Lefty vs. Righty
originally published on 12/21/2009
Back in the old days, every kid that was left-handed was forced to write right-handed almost without exception. And back then there was a very good reason for it. A practical reason which, for the most part does not exist today. And the question is very simply, “what was that reason?”
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August 10th, 2010 | Category: 
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In the “old days” they used fountain pens. A left handed person would smear the ink as they wrote.
Geoff, you nailed it!
You see, back when we were children we wrote with fountain pens, which had ink. Actually we wrote with the ink wells — we had ink wells on our desks and if you dipped the pen in the ink well and you write from left to right you do not smudge the ink as you go along because you are leaving the written words behind you. But if you are a lefty and you do that — as you drag your hand across the paper you are messing and smudging everything. So they hit the left-handed kids with big wooden rulers until they started writing with their other hand. OK, not really.
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