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Original poster

What left-handed equipment should schools provide?

46 replies

karise · 03/12/2008 18:15

Just been into school with triangular pencils, left-handed ruler, left-handed pencil sharpener & a write-well mat! Oh and just had DD moved- she has been sitting to the right of a right-hander, bashing elbows & getting cross since September .
Teacher says she might not be able to use the mat as it maybe a space issue (maybe she expects her to sit in the corridor as punnishment for being different?).
This is after all the problems with spellings needing to be covered with the left hand (see previous post).
What does your school provide/accept?
I am trying to stay calm & rational

OP posts:
Hulababy · 03/12/2008 18:18

At DD's school I have seen triangular pencils (although this is less important there as children provide their own anyway), left handed scissors and traingular paint brushes. Never heard of the mat. I have known DD's teacher to move children about to ensure right/left handers not sat together on wrong sides.

luvlydECMOrations · 03/12/2008 18:20

left handed ruler??????? how does that work then?

Original poster
karise · 03/12/2008 18:22

The mat makes them tilt the paper at the right angle so no smudging (we hope)
The ruler has numbers right to left (she keeps trying to count backwards on the normal ones!

OP posts:
Hulababy · 03/12/2008 18:23

I have never heard of the rulers. Could the teacher make a couple of number lines and numer squares for her perhaps?

Original poster
karise · 03/12/2008 18:26

I know I struggled with normal rulers at school- especially as you start trying to draw & measure triangles etc. Maybe I'm being paranoid, but I just remember wasting so much time in exams counting backwards

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onwardandoutward · 03/12/2008 18:35

I'd say scissors as an absolute minimum. Do you know, noone offered me a pair of left handed scissors until I was well into my 20s. I had always just thought that I was horrifically mal-coordinated, since I found cutting with my right hand so impossible.

Having a left handed teacher might be a useful thing to demand

TheSeriousOne · 03/12/2008 18:37

Sorry for hijack, but, as I'm left handed, what should I look out for when it comes to DS being right or left handed?

He appears to favour his right foot to kick things with

He's only 6Month now...

If this is an issue that's been done before, please say and I'll search old messages.

thanks,

MrsWeasleyStrokesSantasSack · 03/12/2008 18:42

In our primary school we have trianglular pencils for anyone who needs them(not just left-handed people), scissors and pens when they start writing in pen. If the teacher thinks they "need" anything they can order it providing not too expensive. Not sure that senior school provide anything because each pupil had to take in their own stationery.

wheresthehamster · 03/12/2008 18:47

How old is your dd? Has she just started school?

I wouldn't get hung up on left-handed things. All children adapt and that includes left-handed children. Unfortunately for them we live in a right-handed world but they soon get used to it. If it is a problem - e.g. writing on whiteboards and rubbing off what she's written, then the teacher will think of a solution. Scissors are a must and I imagine all schools provide them. The look/cover spelling sheets we reverse for left-handers and usually move a left-hander to the left of a right-hander. But rulers and pencil sharpeners? Is that necessary? How does she cope with a right-handed mouse?

onwardandoutward · 03/12/2008 19:03

"Unfortunately for them we live in a right-handed world but they soon get used to it."

But that attitude is how people like me end up in our 20s believing that we are physically incapable of cutting in a straight line. Believing that we are rubbish at any team game which involves a stick or racquet (yes, the assumption was that I would be just fine to play tennis and hockey and all the rest of it with right handed equipment). Believing that writing has to be uncomfortable because we have had to learn to curl our hands around in wierd contortions to avoid smudging the ink as we write.

Oooh, I could get quite riled up about this. We're quite a substantial minority, us lefties. If schools are busily being sensitive to muslim children fasting through ramadan, and children in wheelchairs needing access to the loos, then they should damn well be sensitive to the 1/10 of us who live sinister lives.

coppertop · 03/12/2008 19:15

I don't think ours provides anything specifically for left-handed children. My left-handed ds hasn't had any problems with using the equipment. I think the only slight difficulty has been with covering the spellings up when learnng them.

