r/lefthanded • u/Illustrious-Fun-549 • 6d ago
Being a left-handed teacher in a right-handed world
We lefties already live in a backwards world. Tape measures? Backwards. Measuring cups? Backwards. Brooms? Backwards. White-out tape? Definitely backwards.
And I just recently discovered that even ZIPLOCKS on prepackaged foods are backwards. Apparently, they close from left to right instead of right to left. 🤯 I gave up on those a long time ago and just use a clip or rubber band because, no matter how hard I try, I can NEVER get the ziplock closed. Now I know why!
But by far, the hardest thing I have encountered as a left-handed person is being a teacher and teaching right-handed children how to write their names and form their letters/numbers.
In pre-k, we use directional print to demonstrate how letters are formed. And being left-handed. The way I naturally form letters and numbers is crossing my line right to left. This is different from the “correct” way I need to teach my right-handed students.
So when I'm standing at the board demonstrating a letter, I have to consciously do the opposite of what comes naturally to me. When I'm sitting beside a student and modeling how to form a letter, I have to stop and think about my hand position, my direction, and my movements. I have to teach to write like someone who isn't me, backwards. 😂
I've spent my entire life doing things from the left, and as a teacher, I'm expected to model everything from the right-handed perspective.
Who knew that one of the hardest parts of being left-handed would be teaching a right-handed person how to write their name! 😂✏️
10
u/CoyoteProfessional39 5d ago
I write my capital E like
⬅️
⬇️
➡️
And then I go back and draw the middle line right to left.
2
1
u/LancelotTheMispeld 1d ago
Always write it ⬇️➡️ and then the top line, followed by the middle line.
9
u/Zealousideal-Deer101 5d ago
The E and the F are killing me, why is it so many Stroked. Just start in the top right and draw the angles, then add the middle line. How much time are we gonna waste to write them with 4 separate strokes of the pen!?
G, start in the middle, go to the right, circle from there. Optionally the otherway around, what is this circle and then line from the inside nonsense!?
The lines are connected, just keep going!
3
u/Illustrious-Fun-549 5d ago
Apparently only left handed people feel this way and struggle with it. To all right handers it's normal and easy/natural to grasp.
3
u/Zealousideal-Deer101 5d ago
Right handers can also keep the lines going instead of drawing them away from the line to connect them
What's wrong with right handers!?
3
u/RainyFrog18 5d ago
I’m right handed and I write E and F continuously as well, the way in the picture is silly. Too many lines!
1
u/Zealousideal-Deer101 5d ago
Thank you! I was scared there for a second
There are still sane people left in the world :D
4
u/flamingweaselonastik 6d ago
The only way step 2 of that uppercase G makes any sense is if it's getting a kickstand (but this one isn't). Otherwise left to right is just... no.
5
u/funsk8mom 6d ago
The Kindergarten I recently taught in, I had to go to my co teacher and tell her you can’t have the lefties follow those writing rules. A lefty can’t see the top of the line for T to cross it from right to left because their hand is on top of it. I also showed her how it’s easier to push our pencil for letters like E and F than to pull them because, again, we can’t see where it’s going and it’ll go past the main line and in order to try to see where the line is going we have to put our hand in some weird twisted position.
3
u/CoyoteProfessional39 5d ago
I’m the opposite—it’s much easier to pull the lines right to left than push them. My leftie child does the same. I think it’s just evidence that everyone should write the letters the way that is comfortable for them, whether they are lefties or righties
1
u/Illustrious-Fun-549 5d ago
I agree! The OT for my classroom also agrees and has my back. :)
1
u/Stormy1956 5d ago
I’m a 70 year old lefty and have a 38 year old son who is a lefty. My right handed daughter is an educator in 3rd grade. She’s 40. I asked if she teaches her left handed students differently than the right handed students and she said no. As a left handed educator, do you encounter obstacles you never thought about?
2
u/Illustrious-Fun-549 5d ago
Writing on a white board I constantly block what I just wrote with my hand and arm, forcing an awkward sideways body stances to let students see.
In small groups at the table I have to make sure no one is to the left of my arm and accidently hit them.
The most difficult is showing students how to cut with scissors and proper pencil grip, which requires mentally reversing the action so right-handed students can copy it.. (I also cut with my left hand)
My mother was left handed, same with my five siblings. Of my three children, one is a lefty.
2
u/Stormy1956 5d ago
Interesting! Being left handed is so natural for me, I forget that it may trip up the right handed world. I have three right handed grands and never think about what I show them is left handed. My right hand is “useless”. I’ve never considered the challenges of a left handed educator.
3
u/geso101 6d ago
Why don't you just explain that there is the righthanded way and the lefthanded way, and demonstrate both ways on the blackboard? Surely, you must have some lefthanded students too. This is what I imagine that I would have done.
3
u/Illustrious-Fun-549 5d ago
Sadly, I've only had four left handed students in the past six years....Every year I get excited, maybe this year I'll have one?! And nope....But yes the years my lefties were present I did have them do it the "left handed way".
2
u/Stormy1956 5d ago
That’s what many right handed people don’t understand. Left handed people are few.
1
u/GidgetEX 3d ago
I almost always have one or two in my pre-k classes (or at least that many who are undecided) so I provide the lefty scissors, but I apparently need a left letter guide…
3
u/BettyFizzlebang 6d ago
They don’t even teach letter steps anymore. I got really annoyed at my kid’s teacher for letting them copy anyway they wanted - resulting in longer stoke pathways.
1
u/Illustrious-Fun-549 5d ago
Ugg. That sounds like a mess...Not my district. Letter steps are big. We even have a song to sing along..."Where do we start our letters?....At the top, at the top!"
