As promised to the operators of a theme park, please find herewith my personal statement regarding lefthanders discrimination by offering a bow shooting event which is fun for RIGHThanded kids only. Others - means the left ones - certainly experience a heavy disappointment in this park while expecting a day of fun, and their parents having paid for it. It is an e-mail directly to the Archeon in Alphen an den Rijn, The Netherlands.
It was a gorgeous day for the whole family ... except what I am describing here. Anyone who has not personally experienced this kind of discrimination during all lifetime might take a short moment what stupid things can be loaded on children, just because they are being considered as 'not right' and thus, ignored. To be honest, they simply are left out.
Imagine yourself a child and what such would do to you.
I can tell that many other companies do not much better.
So does Mattel not consider it necessary to even medium term re-print their playcards as the well-known 'Uno' (anyway a copy of a much older common ownership game known as 'Mau-Mau' for instance in Germany, to be played with simple playcards as long as I can think) with the symbols top left AND right which would make it possible also for lefthanded children to hold the cards in their hands as it is according their natural personal handedness.
Mattel PI answers respective requests simply with the argument that there would be no demand for such. As we as a lefthanders organization did address them with the subject, just by this fact there certainly is a demand.
Not to realize this must be pure, righthanded logic. Getting input and at the same time denying it is a very characteristic reaction.
And intelligent lefthanded kids have to early adapt as righthanders. If you are interested and start dealing with this subject you easily find out that such asymetric production of goods already forces children to become shifted sinistrals, with all the rat-tail of disadvantages and sometimes severely overasking effort for the brain. Nowadays, it should for long not be allowed anymore to force lefthanders to be righties, and I think we all know that. Lefthanded kids are what they are born naturally, and as good and as bad as righthanders. It may not be that some species of people claim the world only for themselves and exclude the ones which are simply different from living their lives.There are so many more items which already kids have to deal with and are only made for righthanders that it is almost impossible to list them all. Just some that instantly come back into my mind: the camera of my daughter (as any camera), the remote control of the helicopter my son wished for his last birthday and what therefore was a severe disappointment, as helicopters are already tricky to fly - imagine now to manage that with the 'wrong' as non-dominant hand and brain hemisphere.
We can constantly can see that lefties are left, indeed. Left by the adults whom they have a right to trust in.
To summarize it in brief, there is a proverb that says:
Roughly translatable as ''stupidity and arrogance are growing a same material' (the English synonym though is 'Ignorance is the mother of Impudence'. I think the first one puts the causality closer to reality - as two symptoms caused by one reason which is left open and not a mono-linear relation).
Honestly disappointed about such still existing discrimination in a world that calls itself civilized,
Lyn
It was a gorgeous day for the whole family ... except what I am describing here. Anyone who has not personally experienced this kind of discrimination during all lifetime might take a short moment what stupid things can be loaded on children, just because they are being considered as 'not right' and thus, ignored. To be honest, they simply are left out.Imagine yourself a child and what such would do to you.
Bow shooting for lefthanders at the Archeon - disappointing and discriminatingThe management has not considered it necessary to answer this e-mail as of June 2011 at all. Unfortunately. So I think this fact should also be open to the interested public. People can't hide by ignoring when they are addressed. At least, the shouldn't.
Dear Madam or Sir,
as a family of six we had visited the Archeon last Easter Sunday and we all really enjoyed the brunch, the setting, the fun and in principle the complete day. The only exception was the bow shooting, as here it seems a very rigid policy against lefthanders is applied. For one, the bows are not suitable for both right and lefthanders. As a result, lefthanded children are forced to shoot as if being righthanders. It is by now well known that retraining lefthanded children to act as if being righthanders is a relict of some past which should already have been abandoned and overcome due to better knowledge and understanding of the fact that there simply ARE two brain hemispheres of which none is the better but both have their special qualities. Despite this, lefthanded children over and over have to experience severe discrimination and exclusion simply because daily life tools and handling requirements force them to act as if being righthanders.
This exactly already happens with the fact that the bows you are using in the Archeon are made for righthanders only.
Second, the way the person at that bow shooting stand acted towards the lefthanded children as I could observe on that Easter Sunday, was simply unbearable. A mother with a smaller child who was in the queue before us and who asked for the child being allowed to shoot lefthanded, was rigidly sent away and the child was visibly sad and disappointed. I then tried again as also both of my children and myself are lefthanders. My son of 11 years really wished to shoot, but when he asked he was not allowed to shoot lefthanded and waited and watched very disappointedly how all others were shooting with the bow.
After I discussed with the man on the stand, he first let my son shoot lefthanded but put him severly under psychological pressure by his aggressive behaviour. Next, he told my son to try it righthanded, and with that he supported him in shooting. The man was very angry and aggressive, and then sent my son rigidly away with the words where would have been the difference now. I must state, and with me any lefthanders and lefthanded children's parents would, that this behaviour towards a child is more than unacceptable and left a very bad impression of a day that was supposed to become a nice and beautiful day.
I am kindly asking you to
a) take measures that bows which allow both lefthanded and righthanded shooting will be available and
b) that the person on duty on that stand that day should get some advice about how to act towards guests of the Archeon, and especially towards children.
I will use the freedom of information to also forward this letter to lefthanders associations as this topic concerns all lefthanded children who in their daily lives over and over have to suffer such negative treatment and difficulties which are completely unnecessary. The discrimination these children have to repeatedly experience is unbearable and that their good days are spoiled because of such kind of reasons, is not justifiable at all.
With my kindest regards.
I can tell that many other companies do not much better.
Mattel PI answers respective requests simply with the argument that there would be no demand for such. As we as a lefthanders organization did address them with the subject, just by this fact there certainly is a demand.
Not to realize this must be pure, righthanded logic. Getting input and at the same time denying it is a very characteristic reaction.
And intelligent lefthanded kids have to early adapt as righthanders. If you are interested and start dealing with this subject you easily find out that such asymetric production of goods already forces children to become shifted sinistrals, with all the rat-tail of disadvantages and sometimes severely overasking effort for the brain. Nowadays, it should for long not be allowed anymore to force lefthanders to be righties, and I think we all know that. Lefthanded kids are what they are born naturally, and as good and as bad as righthanders. It may not be that some species of people claim the world only for themselves and exclude the ones which are simply different from living their lives.There are so many more items which already kids have to deal with and are only made for righthanders that it is almost impossible to list them all. Just some that instantly come back into my mind: the camera of my daughter (as any camera), the remote control of the helicopter my son wished for his last birthday and what therefore was a severe disappointment, as helicopters are already tricky to fly - imagine now to manage that with the 'wrong' as non-dominant hand and brain hemisphere.
We can constantly can see that lefties are left, indeed. Left by the adults whom they have a right to trust in.
To summarize it in brief, there is a proverb that says:
'Dummheit und Stolz wachsen auf einem Holz'.
Roughly translatable as ''stupidity and arrogance are growing a same material' (the English synonym though is 'Ignorance is the mother of Impudence'. I think the first one puts the causality closer to reality - as two symptoms caused by one reason which is left open and not a mono-linear relation).
Honestly disappointed about such still existing discrimination in a world that calls itself civilized,
Lyn
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