RjThoughts
I'm The Rojodi!
- Joined
- May 7, 2001
- Posts
- 36,533
Ok, for today’s ramble, a question for left handed people or educators. Long story short, had a meeting at my kid’s school. One of the things I brought up was an assessment test done in August that he bombed majorly. Now they do this assessment 3 times a year, and it isn’t a big deal, but in kindergarten he scored like a 490 which would put him at about a 2nd grade level. And in August he scored an 8. I didn’t even know that was possible to get below 100. I tried to get information at the time, but issue is he hasn’t had the same teacher for more than 3 weeks this year. Don’t even get me started on that but most of the time I couldn’t even find out who his teacher was to ask. He has had 7 teachers this year. One new teacher who quit, a sub, another sub, another new teacher who quit, another sub, split up the class to other teachers, that teacher then had surgery so another sub, then that teacher just returned. Yeah, don’t get me started. Anyway, his next assessment in December put him up in the 500s again. I still really wanted to know what the hell happened that day, like 490, to 8, to 510. Something doesn’t fit.
Now, the assessments are computerized. I asked at the time if he was set up for left handed, as he is left handed and in kindergarten the test is done on a touch screen, but 1st it is by mouse. In my house, if he will be using the pc, I have his profile set to reverse primary and secondary mouse buttons, so I can move the mouse left for him when he sits down (I am right handed). Seems pretty basic to assume a left handed person should use the left handed mouse settings. When I asked this at the time, the sub wasn’t sure as had only been there a few days, I just eye rolled at the shitty situation in general and moved on.
Now, anyway, I finally have a teacher so I get a conference, yippie. I again ask this question, the teacher is unsure, she asks someone else who is confused and says they don’t have left handed mice. I explain their mice are universal, to which more teachers join this and say yeah, they can move the mice left. I point out that just moving the mouse isn’t changing it to left handed, because the primary and secondary buttons still need to be swapped. You aren’t expecting 6 year olds to navigate the control panel are you? They were floored. I had said something amazing an revolutionary. They were all clicking the mice like “omg, you are right” In the end, we ended up with 7 teachers who had never once considered left handed children might use a mouse with their left hand. Not one single teacher ever considered this possibility. These are teachers who wouldn’t dream of forcing a left handed student to write with their right hand, but they force them to use a mouse that way. Everything they teach is based on using it with their right hand. Every test they take is computerized thus not only are they teaching 10% of the student body incorrectly, they are hindering 10% of the students on testing. Especially since I think any reasonable parent would set their left handed child up as left handed at home. Seems obvious to me. I can now see exactly why his score was so low that day. First time he ever used a mouse in school. He moved the mouse on his own, told the teacher the mouse didn’t work, she moved it and said yes it does, he probably tried again, argued back, gave up and simply didn’t take it. I didn’t even know what to say at this point, as clearly my son has figured it out and learned at school he must use it right handed or use different fingers (I need to ask him what he is doing) so I moved on. I could accept that maybe one teacher didn’t know, it happens, but it floors me is that for years, no teacher in this entire school had ever considered a left handed student might use their left hand.
So educators, Am I the one that is absurd here? Is right handed just the only way things are done in schools?
This reminds me of an employee here, I noticed he was left handed but didn’t change his mouse, and I asked if he needed assistance in doing so. He said no, he uses it right handed. I was curious, so I asked why. He explained when he was in school, they zip tied mice to the desks, so they couldn’t be stolen, but that meant right handed was the only option, so he adapted. I was (and still think rightfully slow) aghast that an education facility would to that. He responded he was actually glad they did, because now he can use dominant hand to jack off when surfing porn, so he was way better off than us right handed people.
So left hand litsters, how do you use your mouse?
It was my understanding that here in New York with non-touch screen computerized testing, there had to be left handed stations. I learned this when I substituted for my son's Technology class during the "winter testing" week. Does Florida make such accommodations to their portsiders? If not, that's fishy at the least, laziness at the most.
At least they're not making him right handed like the schools did when I was a kid: Catholic school made my brother write right handed, public school made a cousin do the same.