LEFT-HANDED WRITERS

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 124, 30 May 1927, Page 8

LEFT-HANDED WRITERS

SOMIEI SCHOOL CUMOSITIBS

(By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evening Pott")

PALMEBSTON NORTH, This Dn, Writing—right-handed and left-handed. fast and slow, good and - bad—wu ££ cussed at length by the Manawatu branch of the Educational Institute on Saturday during the course of an addrew by the Mucation Board's Senior^lnspector/ •""V^- T. .Lambourne. It was alsoiitat. ea tnat writing and stuttering went ti»~i in-hand.: - . -^ ~^ Mr. Lambourne mentioned that recently speed tests had been conducted in , some of the schools of the district, and iti was ,interesting to note that boys of •11 ages wrote;iasterlthan. girls.-- English experiments had given the,follows resulte^Boys; (7,, years),, 19 letter. par minute; girls of same age, 14; 8 yew*. II *?£ w respectively; 9 years,:» and 25; 10 years, 36 and' 33: *11 veaw/tt •nd 40; Vi years, 49 and 47; W%£ 01 and 54. American figures -which had not separated the sexes showed that pupils under seven years could average 20 letters per minute; 7 years, 31 per mm. ute; 8 years, 34 letters; 9 yett^M letters; 10 ; years, 50 letters; U yetrm, <ft letters; 12 years, 79 letters; 13 yaari 84 l ette?- A »ati«factory speed for. Standard 5 and 6 pupils, in Inspector Lamboonie'* opinion, would be 50 to 80 letters per minute. .:■ ■ ■ . ■ . . . Mr. A. W. Thompson raised the qaestion^ of left-handed' writers, *»nd Mr. iiambourne surprised the meeting by mentioning that in his own- 'test* th« greatest number of letters >n five miautes (403) had been wrttten by » girl who was left-handed. The next best had been 370. . . . ■ . In regard, to naturally'left-handed writers, the inspector added that whera thosa pupils had been compelled to write righthanded, they had invariably begun to stutter. There seemed to be some connection between hand and speech. ->„.•;• Mr. de Berry stated .that American investigations luid found the. Bame thing. Mr. Lambourne added that there were fewer left-handed girls than boys, and there was also a suspicion that left-hand-ed people were slightly more intelligent than tne right-handed. However, ha thought it would be very wrong to force a child to change its hand. v: ■ Mr.-'de Berry recalled': having had ft pupil who could only writer upside down, and who was regarded as a curiosity. , Another member mentioned a child that not only wrote upside down, but back to front, and stuttered as well.. The child's writing hand was changed, and it then became quite normal. '„-!■:.'' Mr. Lambourne recalled having com* across pupils who through some - peculiar mental kink wrote certain words backwards and others correctly. •