[eksith]

When I was around 3-4, there was a teacher's assistant at the Montessori school I went to that insisted I write with the right hand. Every time I took the pencil to my left hand, she would grab it from me and stick in in the right hand. I never understood why, until I realized she was trying to get me to start on a variation of the Palmer Method.

Almost 25 years later, I'm still writing with my right hand, but do almost everything else (except cutting with scissors, which was also forced on me) with the left.

The Palmer Method is difficult, pompous, superfluous with motion and overall an unpleasant experience to be imposed on under the best of circumstances.

  > Instead of consciously "drawing" letters, you build up and use muscle memory to create letters

You bloody write letters. No one "creates" letters unless it's on stone or wax tablet and no one "draws" it unless it's calligraphy. That's a ridiculous euphemism for forced muscle memory on a medium that requires no such effort to write clearly, efficiently and without pain.

Yes, I'm angry.

[bane]

Coming from a family with a very high percentage of left-handers (about 7 out of 10 on my Mother's side)...I can sympathize. The older ones who went through forced "right handed training" struggle with a host of psychological issues as a result of this forced training (not to mention some physical scars as the use of the "sinful" hand was beat out of them). The long-term effects have never been well studied because when the practice was common, there were social pressures not to and now the practice has mostly stopped.

http://www.jneurosci.org/content/22/7/2816.full.pdf

http://wasioabbasi.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/never-force-left...

http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/7282/is-there-an...

[nessus42]

> Yes, I'm angry.

I'm angry that I have carpal tunnel syndrome. Maybe I'd be less angry if I'd been trained to write using the Palmer Method.

[eksith]

Not if you're left handed.

Edit: You have carpal tunnel likely because you're holding the pen/pencil incorrectly and exerting far too much pressure. Drummers have this problem too when they use the tiny muscles in their hand to do the job of the big muscles.

Check if you're holding your writing utensil correctly.

http://eksith.wordpress.com/2013/02/01/holding-a-pen-correct...

[seanmcdirmid]

As a left handed person in China, I always get stairs when people see me writing with my left hand (like I was an alien?), and I have trouble eating at tightly packed circular tables.

[stavros]

Is it because your stairs won't fit in the table?

(Sorry, couldn't resist).

[seanmcdirmid]

I don't get it. When everyone is eating at a circular table with little space between elbows, being the only lefty is bound to cause problems.

[StavrosK]

It was a stupid joke on the fact that he misspelt "stares".

[milfot]

i consciously draw letters.

and my old man was forced to write right handed.. i am not sure what they called the method where the teacher would crack your knuckles with a yard stick if you messed up, but that is how he was taught. most perfect, effortless bloody handwriting of anyone i knew. with either hand.

learning can be painful. not learning might be worse.

[eksith]

Your father was abused into better handwriting and I feel sorry for him. Similar or better results can be achieved with patience, a kind word and a good instructor.

Huge public works projects that served a helpful purpose involved the death of countless workers in the past (I.E. the Panama Canal). We're grateful the end product exists, but who would tolerate a lock or dam that consumes that many lives today?

Just because things "were", doesn't mean they should "still".

[milfot]

ah, i totally agree.. my anecdote was meant in support of your experience.