Posted on 09/22/2015 10:46:31 AM PDT by JoeProBono
OKEMAH, Okla. -- A 4-year-old was allegedly forced by his teacher to write with his right hand, even though he’s left-handed.
The child was sent home with a letter about how left-handedness is often associated with evil and the devil.
Zayde is only 4 years old.
It's his first year at Oakes Elementary in Okemah, but his mom kept him home Monday after a dispute with his teacher over being left-handed.
Zayde, like most kids in Pre-K, is learning how to read and write. And like his mom, Alisha, Zayde is a lefty.
“From picking things up to throwing things, to batting, to writing, to just coloring you’d do at home with him, he’s always, always used his left hand,” Alisha Sands said.
That was until last week at homework time.
Alisha asked him why he was writing with his right hand, not his left.
“I just asked ‘Is there anything his teachers ever asked about his hands?’ And he raises this one and says this one’s bad,” Sands said.
Alisha sent the teacher a note and got a strong response.
It was an article calling left-handedness “unlucky,” “evil,” and “sinister.”
It even says “for example, the devil is often portrayed as left-handed.”
Alisha couldn’t believe it.
“It breaks my heart for him because someone actually believes that, believes my child is evil because he’s left handed, it’s crazy,” Sands said.
She went to the superintendent with the article.
“There was no suspension of any kind. There was basically nothing done to this teacher,” Sands says, “She told them she thought I needed literature on it.”
Zayde will likely transfer to another class just two months into the school year.
“I don’t feel like the school did what they were supposed to for him,” Sands said.
NewsChannel 4 called the school and were told the superintendent was out Monday, so they transferred us to the principal at Oakes Elementary.
She said she’s aware of the situation and the district is investigating. She hung up before we could ask any questions.
Sands is going to file a formal complaint with the Oklahoma Board of Education.
Home Schooling was never as important as it is TODAY!
Actually, being left-handed is being sinister.
Our Dear leader is left handed
Outrageous.
Everybody knows it’s those people with “Outie” belly buttons that are truly evil!
Don't zot me, Bro...
Cool, someone else here who has had Latin!
CC
So is Slick Clinton, the former Rapist in Chief.
Sinister?
In Latin the word sinister means LEFT.
So of course left is sinister.
In Latin, sinestrum is the word for left. It is also the root word for sinister, so she is technically correct, sort of.
Sinistral shares the root of “sinister” and literally means “on the left side.” The opposite of sinistral is dextral.
My son is left handed and when ever he gets into trouble he blames his left hand. I have to admit it is a pretty good alibi. I can’t tell you how many times he has gotten out of trouble by causing the offended party to be reduced to tears of laughter. One girl friend said they would not get serious until he cut his left hand off. That caught his attention- he never again used that excuse with her again.
How gauche.
Indeed. If one studied Latin, one knows.
Sinister = left
Dextro = right
I’d like to see both the letter sent to the teacher and the letter sent from the teacher. One, or both, of the adults involved are morons. All of the media are morons, and the only clear victim here is this child.
Forcing left-handed people to write right-handed is something that many Americans remember happening in a regular basis in school. It’s stupid, but it isn’t some ancient practice.
And the hyper-ventilating media needs to realize that indeed the word ‘sinister’ in Latin translates to ‘left’.
She’d really love me. I’m ambidextrous.
The word for left in French is sinistre.
That said, this isn’t the first Kindergarten teacher who has discriminated against left handed children. My husband was sent home from K as a lefty. My son was shuttled to a class deemed not ready for reading. It turned out the “test” the teacher gave him was to cut a circle out of paper free hand. I asked what kind of scissors he was provided. Right handed scissors, of course. I moved him to Catholic school where the nun had him reading before Christmas. He’s a PhD in Engineering and works in nuclear research today. He also took 1st prize in the science fair as a first grader at that Catholic school 6 months after that K teacher deemed him “unready” for 1st grade.
BTW, it turned out that 11 of the 12 boys chosen for the “special” first grade where they didn’t plan to teach them to read right away because they were “unready” — 11 of the 12 were left handers!
TMI.
This isn’t new. This is an old belief and parents and teachers have been trying to break kids of this ‘bad habit’ for centuries. This also goes back to a Christian religious belief. I didn’t know this was still going on.
Also gouche.
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