both my parents and my brothers are righties and no one recalls anyone else in the family that was ever a leftie. I only write with my left hand. I do everything else with my right. I believe this is because my parents tried to "change" me when I was little. I remember coming home from kindergarden crying because my scissors wouldn't cut. My mom had purchased left handed scissors but I was trying to use them with my right hand. I have two children my son is right handed and my daughter is presenting left handed. She tries to use both but mainly she is using her left.

I am a left handed mother of 6. First born (daughter) is left handed.1year latter had a son (right handed)then son,daughter,son, daughter all left handed .Of the nine Grandkids 3 are lefties.My husband is a rightie but his mother was a lefty yet was very ambidextrous with many things.People are usually very surprised when they hear that 5 of the 6 are lefties.

Actually the lost twin theory has some merit. Both of my kids (born 5 years apart) were verified twins via ultrasound, but neither twin survived the 1st trimester. Today's technology makes it much easier to know that, whereas 50 years ago a mother never would have known.

I am a left-dominant, and noone else in my family (going back a generation) with the exception my nephew is a lefty or left-dominant.

MY THEORY is it has to do with how the fetus is lying or oriented in the womb.

I remember during elementary school in the late 70s a teacher tried to make me write with my right hand. My mom put a stop to that the next day!

Does anyone remember if you were left hand-handed and the desks were connected, you had to sit to the far left? That was to prevent scuffles over desk space!

Left-handed and glad to be...let's embrace our differences.

Oh yeah....I agree with "A Veteran"...leave us alone.

KnKmama - Not to mention the little single desks in High School with the arm rest for right handers, lefties had to sit with their arm dangling in the air, if there WAS a desk for left handers it was stuck off in a supply closet somewhere and nobody ever knew where it was. I could go on and on......in the military an M-14 and an M-16 ejects the hot spent cartridge out the right side landing right on a lefthanders cheek causing a pretty nasty burn, happened to me enough that I ended up firing an M-60 Machinegun. And being a carpenter, a hand held electric Skil-saw spits the sawdust right in a left handers face, but away from a right hander. Three ring binders, give me a break.

Who cares whether a person is right or left-handed? The world seems to be geared toward right-handedness, and apparently lefties have to adjust. So be it! I'm right-handed and one of my very best friends in the world is left-handed. Does that "say" anything about either one of us?????? A person is whoever a person is!

Carol you are so correct. I think you hit it right on, and if you take left handedness out of your post and put in the word race or sexual preference you have a statement that is universal. People are people, and what does being left handed or white, black, brown, red or gay or straight have to do with anything. A person is whoever a person is. Good post.

Carol,

I could say the same to women. Sure the world is "geared" towards men. But who cares, right? Just adjust. Or what about those handicapped people? I want those prime parking spots for myself. They just need to learn to walk like the rest of us.

s/

Your comment was asinine Carol. Complete idiocy. I get the point of people being who they are but there's a one sidedness here that's the epitome of how this world operates. You can preach about it all you want until it effects you. Then the sermon changes.

Try sitting in a college desk that is built for right handed people. you have a half table top that is on the right side of the desk. If you write with your left hand, your arm hangs off the desk making it a pain to take notes. They usually have 1 desk in the entire room that is made for lefties, but nobody wants to use it if they are left handed because it gets moved around all the time. You come into class and find the one desk sitting in the back , the next day its up front, or in the middle, or it may be moved out of the room completely. If you move around all the time, you become the big wierdo in the class, because most of the students have no idea why you keep moving around the class, its customary to pick where you are going to sit and take that seat everyday, as most colleges now require collaborative learning and you have to group up with the same people everyday. You would think on a college campus they would consider making desks that can be utilized by both. In fact, I feel sorry for the handicapped people because there is usually only one desk that the chair is apart from the desk, and those get moved around also. You can see the look on their face when they walk in wondering where there chair got moved to or if it is still in the room. They should make all seats detached and have table tops curing the problem for lefties, handicapped people, and obese students that cant fit in the attached chairs. The stadium type seating has the right handed half table top desks also.

