The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-12-05
Equally 90. .-.~ II
Why Do You En-
courage Your Chill
dren to Use Only
the Right Hand?'

NXoU use both eyes, you use both ears
v YOU use both feet, you breathe
through both nostrils-why, then,
don't you use both hands?
Why do you encourage your children to
do everything possible with their right hand
and never to use the left hand except when
it is necessary to use both at once?
This is precisely the line Of reasoning OF
some Of the most advanced students of
scientific education Of children. In some Of
the schools In Europe a new method of In
struction has been introduced with view
to making children equally skilful with
their right hands and their left hands.
In one school in Germany Monday Is
"right-hand day." Tuesday is 'left-hand
day." Wednesday is 'right-hand day.,
Thursday Is ''left-hand day and so on.
On "right-hand day" the children are care
fully watched to make sure that every pos
sible manual service throughout the day is
performed with the right hand only. Next
day precisely the same set Of exercises are
repeated and the left hand is made to do
every task which had been set for the right
hand on the day before.
similar system has recently been adopt
ed In this country-in the Philadelphia art
schools, presided over by j. Liberty Tadd.
The photographs reproduced on this page
show some of Mr.. Tadds young pupils en-.
gagged in exercises intended to make them
not only either-handed, but both handed.
First the interest Of these children is Sc
cured by appealing to their practical sense
with such questions as these:
For the Children to Answer.
"Why should not men and women write
with the left hand as we'll as the right, SO
that when the pen falls from fingers that
are cramped and numbed by long usage, the
left hand could be made to take up the work
and continue it while the right rests, to be
used again in it's turn?
"Why should not the carpenter, who works
a saw until his arm aches. shift the tool to
the other hand and ease his overworked
muscles by using the hand and arm that
does nothing but steady the plank?
''Why should not an artist change his
palette from the left to the right hand and
the brush from the right to the left, and
so double the length Of time he can work
without tiring?'
1t Is then made clear to the Young punfIs
that it Is all habit. They are taught with
the aid Of blackboard drawings that human
beings are fashioned symmetrically by ma
ture, with q central spine dividing a trunl
whose two parts are exact duplicates OF
each other, even to the brain and the limbs.
and that it is only habit which causes crea
lures thus evenlv balanced at birth to 60
through life In lop-sided fashion.
Finally Both Hands at Once.
Then begin simple exercises, which are in
teresting because they demonstrate to the
young minds how habit has already rem
dered their own left hands compare lively
on the blackboard, first with the light
hand and then with the left. Tt is prob
ably the easiest thing to be attempted
with the left hand, but the pupil invaliably
notices the tendency to draw a smaller
and less regular circle with the left hand
than with the right. This tendency Is
corrected by drawing circles with both
hands at once until the left one is as per-
feet as the right one.
Gradually, as the neglected hand becomes
accustomed to obey the dictates OF the
brain, the pupils are given more difficult
designs to draw. Finally, and in some
cases in very few weeks, the pupil is
gpie to draw intricate designs with the
left hand as swiftly and accurately as with
the right. Then comes the final stage.
when the strange sight is seen Of the ambi-
dextrous boy or girl drawing designs with
both hands at once, the left hand doing
the left side Of the design and the RICH: