okay so how many of us out there were scolded for using our left hands in school and at home.
Its considered backward, rude as its the unclean hand (ie to wipe your butt) and an alround sign of being retarded!!!!

So many brilliant people are lefties, including president obama,

So should one discourage ones kids from using the left in this day and age??, or is it old tradition??

No F.R.E.A.K.I.N.G WAY! (Forgive my language) 2 of my siblings have had similar experiences and trust me, it has affected their psychology. When my mother found out (from a doctor, of course) she had to warn my sister's teacher NEVER to stop her daughter from using her left hand! I agree with you that many left handed people are brilliant! My 4 mth old baby has tendencies of using her left hand and there's no way i'm gonna stop her even if it means taking a gun to her school everyday to warn her teachers!! I don talk my own!

--------------

Bletherer:

okay so how many of us out there were scolded for using our left hands in school and at home.
Its considered backward, rude as its the unclean hand (ie to wipe your butt) and an alround sign of being retarded!!!!

So many brilliant people are lefties, including president obama,

So should one discourage ones kids from using the left in this day and age??, or is it old tradition??

how can you tell, its not like you have witnessed it . Then again i could be wrong

@ topic

Really there is nothing wrong, we can all be the same

I use my left hand to do most things and i don't give a rats a.r.s.e what anyone thinks

Left handedness has a lot to do with the way the brain functions and is linked to people who have very creative minds. it is alos a rare occurence

Presidents James A. Garfield  (1831-1881) 20th
Herbert Hoover  (1874-1964) 31st
Harry S. Truman  (1884-1972) 33rd
Gerald Ford  (1913-    ) 38th
Ronald Reagan  (1911 -    ) 40th
George H.W. Bush  (1924-    ) 41st
Bill Clinton  (1946-    ) 42nd
Barack Obama  (1961-    ) 44th


People in history
Joan of Arc (?), French heroine
Ramses II (?), Egyptian pharaoh
Tiberius (?), Roman emperor
Alexander the Great
Charlemagne, Holy Roman emperor
Julius Caesar, Roman general
Napoléon Bonaparte (?), French emperor
Josephine de Beauharnais
King Louis XVI of France
Queen Victoria of England
King George II of England
King George VI of England
Prince Charles of England
Prince William of England
Fidel Castro, Cuban leader
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli prime-minister
Ehud Olmert, Israeli prime-minister
Nicole d'Oresme, mathematician
Henry Ford, automobile manufacturer
David Rockefeller, banker
Dwight F. Davis, founder of the Davis Cup in tennis
Helen Keller, advocate for the blind
John F. Kennedy, Jr., lawyer/publisher
Caroline Kennedy, lawyer/author
Ron Reagan, son of Ronald Reagan
Vin Scully, sports broadcaster
David Letterman (?), host
Jay Leno, host


Actors

Don Adams
Dan Aykroyd
Eddie Albert
Tim Allen
June Allyson
Harry Anderson
Amitabh Bachchan, Indian actor
Herschel Bernardi
Robert Blake
Matthew Broderick

