The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1953-03-27
As Matters Stand
Joe Breig Says:
&c" For Good

preficiency-or lack of tin such
affairs as reading, writing and
arithmetic.
There were a couple Of AS and
BIS, and one c. The c did not
raise my eyebrows one iota, be-
cause 1t was for handwriting; and
Jim, like his father, is left-handed.
For a left-hander to get a c in
handwriting strikes me as q greater
triumph than for a highlander to
get an A.
We lefties go through life, in a
manner OF speaking crossWise. The
righties have arbitrarily arranged
the world for their own conven-
fence. The lefty therefore is forced
TO develop, in many things, . spe-
clal deftness, and special determi-
nation and perseverance.
II you doubt thai / suggest that
you try using scissors left-handed.
Ii you hold them right for cutting,
your thumb is in the finger-open-
ing, and you must somehow
squeeze your fingers into the
thumb-hole.
That sort of tlung cramps and
tires the hand and becomes down
right painful if you do much cut
ting.
Conversely, if YOU hold the scis-
sors right Tor your thumb and fin
gers. the blades are in the wrong
position for easy cutting / would
not want TO be a Iett-handed tailor;
although / Will admit that 3 needle
is neither rlght-h5nded nor left
handed, and thai buttons and
threads don't give fig one way
or the other, either
But what il You were left-hsnd-
ed and wanted 10 be a barber?
Either you would pay an outrage
Gus price Il imsgune) for left-hsnd-
ed scissors, or you would have to
suspend yourself from the ceiling
and dangle over the heads of your
customers while you worked. That
would be uncomfortable for you,
and alarming for your clients.
Tools also tend TO favor the
right handler, as do doors and all
kinds Of other Things But the
greatest uniairness to the lefties
is the way IN winch most written
languages move from left to right.
| understand that in Hebrew it is
the other way across Apparently
the lefties got IN on the ground
floor there.
Anyhow, Jim's c in handwriting
seemed to me entirely acceptable.
He isn't learning Hebrew, he's
learning English; and he's got to
90 at it, so to speak, backward.
/ looked at the AS and the BIS
and the c, and smiled my APPROX
al. Fine, Jim" / said. And put
my hand into my pocket to find a
coin.
But he took the report card from
me. held it up, and pointed TO the
right-hand page. Look at that,
Dad" he said
l looked. ON the right-hand page
was q long series OF G's ~ GS.
meaning Good GOOD in what?
Why, Good in artcntiveness, Good
i'm cooperation. Good in courtesy,
Good in obedience, and so on.
In other words, the righthand
page told me that my son is a Good
Guy: a young man of character.
Jim had called my attention not on.
ly to the right-hand page, but to
the right paee-the important page
the page that Will count long af-
ter reading, writing and arithmetic
have ceased to be of the slightest
/ read off the Goods. "GoOd, /
good, good, good, good / recited,
while jim beamed, his mother
beamed, the other children beam
ed, and besmed Then l reached
again into my pocket for reward
for jim.
jim pointed TO his Younger sis
ter who is NOT yet in school. Give
Geena something, too" he said;
and then l knew that goodness was
written in his heart as we'll as on +
his rennrt card