by Janet Reimche

Created on: April 18, 2009   Last Updated: May 07, 2009

A Step in the Left Direction

You may have seen photographs of President Obama signing documents. Did you notice that he is left-handed? Since only about one in ten adults is left-handed, the odds are that only four past presidents would have been left-handed. But this is not the case. In fact, five out of the last seven presidents have been left-handed.

Have you ever heard that left-handed people are more creative than right-handers? Or maybe you've heard that they are better in math. While some scientists feel they have proved such theories, others remain on the fence. But these kinds of beliefs show a shift in the way left-handers are seen by society. For many left-handers, being connected with a positive trait is a welcome change from the past.

There was a time when it was not considered acceptable to be left-handed. Throughout history, the roots of Latin, French, Italian and Portuguese words equate "left" with words like sinister, awkward, clumsy, evil and unlucky. In English, the expression "to have two left feet" refers to clumsiness in dancing or in sports. In China, the phrase "left path" stands for obtaining something through illegal means.

It was once common for left-handed people to keep the fact that they were left-handed a secret whenever possible, for fear of being discriminated against. Children were often forced to learn how to write with their right hands. Before the World War II, historians rarely recorded whether or not a president was left-handed, as it was considered a disability.

If there was a way to determine which presidents were left-handed, going all the way back to George Washington, we might be surprised by what we would discover! What if fifty percent of our presidents were actually left-handed? How would scientists explain the odds of such a thing happening?

Most of what scientists have discovered about left-handedness is still not considered fact. A lot more research has to be done. But many scientists now agree that any random group of left-handed people is likely to have more than its fair share of successful people. There are many theories floating around as to why left-handers might be more successful on average than right-handers. One thing that left-handed people seem to have in common is an understanding, from an early age, that they are different from their peers. Whether their parents and teachers saw this preference as good or bad, these young people were aware that they were special, and that's a quality that

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