Did teachers ever hit kids that wrote with their left hands?

Question

I have heard stories about people that were forced by their teachers to write with their left hands and every time I heard the word "forced" I imagine the teacher doing things like slapping the child's left hand and or/shoving the writing instrument in their right hands and figuratively holding the child at gunpoint to write with the non-dominant hand, maybe saying something like "You WILL write with your right hand or ELSE!!!" Am I off-base with this assumption or is it a little closer to the truth?

Answer 1

Yes.   I was in school from 1960 on  (not the 1700's as id'd above,lol)  and the nuns did not allow left handed children to write that way, eat with left handed dominance, nor use scissors, etc in their left hand.  They went so far as to smack the hands or threaten to tie them behind their backs, though I don't remember ever seeing it done.

Answer 2

the teachers aid in my kindergarten class took the crayon from my left hand & placed it in my right hand & told me to never use my left hand for writing etc. (in the late '60's).

both my parents were left handed, i have atrocious penmanship to this day.

Answer 3

This was something done back in the 1700 - 1800s by Teacher-spinsters in one-room schools.  This is something that wouldn't be tolerated in today's classroom, although there are still teachers who ridicule students with different ways of doing things.  When I was in Elementary school, my fifth grade teacher gave me a heck of a time because I held my pencil differently from everyone else.

Answer 4

My dad was born in 1943 and he is a natural lefty. His grandmother would help him with his writing and everytime he would use his left hand she would poke him with the pencil. The left hand was associated with the devil at some point in history so I guess my great-grandmother thought that my dad's left-handedness was the sign of the devil. My dad went on to have learning disabilities (although never labeled at the time) and was called a "dummy" throughout school. He shut them up when he started playing sports where he was a switch-hitter in baseball and pretty good, too.

My brother and nephew are both lefties. I am married to a lefty. Southpaws rock!!

P.s. My dad went on to get his college degree so he made good! Hurray.

Answer 5

Yup it's true, they used to give children who used their left hand the strap and the dunce hat because being left handed was a sign of demonic possession. Later on, society stopped believing the devil part but they found that there is a correlation between being left handed and having a psychological disorder. This went on right through until the 90's and a lot of people I know are naturally left handed but have been forced as children to write with their right hand. Fortunately they didn't get physical punishment though!

The truth is the correlation between mental disorders and left handedness is very weak and rarely found. And it is now believed that forcing people to write with their non dominant hand can lead to psychological disorders.

Kind of ironic....

Answer 6

I have heard of a lot of teachers that tell the students to do this, but not any of the things you mention.

I think this is horrible, why are they dictating what hand they use? It's none of their business!

Answer 7

true that

Answer 8

happened to me several times as a child, got my hand slapped with rulers, was even called evil because I was left handed. They used to try to make me write with my right hand, but after going home and telling my folks about it, it would stop for a while, till the next school, then it would happen all over again, up until I hit high school this happened. You have to remember though this was like 30 years ago, but yes it happened.