my first grade memory

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Home : 2002 : October : 8

my first grade memory
By mlg

I am left-handed and can do virtually nothing with my right hand. As a child, I attended a parochial school so those of you who might be "of a certain age" may be able to predict what my dilemma was as a first-grader.
There was a time (centuries ago it seems ) when left-handed students were forcefully "encouraged" to use their right hands to write and draw. After several weeks of enduring raps across my knuckles with a ruler from the elderly nun who was my teacher, I found myelf becoming more and more upset. I internalized my distress, however, rather than telling anyone what was wrong. The matter

came to a resolution when, after yet another sting from the ruler, my tiny body revolted and I proceeded to vomit all over the boy seated in front of me.

When my mother came to school to bring me a change of clothes and heard what had taken place, she proceeded to read my teacher up one side and down the other. You have to realize how totally out of character that would be for almost ANYONE at that point in time, but especially for my mom who would ALWAYS back up the teacher if one of her six children got in a jam at school. She made it very clear that this was never to happen again and that, since God had made me left-handed, NO ONE was going to force me to change.

Much to the consternation of the many nuns who taught me through the years, my penmanship won awards consistently each year and, to this day, many people make amazed comments that a "leftie" can write as nicely as I do.