They do provide things like pencil grips and triangular pencils to those who need them though. My other ds is right-handed and has been given those things to help with his writing.

The space issue sounds odd though. My ds1 uses a writing board which takes up a fair bit of space, and presumably a lot more than a mat would.

piscesmoon · 03/12/2008 19:17

I'm afraid scissors only and that is a step forward! I speak as someone who had to play hockey with a stick for a right hander. I still feel miffed because I was 28 before I realised that it was possible to knit in a left handed way and it was too late to change.

Original poster
karise · 03/12/2008 20:20

We have been told that to 'cure' the smudging the whiteboard problem she can have paper & pencil instead, but surely she will still then end up with the same problem when she starts using pens?
She already smudges everything hugely at home & her writing has got lots worse since September. On the plus side she had a fantastic year 1 teacher last year who was very, very good with left-handers- I just don't want her to continue going backwards

OP posts:
Original poster
karise · 03/12/2008 20:22

I wish someone would give right-handed teachers some left-handed equipment to try- they might then see how difficult it is for us

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SleighGirl · 03/12/2008 20:26

I think somethings can be done without change but will take more time to develop, eating with your knife & fork the "right handed way around" is doable for lefties as you need to use both hands. Same for playing instruments.

I shall remember the ruler & hockey stick thing because that makes perfect sense. As for the whiteboard - arghhhhhhhhhh. I hate those whiteboards. Guess I'll be dd a board thing when we get that far. I'd get her some scissors but she's far too adapt at the right handed ones already.....but she is still fairly ambidextrous at the moment (but increasingly becoming a leftie)

cat64 · 03/12/2008 20:50

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

fishie · 03/12/2008 20:56

scissors yes, although i have never needed them. ruler is confusing. not sure how the mat will help in longterm, or does one use it always?

but the most important thing is to make sure they use a computer mouse left handed. i know lots of lh who have learned with rh mouse and they are all noticably worse at computing.

MavYourselfAMerryLittleXmas · 03/12/2008 20:57

wow! am loving the idea of a left handed ruler. i never even realised how much of a hassle I find it until i imagined doing it the other way round. Where can I buy one?

SleighGirl · 03/12/2008 20:59

I am RH and use a mouse LH

rebelmum72 · 03/12/2008 21:10

Please, make the teacher try using left-handed equipment and then let her/him decide which items are necessary.
My sister is left-handed and her school life could have been so much easier.

rempy · 03/12/2008 21:12

Scissors.

IMO the only thing that actually makes a difference being a leftie.

And not being made to write with proper ink. Biros are fine.

rempy · 03/12/2008 21:15

I mouse Rt handed, no discernible slowness compared to natural Rt handers. (??why would it??)

In fact, I'll amend the proper ink statement. Make your daughter learn to touch type. Best thing ever. No issue if L/R handed. Everyone can read what you've written. My mum taught me when I was about 10. Covered up the keys, and you sit and do asdfgf ;lkjhj frfrfrfr dededede swswswsw exercises. Very cool lifeskill.

SueW · 03/12/2008 21:22

I am 41 years old and this week I bought a left-handed ruler.

It has changed my life.

It is so much easier to draw a line.

Every other left-hander I have shown it to this week has been thrilled to bits.

I rather liked the free left-handed notepad that anything left handed sent me too. But only left-handed people 'get' straight off why it's so special.

SueW · 03/12/2008 21:24

FWIW I never had any problems at school wrt to writing, etc. it was all perfectly neat and I hold my pen in a way that I have never had any problems with smudging my writing.

I find it a PITA if I have to eat my soup or pud sitting next to a rightie though

piscesmoon · 03/12/2008 21:55

'Please, make the teacher try using left-handed equipment and then let her/him decide which items are necessary.'

It doesn't work like that-there are lots of them using right handed equipment!
A register for left handers would be simple, and make life much easier-they would be able to read the names if they were on the right!