If you are left handed then you will no doubt remember your early days at school. Right-handed or left handed made no difference until the day a teacher spotted that you held your pencil in the ‘wrong’ hand. Although teachers are criticised for attempting to change the natural order of things by repeatedly placing the pencil in the other hand, perhaps we are being too hard on them. Left-handedness is not a handicap, but it is an inconvenience and they may simply have been trying to save us from this.
I remember the pencil being removed to my right hand
It is thought that about 10% of the population are left-handed, although some give a figure of 13%. Researchers have now concluded that left handedness has a genetic cause, being prevalent in some families through the generations and it is also common in twins.
One would expect, with such a percentage of left-handers, that there would be more help provided to lessen the inconvenience that they encounter. Power tools, for instance, can present some danger to left-handers because they are designed to be held by a strong right hand with a power switch that can often be difficult for a left-handed person to reach.
It is possible to find left-handed scissors these days, but most of us have just adjusted to using the ones more readily available by turning them upside down and the same applies to garden clippers. Potato peelers are impossible to use unless they are designed for left-handers. Tin openers? Well let us just say that it is an art to open a tin with a left hand.
There are companies now that specialise in appliances for left-handed peopled and this has helped a little. However a few more thoughtful gestures would be appreciated. For instance, why not put two designs inside decorated cups so that they can be seen whether the cup is held in the left or right hand?
We should be thankful for small mercies I suppose. We may occasionally hear the expression ‘south paw’ but thankfully no-one thinks there is anything evil about being left handed anymore, although a hint of it survives in the word ‘sinister’ which comes from Latin which meant ‘left’ but has survived with a different meaning today.
The derivation of cack-handed may be similarly derived from Latin, the word ‘cacare’ refers to using the left hand ‘for ablutions’ thus keeping the right hand clean....to the English speaker cack-handed has come to mean ‘clumsy’ which is, I suppose, the lesser of two evils.
Being left handed does have much to commend itself however. So it is good to remind ourselves that left handed drivers are more likely to pass their driving test the first time than those who must use their right hand to change gear. We are also likely to be left footed so our clutch control is better than average too. Typists are faster thanks to the QWERTY keyboard which has the most frequently used letters placed on the left side.
Internationally Australian researchers state that left handed people can think faster than others when playing computer games and French researchers conclude that it is an advantage in hand-to-hand combat! Not very practical applications but something to drop into the conversation if anyone calls you ‘cack-handed’ again.
It is interesting to reflect that left handed Presidents have dominated in recent history -Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagen, George H W Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama are all lefties. If you are thinking of betting on who is likely to be the next leader of the Democrats in the United States it may be a good idea to check on what is happening with their left hand.
If this fails to impress you let me end with something that will. What do you think Leonoardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Mozart, Beethoven and Alexander the Great had in common? Yep, got it in one. They were all lefties. Finally, there was one leftie in particular who did not shine at school, was late learning to speak properly and was considered to be backward. This was Albert Einstein no less, who was also left handed. A lot of people don’t know this and perhaps it is time we told them.