31 Days, 31 Memories - Day 4

[bironic]

4. Kindergarten

One lesson in kindergarten class was learning "right" and "left." We had black-and-white dittoes on the table of people raising their hands for reference. I had trouble with the mirror-image concept. If I was looking at a person facing me and raising the hand that was on my left, I thought, it must be his or her left hand. I was pretty adamant about it. The teacher, or I think rather an aide or volunteer, made me stand up, then stood in front of me, raised her right hand (which I insisted was her left), turned around till she was beside me, and showed me how it worked. I was 5.

Comments

[kabal42.livejournal.com]

My family moved the summer I was about to start 6th grade. In my new school one of the things I weren't used to was having table standing in rows and two at each table (like in the Potter-movies, actually *S*). We had to sit 1 boy and 1 girl at each table, boy on left, girl on right. Only, not me. I'm left-handed so it had to be different for me. I felt singled out, especially since I was already being teased for being the new girl. Strange how a practical circumstance can have that effect - I still react very strongly if people use derogatory expressions about left-handedness, even if I know they are not aware of the implication of said expression.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

We used to have "lefty" scissors in 1st grade with different-colored handles for left-handed kids, and for whatever reason -- because left-handedness was just another way to single out children as being different, I suppose -- some "lefties" tried to work with the regular scissors so they wouldn't stand out.

[kabal42.livejournal.com]

It is of course practical to colour-code which scissors are made for what hand, but it still seems that there should be other ways. Kids are so afraid of being different...
For some odd reason, I use scissors in my right hand, so that particular problem was never relevant for me. (There are a few other things I do as a right-handed person would, so I guess I'm slight ambidextrous.)