Left-handers (popularly called Lefties) comprise only about 7-10% of the world’s population.
Up until the last generation, left-handed children were forced to switch to the right hand by most parents. It’s only now that lefties are acknowledged for their uniqueness and creativity.
Based on studies, here are some interesting trivia about left-handed people:
– Some famous Lefty personalities are US President Barack H. Obama, Henry L. Ford, Mark Twain, Jimi Hendrix, Michelangelo, and our very own Rafael “Paeng’’ Nepomucen and Emmanuel “Manny’’ Pacquiao.
– Men are slightly more likely to be left-handed than women.
– When NASA began searching for imaginative, reliable, multi-talented people for the moon, 1 in 4 Apollo astronauts turned out to be left-handed (a figure 250% greater than statistical probability).
– Left-handers reach puberty 4-5 months later than right-handed people.
– Lefties tend to draw figures that face the RIGHT.
– Probably because they use the right side of the brain more, lefties appear to be better in the music and arts scene.
– According to neurologists, lefties adjust more readily to seeing underwater.
– Left-handers seem to excel in sports such as tennis, baseball, swimming and fencing.
– The probabilities of producing a lefty are as follows: 1 in 10 if both parents are right-handed; 2 in 10 if one parent is left-handed; 1 in 4 if both parents are left-handed.
– 4 of the 5 original designers of the Macintosh computer were left-handed.
– Lefties account for a large percentage of those in remedial reading classes.
In my family, three of my kids were born Lefties. Our second daughter, C2, was born left-handed but since I did not know any better then, I taught her to use her right hand so she would not have difficulty in a right-handed world. However, our 2 succeeding children, both boys, also turned out to be Lefties. And to this day, I wonder about this because while we have other lefties in the family (my sister and some in-laws), both me and my hubby are right-handed.
We are fortunate that in the boys’ school, they took pains to accommodate lefties by providing desks with left-sided arm rests. It’s not so bad anymore now that they are in high school because the desks are tables with ample room for you whether you are right- or left-handed. But at home, I still have to contend with bumping elbows with M2 at the dinner table.
In 1990, the Left-Handers Club was established and on Aug. 13, 1992, they launched International Left-Handers’ Day. According to their website:
This event is now celebrated worldwide, and in the U.K. alone there were over 20 regional events to mark the day in 2001- including left-v-right sports matches, a left-handed tea party, pubs using left-handed corkscrews where patrons drank and played pub games with the left hand only, and nationwide “Lefty Zones” where left-handers creativity, adaptability and sporting prowess were celebrated, whilst right-handers were encouraged to try out everyday left-handed objects to see just how awkward it can feel using the wrong equipment!
These events have contributed more than anything else to the general awareness of the difficulties and frustrations left-handers experience in everyday life, and have successfully led to improved product design and greater consideration of our needs by the right-handed majority – although there is still a long way to go!!
Today, I greet all Left-Handers, including my lefty kids and blog readers. You are unique and in a class all your own. You have your own place in this world and can make a great contribution with your creativity and artistic talents.
HAPPY INTERNATIONAL LEFT-HANDERS’ DAY!!!
My daughter is left-handed too as well as my Senator BIL. She’s very good in Math and excels in her Cheering as well.
@SassyMom – Come to think of it, yes — my boys are good in Math!
I’m a hearing-impaired mother of two kids and a grandchild. I remembered I was forced by the Kindergarten teacher to write with right hand only. I was born a lefty. She hit my left hand with a ruler causing swelling. My mother was upset and requested that I be transferred to another school. But it was too late, I still write with right hand.
Odd enough, my son was born lefty and he still writes with a left hand and I’m very proud for one thing; his drawing. Even thought, he was a tagger (not anymore) but he learns to draw on papers ONLY, nothing else and his drawing becomes wonderful like balloon texts, faces, walls, shoes, etc. I’m amazed. But I’m fine in art with my right hand. I still wish I go back being a lefty. Right now, my left handwriting is around 9 to 10 years old clumpsy. **sigh** My son still has clumpsy handwriting. I guess like someone would put up but in different way: Like mother, like son.