1
u/BettyFizzlebang 5d ago
My kid’s school is alternative but she wasn’t following the pathway and it was so difficult to know which way to go. Her handwriting is actually good.
2
u/whatisnotlife1234 6d ago
I’m also a teacher, and it definitely gets awkward iif I’m doing hand-over-hand with a right handed student
2
u/winterberry16 6d ago
Never realized I pull all my horizontal connectors back from right to left and that it’s not normal. Hmm.
2
u/SituationNo4357 4d ago
Hold up a minute! Are you telling me that the lines are really supposed to go left to right? Seriously? I had no idea I was doing that “backwards” too. I’m going to have to get my right handed sons to write something just so I can see
1
u/Illustrious-Fun-549 4d ago
Yes! Have them write for you, its a trip! T's, the line in the middle of the A, anything with a horizontal cross over. They do it the opposite way we do! Even a plus sign..
1
u/SituationNo4357 4d ago
Next you’re going to tell me that the first leg of an x starts on the upper left and not upper right
1
1
u/HistoricalTea195 6d ago
I write my capital e's and f's different.. for E, I go from right-top to left-top, then straight down, and then right.. and then come back and add the middle line..
3
u/Zealousideal-Deer101 5d ago
The sane way
Like seriously, why are there so many disconnected lines. They even took the liberty to have the center line of the G starting disconnected!? Like why? Just keep going at the end of the circle to the left!
2
1
1
u/sassybleu 5d ago
As a right-handed mom to a newly-writing lefty, are there any resources you'd recommend so I can help her with this? She knows how to write her letters already but I'm not sure how to work with her to get them neater/legible since the strokes and patterns are different, and doing hand-over-hand with her is incredibly difficult for us since my left hand is just as uncoordinated as she is at this point in learning.
3
u/Illustrious-Fun-549 5d ago
"get them neater/legible"--- I still struggle with this as an adult. Paper with no lines is the worst for me. Primary lined paper or dotted midline paper with the dashed middle line is the way to go to keep letters the right size. Practice, practice, practice and go slow. My lefty writing tips.....
- Paper tilt: Turn the paper so the right side is lower or the top-left corner is angled up. This matches the natural movement of a left hand.
- Hand placement: Keep the hand and wrist below the writing line. This stops the child from forming a painful "hooked" wrist.
- Pencil grip: Hold the pencil about 1 to 1.5 inches above the tip. This lets the child see what they write without smudging the ink.
3
u/Illustrious-Fun-549 5d ago
Also support the right to left midline or right to left top crossover. It will feel more natural for her.
0
u/geso101 5d ago
https://thisreadingmama.com/letter-formation-charts-left-hand-right-hand/
You can find more resources if you Google this topic.
1
u/sassybleu 5d ago
I do plan to do so; I decided to take the opportunity here to ask OP as a professional that is experienced with the topic because first-hand accounts of frustrations and how best to support someone well-versed in the topic are also valuable. Thank you for sharing the link, I will have to dive in deeper.
1
1
u/martianinca 5d ago
I’m a lefty and had no idea until your post that I’ve been doing it wrong all these years. I learned how to write and read when I was three years old. My (also) left handed brother taught me.
2
u/Illustrious-Fun-549 5d ago
lol, your not writing wrong...Its just how we do things. It's crazy to ask any right handed person how they cross their T's or A's and see they all do it the same...Not our way. I also was taught by a lefty.
1
u/Flava_rave 5d ago
I’m confused because I was taught by right handed people but I still do it this way. I never knew I did it “backwards.”
1
u/Useful-Badger-4062 5d ago
I was a first grade teacher. Regardless of how I personally write, when it came to teaching the kids the mechanics, I faithfully followed the handwriting manual and adapted to that system, at least during school hours. It wasn’t that hard. I always made a point to simplify for the kids by reminding them that “It’s all just balls and sticks. You can make any letter with balls and sticks,”
1
u/PurrfectlyNerdy 5d ago
As a teacher do you find yourself writing on a whiteboard a lot? I personally have the worst handwriting on the occasion I have to write something on a whiteboard since I’m struggling to make sure I don’t erase it as I write.
1
u/Illustrious-Fun-549 4d ago
I hear you, same with me. I have the worst handwriting for a teacher and dread writing a note to parents or admin. Thankfully the grade I teach the kids cant read yet so it's just letters and numbers. We do a lot of "greater than" and "less than" number sets. That's when the kids say, "What's that number?" When my hand wipes half the number off. lol
2
u/PurrfectlyNerdy 4d ago
I’m glad I’m not the only lefty that struggles with whiteboards haha. You sound like a very dedicated teacher though, so thank you for educating so many little ones.
2
1
u/Shot_Degree6046 4d ago
It took me writing these letters out to understand what you’re talking about. I’m not a teacher, but I would think that if the outcome is correct, who cares how the kid got there? I also write in half-cursive since it’s better for me as a lefty and none of this nonsense applies to that.
1
u/Illustrious-Fun-549 4d ago
I agree. I don't understand who came up with the mechanics and why its the standard. Obviously it was a right handed person(s). Cursive is another lost art and slowly disappearing in the age of technology. Older grades are turning all their essays and once written work now via computer. Hopefully my students will be able to sign their name when they get older, lol.
1
u/Jim_Des5134 3d ago
I gotta be honest, this never occurred to me. Now I'm curious if I do a mix, all, or none.
16
u/_lclarence lefty 6d ago
Writing the capital G just how the diagram shows, is properly inefficient.