Left-Handed

A2-year-old girl from Kosovo enrolled in a U.S. multi-ethnic preschool showed marked left-handed tendencies. The teachers accepted this natural preference, but when the child’s parents came to visit, they would correct their daughter each time she picked up a crayon with her left hand.

What did it mean?

In part, it was tied to the family’s Muslim beliefs tied to the Koran’s Order of Revelation 78, associating the right hand with believers and the left hand with disbelievers. Additionally, in some Muslim countries, they use the left hand for hygienic toileting practices.

Even when these customs are obsolete, the taboo against using the left hand remains. Depending on context, words for left-handed in other language also reveal negativity: In Latin, inistra can mean stealing.

Disapproval of left-handedness used to prevail in the U.S. Some left-handers recall their parents tying down their left hands. Sometimes teachers tried forcing students to switch, merely for classroom convenience. Anti-left-hand attitudes changed in the mid-20th century when educators considered that switching hands might interfere with the learning process.