LEFT-HAND WAITERS

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 188, 7 May 1931, Page 8

LEFT-HAND WAITERS

Is Remedy Wise?

EFFECT ON SPEECH Dominion Special Service. Palmerston North, ‘May 6. The problem of the left-handed pupil was discussed at a meeting of the Manawatu branch of the Educational Institute last night, when the suggestion was advanced that attempts made to remedy the condition often resulted in stammering. The headmaster of the Hokowhitu school, Mr. L. Plank, said that ten per cent, of the children in the school, were left-handed, while in one class the percentage was as high as twenty. The condition was a disadvantage in after-life, he contended, but the question to' be considered was whether it was wise to force a child to write with its right hand when it had become accustomed to the use of the left. Observations had suggested in one case that stammering had seemed to be brought on by the compulsion. Mr. W. G. Blackie, senior inspector of schools, said that observations made in Auckland led to the conclusion that the posture taken up by some left-handed writers had a tendency to cause curvature of the spine.