Ruth Buzzi, comedienne
Keith Carradine
Khaled Chahrour, Egyptian actor
Charlie Chaplin
George Gobel, comedian
Chuck Conners
Hans Conreid
James Cromwell
Tom Cruise
Quinn Cummings
Daniel Davis
Bruce Davison
Matt Dillon
Marty Engles, comedian
Olivia de Havilland
Robert DeNiro
Michael Dorn
Fran Drescher, comedian
Richard Dreyfuss
W.C. Fields
Larry Fine ? (of the Three Stooges)
Peter Fonda
Greta Garbo
Terri Garr
Paul Michael Glaser
Whoopie Goldberg
Betty Grable
Cary Grant
Peter Graves
Mark Hamill
Rex Harrison
Goldie Hawn
Joey Heatherton
Tippi Hedren
Jim Henson, puppetteer
Kermit the Frog
Rock Hudson
Angelina Jolie
Shirley Jones ?
Gabe Kaplan
Danny Kaye
Diane Keaton
George Kennedy
Nicole Kidman
Lisa Kudrow
Michael Landon
Hope Lange
Joey Lawrence
Peter Lawford
Cloris Leachman
Hal Linden
Cleavon Little
Shirley MacLaine
Andrew McCarthy
Kristy McNichol
Steve McQueen
Howie Mandel, comedian
Marcel Marceau, mime
Harpo Marx
Marsha Mason
Mary Stuart Masterson
Anne Meara, comedian
Sasha Mitchell
Marilyn Monroe
Robert Morse
Anthony Newley
Kim Novak
Ryan O'Neal
Sarah Jessica Parker
Estelle Parsons
Anthony Perkins
Ron Perlman
Luke Perry
Bronson Pinchot
Joe Piscopo, comedian
Robert Preston
Michael J. Pollard
Richard Pryor, comedian
Robert Redford
Keanu Reeves
Don Rickles, comedian
Julia Roberts
Mickey Rourke
Eva Marie Saint
Telly Savalas
Jean Seberg
Jerry Seinfeld, comedian
Christian Slater
manliness Smothers, comedian
Brent Spiner
Slyvester Stallone ?
Terence Stamp
Jessica Steen
Rod Steiger
Alan Thicke
Terry Thomas, comedian
Emma Thompson
Rip Torn
Peter Ustinov
Brenda Vaccaro
Karen Valentine
Rudy Vallee
manliness Van Dyke
Graham Walker a.k.a. Grumbleweeds, English comedian
Wil Wheaton
James Whitmore
Treat Williams
Bruce Willis
William Windom
Oprah Winfrey
Mare Winningham
Joanne Woodward
Keenan Wynn
Chris tucker

There's nothing wrong about being left handed

Add ElRazur to the list.

My dad saw the potentials, and he wasn't bothered about it. However, I get the odd smack when I give him stuff with my left had. As time goes by, he just did not bothered.

I love using my left hand.  Feels different from the "norm" [Right hand]

The reason it is frowned upon back home is probably a culture that comes from belief. I.e Sitting on the right hand of God = Good and left hand means bad or something along those lines. Also Right is associated with "light" while left is apparently synonymous with "darkness".

Finally, in Yoruba culture, one is meant to clean/wipe their butt with left hand. So I suppose it is just a way of enforcing hygiene in a crude way.

Anyone who is left handed should be left alone jare. Most of us are creative with arts and can have a taste for flair writing. In fact, anything that is creative as already pointed out.

Bletherer:

okay so how many of us out there were scolded for using our left hands in school and at home.
Its considered backward, rude as its the unclean hand (ie to wipe your butt) and an alround sign of being retarded!!!!

So many brilliant people are lefties, including president obama,

So should one discourage ones kids from using the left in this day and age??, or is it old tradition??

I'm your case-study.
I was left-handed as a kid. . . infact, I still brush my teeth with my left hand.

As a kid, I got forced to switch to my right by my mum and my teacher.
I got forced to use my right to write, eat and do basically everything.
Even in football . . . I was persecuted for using my left foot.

I only stopped eating with my left hand at 15 or sumn . . . 'reason, disgracing my family at parties'
I now do most things with my right hand, my left still works okay though, but not as good as before.

mr.official:

I was forced to use my right in primary school. See noww, my writing is bad.  

I wonder ooooooooooooooooooo   . same thing happened to my sister, her writing is not that good now

I smack fools with my left hand! Is that the sign of the devil in me?!!?

Left handed guys are no doubt more gifted compared to  right handed guys, reason? I definately cann't tell. I PROMISE MYSELF THAT ALL MY CHILDREND MUST BE LEFT HANDED.

I used to be left handed as a kid, (so i heard from my mom), then she did not know how and when I stopped using my left hand, they later traced it to my teacher, the thing still dey pain am me too, but i still do most stuffs with my left hand and it's really pronounced that i was made to be a lefty,
I really wish and want my kids to be lefty  

Henry46:

Left handed guys are no doubt more gifted compared to  right handed guys, reason? I definately cann't tell. I PROMISE MYSELF THAT ALL MY CHILDREND MUST BE LEFT HANDED.

Me tooo!!! Even if it means fasting and praying

hmmmm i luv left handed chocos, they're extremly sweat, dem dey reach ORGASM, sharp sharp. I MUST DEFINATELY MARRY ONE.

