Bach canon "Per Motum Contrarium"
you can turn music on if you like ...
Bach Canon "Per Contrarium Motum" (MIDI-sequenced by Kate for electronic instruments)
Welcome to the
LEFTIES' LOUNGE ...
where
SOUTHPAW SCRIBES HAVE IT "WRITE"!
Since at least 30% of the inquiries I get come from lefties, I hope that those left-handers who need better handwriting won't object to whatever help they can get from a handwriting improvement specialist who can write left-handed but usually doesn't. Learning to write left-handed has done a lot to help me teach lefties: I really recommend that anyone teaching handwriting should learn to write with the opposite hand in order to better understand, demonstrate, and teach handwriting skills for people who don't share the teacher's handedness.
Some people think that left-handers naturally write poorly and cannot change this. In my observation and experience, the supposedly "natural" scribal problems of left-handers come above all from instruction given by those who do not know how to teach a lefty to write ... so either they neglect the lefties when they teach (I've seen teachers going around a room, showing right-hander after right-hander how to hold the pencil and the paper, but skipping all the left-handers), or (worse) they require their left-handed students to hold their pencils and papers exactly the same as the right-handed students! (Even classrooms where teachers do their best to instruct left-handers properly often have desks that work for right-handers only: those "tablet arm" chair-desk constructions with one-half of a desktop firmly bolted to the right side of the chair: right-hand-friendly, I suppose, but definitely left-hand-hostile.)
To learn more about side-biased (hostile) classroom desks and other matters of importance to left-handers and left-handed writing, visit the lefthanders' self-advocacy site Handedness.org which provides an unequaled wealth of useful information for lefties, their parents, and their teachers. The site even includes FREE downloadable materials to start your own local crusade against those hostile classroom chair-desks!
Given proper instruction and non-hostile equipment, left-handers can and do write as well as right-handers. (Proof: left-handed pro calligraphers, such as Gaynor Goffe and Timothy Noad.)
Almost every letter I get from a lefty (or from a lefty's mother, father, or teacher) asks for good books or series to teach handwriting to left-handers. So far, I know of only one that I can recommend: -
/1/
To anyone who writes left-handed, or who teaches left-handers, I
strongly recommend the new series
LEFT HAND WRITING SKILLS from Robin's Wood Press of England.
The UK edition (which the firm ships anywhere in the world) appeared in spring of 2006. (The company plans Canadian and USA editions for
2007.)
For a taste of just what Robin's Wood has to offer the world's
left-handed millions, download free sample pages from a couple of the
LEFT HAND WRITING SKILLS books.
Among other things: if you look at the lower right-hand corner
of each page, you'll note that the series' authors (Mark and Heather
Stewart) have found a most ingenious and (when properly understood)
most effective means of ensuring that left-handed writers learn to
position their writing-books or other paper properly for left-handed
writing (instead of just struggling along by themselves to find a position, or attempting to copy the paper-position of right-handers, as too many
lefties without proper guidance will inadvertently tend to do.)
If and when you order, please let the company know that you heard
from me about their series. You can most easily do so by e-mailing the
publisher, Christopher J. Marshall, at cm@robinswoodpress.com.
And don't forget this free YouTube video, WRITING LEFT-HANDED: 12 minutes and 8 seconds chock-full of tips, brought to the world by Anything Left-Handed, the planet's BIGGEST supply-source for left-handed items including handwriting items. At Anything Left-Handed, you can buy left-handed calligraphy sets and anything else left-handed you can imagine ... and even join (FREE!) the Left-Handers' Club to receive newsletters and more!
President Obama's Hooked Signature Vidio
For any individual problems or concerns relating to left-handedness and handwriting - if the above information doesn't quite cover the ground, please e-mail me for further help. I look forward to hearing from you!
