Need to complain to school

Mrs_Ryan

I'm left handed and use a laptop without a mouse attached, I just use the trackpad, predominantly with my right hand. Just as a test, I've just picked up my smartphone which is on my left side simply because it is plugged into the charger - it is usually on my right side, I operated the screen with my right hand and tend to use my right thumb to click on apps etc - when I tried using my left hand my finger kept slipping and I ended up on things I didnt want to go on. Why not let the child do what they are comfortable with? I was taught using a right handed mouse and never found it difficult. I cant use left handed scissors either - I always use right handed ones although we did have left handed scissors at school. Only thing I have problems with is tin openers - I cant use a conventional one so if I need a tin opening I have to shout for right handed OH to come and help.
OH is from a family of lefties (his Mum, stepmum and stepbrother are all lefties) so he is sympathetic but I've never felt I needed any special treatment due to what hand I write with!

sashadesade

My husband's a leftie and he's always got by okay without any 'special equipment'. He works with computers and doesn't set mouse controls for left-handed use. He also plays guitar right-handed and he's never had a problem with scissors. I tend to forget about him being a leftie until he writes with a pen and smudges the ink. So it is possible for lefties to adapt by and large. Honestly, I think it's best for left-handed children to try and get used to the rightie way of doing things. It may sound unfair that they should have to, but the fact is that the vast majority are right-handed and becoming reliant on special leftie equipment could be a disadvantage in many situations because it's so rarely catered for.

thegirlintheattic

While it is a nice ideal that special provision will be made for lefties it's simply not practical, especially when most schools are juggling budgets and resources to make sure that children statemented with special needs are provided for.

It's not straight-forward to swap mouse buttons around. All the computers in my school have the control panel blocked for students, that means I would have to log in to several computers as me, change the settings, log off and let the pupil log back on. Even if the settings stay the same when logging on or off, it takes several minutes to log in to the computers so that's at least 5 minutes taken out of teaching time, every time they use the computers, and you need to times that by the number of lefties in the class. It would also mean logging back in at the end and changing it back. It's a non-starter anyway, none of my students has ever shown a problem using a right-handed mouse - they've just learnt to cope in a right-handed world.

As for scissors, I have one left handed pair and 14 right handed pairs for classes of 30, and no money to buy more. I'm more worried about all the kids getting a chance to use the scissors rather than who has what pair, and what am I meant to do if there is more than one leftie? Again, never had a problem with this. Some kids ask for the left-handed scissors, I say that if they can get someone to swap with them then fine. Most of them go back to cutting out with right-handed scissors with little difficulty.

Personally I think it is much better to adapt and so gain the skills for the world outside of school.

Caroline_a

I have one daughter who is left handed and 2 who are right handed - I'm right handed myself. The lefthanded one hasn't had any special treatment or equipment, she never asked for it or felt it was necessary. Certainly hasn't stopped her from driving a car, or any of the other 'handed' things that we do today.

Amanda65

DD2 is a leftie and the rest of us (2 siblings, Mum and Dad) are all right handed. When she was little I did buy left handed scissors for her but she now uses right handed ones as it's too much faff (her quote not mine) .

She eats right handed but does have the mouse settings set for lefties on her own computer, although is equally adept at using a right hand mouse. She has learnt to adapt in a predominantly right handed world and has never made a fuss. Sometimes, you just have to get on with it