@mydreamz, i think we both are link minded, why not we two scraping something out.

PROPHET MUHAMMED FORBIDS MUSLIM FROM USING LEFT HAND. HE SAID THATIT IS THE DEVIL THAT DOES THINGS WITH HIS LEFT HAND SO HE URGE MUSLIMNOT TO EMULATE HIM[tt][/tt]

Its ignorance. Especially when it is a rare occurrence in a family or the environment. Was also forced to switch to being a righty, its a very very bad decision by the parents and they regret it afterward. Lefties are very blessed, and they are special children. If you have one, encourage them and it will help them a lot in the future. I wish someone will try that with my own child, it will be the end of them.

I'm likely to have at least one left-handed kid.
My grandad was left-handed, my dad is too . . . I got it too, so it's kinda dominant in my genes.

The right hemisphere of the brain controls the left side of the body while the left hemisphere controls the activities of the right body parts. Weather u are left handed or right handed depends on which part of the brain hemisphere that is more developd wit regards to the use of the hands. Now the development of either parts determin ur thinkin pattern. I know people with developed right(lefties) are better in abstract reasoning ie they are more creative and think outside the box. Right hander have their own advantage(cant go into details now). The problem now is, if a child is left handed(wit developd right hemisphere) and he is forcd 2 b right handed, d left hemisiphere is forced to develop and this ends up in premature development and the supposed developd right hemisphere is left untappd. The child ends up not actualizin his full potential or better said 'is stuck in d middle' therefore he becomes an average individual. I have tried xplainin this 2 a lot of people both educated and uneducated but their belive in our culture wins at the end of d day.

there is nothing wrong with being left-handed. In fact, hubby uses his left hand. The only thing that worries me is that his handwriting is like the mark chicken leaves on the sand after playing!

There is nothing wrong with a left-handed man/woman.
But a good mother ought to train her child as regard the hand she feels is right for eating, writing, e.t.c.

It will be an hasty generalization to say 'lefties' are usually brilliant, do I see anyone with a scientific back-up??

Discriminating against left handed pple,what sense does it make?

Simple answer - ignorance is our major problem.

Interesting lines from wikipedia (that's if you want to bother with wikipedia)

Correlations with left-handedness
Left-handedness and intelligence

In his book Right-Hand, Left-Hand, Chris McManus of University College London argues that the proportion of left-handers is increasing and left-handed people as a group have historically produced an above-average quota of high achievers. He says that left-handers' brains are structured differently in a way that increases their range of abilities, and the genes that determine left-handedness also govern development of the language centres of the brain.

In 2006, researchers at Lafayette College and Johns Hopkins University in a study found that right-handed men are 15 percent poorer than left-handed men for those who attended college, and 26 percent poorer if they graduated. The wage difference remains unexplained, and appears to apply to women.

Left-handedness and politics
Main article: Handedness of Presidents of the United States

Of the seven most recent U.S. Presidents, four have been left-handed, including the incumbent Barack Obama, while a fifth is said to have been ambidextrous.

David Cameron, Prime Minister of Britain, is also left-handed.

I’m left-handed and my uncles always want me to hand them stuff or eat with my right hand. I usually just laugh and tell them that I actually wipe myself with my right hand, which is actually true.

The truth is that I’m somewhat ambidextrous. I use my left-hand for anything that requires precision like writing or holding a cup of coffee, and my right-hand for anything that requires strength.

I always tell my friends that being left-handed is special, otherwise how would you explain the last 4 US presidents being left-handed considering that only 7-10% of the population is left-handed? Lefties are here to takeover!

@ topic
Nothing!

Who persecutes them ?
Because i never see any one doing that where i come from.

Sam Milla:

Who persecutes them ?
Because i never see any one doing that where i come from.

Exactly my question, and my understanding, because with the way people talk about this left-handed issue, you'd think that these people are going through hell.

No matter what a child is using, they shd be left alone.
Whoever does not like it, cld jump the train

@frank 3.16
wow i didn't know all that, I guess one should just let the child develop as they wish and make them aware of our traditional values so as not to offend anyone!