Both of my parents were right-handed. I am righthanded, except I bat & play minigolf lefthanded. My brother is lefthanded (and for a long time was ambidextrous). My brother's overzealous 2nd grade teacher kept trying to force my brother to become righthanded--it took my mother going into school and having a conference with that teacher for it to stop.

My husband is lefthanded, bowls righthanded. My older son is righthanded, my younger son is lefthanded. Remembering my brother's experience in school, I made it plain to my younger son's teachers that under no circumstances was he to be dissuaded from using his left hand. That "lost twin" theory is interesting--but I think it's hogwash, and twins run in my family.

One thing I learned in nursing school--latin for left hand was DEXTER SINISTER....and I think this is why there's such suspicion of lefties. From what I understand, in Arabic countries they're taught to use their right hand for most everything and the left hand is used only for wiping when going to the bathroom.

Agreed!

When I had 1st stage carpel tunnel I was forced to peck the keyboard and use my left hand on the mouse for about 90 days. I got so good at it that I have not gone back to my right. I guess my brain developed new pathways and is now coordinated in that function. This leads me to believe that it could be a simple matter that a child has more pathways develop toward one side of body functions than the other.

My high school math teacher use to write the lesson plan on the board and on her notes left handed for about two days then reverse and do the same right handed for the next two days. We ask why and she said that she never wanted to lose the ability of doing both so she practice every week through out the year and there after. That was a great influence on my life. I try to do something left handed starting out and keep it that way. The brain has the ability to practice and develop new mental pathways and get good at it so society needs to lay down these notions that left handed people are some how out of balance or weird or something. They are a wonder that we should appreciate. Their diffence opens a door to the wonders of the mind.

Just a thought, did the article say whether the author was right or left handed?

The people at my workplace are around 50% left handed, it is a technical field and I've heard that lefties are more technically incline, although I don't know of any study on the subject.

I write , shoot pool and eat with my left hand, bat, catch and bowl with my right, I'm terrible at it, maybe I should have tried learning how to bat and catch left handed. My mom said they tried repeatably to get me to write with my right hand, but I kept switching back.

My oldest son started to write with his left hand, but I found it to be a pain taking notes in school, so I taught him to write with his right hand. He's ambidextrous, but writes better with his right hand, but eats with his left.

Interesting article, but the comments are far more interesting with all the different experiences and talents being listed.

I'm so lefty that at age 15 I picked up my dad's guitar, turned it upside down and taught myself to play left handed without restringing it. I still play today at 60.

I have no relatives that I know of who are or were lefties so don't know why I was born this way but feel I've been blessed.

I have a wall hanging that says it all.

"Everyone Is Born Righthanded. The Gifted Overcome It.

Go Pack, I believe I read a long time ago that Jimi Hendrix played the guitar the same way that you do.

I am lefty, as is my husband. My son was ambidextrous in elementary school. His teacher gave him (and us) a hard time over it. We kind of pushed him into doing things righty because he was having trouble in school and felt that it would be one less thing to be bothered by. My daughter is full lefty (as I am). We do everything lefty, while my husband writes lefty but plays sports righty.

When I went to school, I had to play softball with a righty glove. I would catch the ball, take off the glove, and toss the ball with my left hand. I batted, if you could say that, righty too (I could never connect the bat with the ball). As a young adult, a friend suggested batting lefty. I finally was able to hit the ball.

As for that study back in the 1990's that lefties die younger, if we do, then it is because we get hurt trying to use righty tools.

Jimi most certainly did play his Stratocaster upside down, without restringing it...one of the most celebrated guitarists of all time...=)

That sounds a lot like me: write, eat, shoot long guns, play the drums, shave left. Bat, golf, tennis, shoot handguns, use scissors, play the guitar right.

I use a mouse left-handed, but I don't reverse the right and left click, so the left click is with the middle finger, and the right click is the index.

My mom tells me that when I was in kindergarten, I wrote with each hand part of the time, and that the teacher told me I had to choose. I think that's just as wrong as forcing a lefty to be a righty. Her only concern should have been whether I got the answers right.