It’s my birthday! Well, my birthday is in the month of February. I am also left-handed. So using these two random facts about myself, I thought I would write a post about learning left-handed.
When I was a child, I hated, absolutely hated, to cut. All those handouts where you cut and paste pictures onto the page where activities I dreaded. In fact, I still hate cutting things out. Why you ask?
Scissors.
All the scissors in the classroom where made for right-handed children. I had one year when a teacher (my first grade teacher, Mrs. Lutching) gave me a pair of left-handed scissors. It was the only year I probably did that work without (much) complaint and annoyance.
Now we talk about being inclusive of all students in the classroom and that’s great stuff! It means celebrating diversity and those students are always on my heart, students with disabilities. We are thinking in terms of access to learning in new and different ways.
I would like to pose a question though- do you think about the different kinds of students in your class who may not have a “label”, but could possibly use better access in the classroom?
None of my teachers knew how to teach me to write as is the case with most left-handed students. Left-handed students have to learn to problem solve solutions to things as small as not getting smudges on their hands when they write. That’s why they all write in one of two ways really: upside down or with their paper at a slant (almost sideways).
Now being left-handed isn’t a disability, but it can become a liability when learning depending on the activity. Other ways they struggle include:
- 3- ring binders (You can’t write next to the rings and I know some teachers don’t always allow students to take the page out to write. Why? No clue, but there you have it.)
- Adjusting to items created for ease of use of right-handed people. (Adult issue: those pens on the string of the card reader at stores? Too short for a left hander to sign their name from a good angle.)
I know I am harping on helping left-handers here, but if something like what hand you use can prevent you from truly participating fully in learning, what other things have we missed as well?
And more importantly, how do we identify those barriers for individual students?
On a mass scale, I don’t have an answer, but in one classroom, the teacher having strong relationships with their student will be the first to figure it out. Relationships matter in knowing what is and is not the norm for that student and it also means clearer lines of communication in which the student feels at ease with sharing their struggles.
So even if we don’t have a solution for all classrooms, you can at least make an impact for the students in your classroom.
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