Four-year-old Zayde Sands does everything with his left hand.
From picking things up to throwing things, to batting, to writing, to just coloring youd do at home with him, hes always, always used his left hand, his mother, Alicia Sands, told local television news KFOR.
But last week, Alicia was helping her son with his homework when she noticed something was different he was writing with his right hand instead.
I just asked Is there anything his teachers ever asked about his hands? And he raises this one and says this ones bad," she told KFOR.
Sands then wrote a note for her son to give to his teacher when he returned to Oakes Elementary School in Okemah, Oklahoma.
In response, the teacher sent Zayde home with an article about how lefties are considered unlucky or inauspicious and associated with the idea of wickedness, ABC news reported.
Sands has since filed a complaint with the elementary school, but the teacher has not yet been disciplined.
The superintendent over the school, Tony Dean, told BuzzFeed that the situation is just a misunderstanding.
He said the teacher was only trying to inform Sands about hand dominance and that the teacher should have blocked out the part of the article that mentioned lefties used to be considered evil.
We do not agree with that, Dean said.
However, several studies suggest that being left-handed isn't exactly advantageous.
A 2014 study out of Harvard compared five datasets asking individuals questions about their dominant hand to a variety of other information about the person, such as test scores, family history, and education level, to get a more clear analysis of the link between a person's well-being and their hand preference.
The study found that left-handed individuals make less money than their right-handed counterparts. It also found that lefties have lower cognitive skills and higher rates of mental and behavioral disabilities.
But that's not always the case. As a matter of fact, the past five U.S. presidents, with the exception of George W. Bush, have all been lefties, according to The Telegraph.
Buzzfeed specifically named Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush, Gerald Ford, and Harry Truman as some of the most notable left-handed leaders throughout American history.
And many lefties have a leg up in sports, too, such as golf, tennis and baseball, according to the book "The Puzzle of Left-Handedness" by Rik Smits referenced by Everyday Health, which may have more to do with practice to overcome any disadvantages afforded by being left-handed than with instinct.
"The author chalks it up to the fact that left-handed athletes get a lot more opportunity to practice against right-handed opponents than vice versa (since there are so many more righties out there)," Katy Kerns wrote for Everyday Health.
But which hand you or you child prefer to use may not prove to be that important after all.
Research from Groningen University in the Netherlands found that many of the negative beliefs people hold about being left-handed are myths, according to Dutch News.
"We thought it made a difference which hand you use," researcher Ton Groothuis told Dutch News. "But we have discovered there is hardly any difference. The strength of the hand you choose is more important."
And what's even better than having one dominant hand you can rely on? Having two you can use equally, the research indicated.
From picking things up to throwing things, to batting, to writing, to just coloring youd do at home with him, hes always, always used his left hand, his mother, Alicia Sands, told local television news KFOR.
But last week, Alicia was helping her son with his homework when she noticed something was different he was writing with his right hand instead.
I just asked Is there anything his teachers ever asked about his hands? And he raises this one and says this ones bad," she told KFOR.
Sands then wrote a note for her son to give to his teacher when he returned to Oakes Elementary School in Okemah, Oklahoma.
In response, the teacher sent Zayde home with an article about how lefties are considered unlucky or inauspicious and associated with the idea of wickedness, ABC news reported.
Sands has since filed a complaint with the elementary school, but the teacher has not yet been disciplined.
The superintendent over the school, Tony Dean, told BuzzFeed that the situation is just a misunderstanding.
He said the teacher was only trying to inform Sands about hand dominance and that the teacher should have blocked out the part of the article that mentioned lefties used to be considered evil.
We do not agree with that, Dean said.
However, several studies suggest that being left-handed isn't exactly advantageous.
A 2014 study out of Harvard compared five datasets asking individuals questions about their dominant hand to a variety of other information about the person, such as test scores, family history, and education level, to get a more clear analysis of the link between a person's well-being and their hand preference.
The study found that left-handed individuals make less money than their right-handed counterparts. It also found that lefties have lower cognitive skills and higher rates of mental and behavioral disabilities.
But that's not always the case. As a matter of fact, the past five U.S. presidents, with the exception of George W. Bush, have all been lefties, according to The Telegraph.
Buzzfeed specifically named Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush, Gerald Ford, and Harry Truman as some of the most notable left-handed leaders throughout American history.
And many lefties have a leg up in sports, too, such as golf, tennis and baseball, according to the book "The Puzzle of Left-Handedness" by Rik Smits referenced by Everyday Health, which may have more to do with practice to overcome any disadvantages afforded by being left-handed than with instinct.
"The author chalks it up to the fact that left-handed athletes get a lot more opportunity to practice against right-handed opponents than vice versa (since there are so many more righties out there)," Katy Kerns wrote for Everyday Health.
But which hand you or you child prefer to use may not prove to be that important after all.
Research from Groningen University in the Netherlands found that many of the negative beliefs people hold about being left-handed are myths, according to Dutch News.
"We thought it made a difference which hand you use," researcher Ton Groothuis told Dutch News. "But we have discovered there is hardly any difference. The strength of the hand you choose is more important."
And what's even better than having one dominant hand you can rely on? Having two you can use equally, the research indicated.
