You must have gone to a Catholic school!

September 16, 2021 4:19 PM

My grandmom, who is proudly left-handed, says that twice in the past few weeks, people have asked her if she went to Catholic school after they saw her signing her name. Is there a video about writing left-handed in Catholic schools circulating online that went viral recently? If so, I'd like to share it with her.

She probably was a schoolgirl in Philly in the 1940s if it's relevant.

posted by aniola to Grab Bag (17 answers total)

Does your grandmother have really good handwriting? Like, super nice cursive handwriting? I used to joke that my late wife, who went to Catholic school in the 80s, had "Catholic schoolgirl handwriting" because it was so perfect.

The common trope, which my wife agreed with, is that Catholic schools really focus on things like penmanship so your handwriting better be perfect or the nuns will smack your knuckles with a ruler.
posted by ralan at 4:27 PM on September 16, 2021 [2 favorites]

Just Googling "Catholic school handwriting" brings up some results that suggest that Catholic schools were known for teaching cursive handwriting.
posted by pipeski at 4:29 PM on September 16, 2021 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I am specifically looking for something that may have gone viral-ish recently that would cause this to have come up twice in the past few weeks.
posted by aniola at 4:31 PM on September 16, 2021

Yeah, I'm sorry to say that the fact that she is a lefty is probably a red herring here. I'm also familiar with the view of Catholic school producing excellent penmanship. Meanwhile, as a proud lefty myself, I've had more than one person of her generation tell me about how at their Catholic school, leftys tended to "become" right-handed, the devil being in the left-hand and all.
posted by coffeecat at 5:39 PM on September 16, 2021 [9 favorites]

A recent-ish to me would be a Simpsons episode (maybe long old re-run) where Marge discovers that she's left handed, or knew all along, and hiding it by being a righty, and flashbacks to Catholic school and the left is evil stuff.

Marge Simpson is Left-Handed - YouTube.
posted by zengargoyle at 5:45 PM on September 16, 2021

Response by poster: Maybe it's just the handwriting, then! Has anything gone viral recently about Catholic school handwriting?
posted by aniola at 6:11 PM on September 16, 2021

FWIW, my dad, a natural lefty, used to tell stories of when he was in Catholic school (wayyyyyyyyyy back in time) the nuns would smack him over the knuckles with a ruler whenever they caught him writing left-handed. Apparently being a lefty was a no-no at some point back in the mists of time.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:29 PM on September 16, 2021 [2 favorites]

Thorzdad, my cousin had the same experience in public school.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:14 PM on September 16, 2021

I don’t think anything’s recently gone viral. It’s just a trope. My mom went to Catholic achooo and has gorgeous handwriting. All my life I’ve heard people ask her if she went to Catholic school after she signed something.
posted by Miko at 8:41 PM on September 16, 2021 [1 favorite]

My Mom and I were just talking about this tonight. I went to Catholic school through third grade, so I learned D’Nealian for writing. My younger sister was a Kindergartener when we changed to the local public school. Our handwriting is night and day, likely in large part due to that difference.

Because of how the strokes are made, left handed D’Nealian is even more distinctive.
posted by susiswimmer at 10:22 PM on September 16, 2021

Has anything gone viral recently about Catholic school handwriting?

I think it's more likely that it's just a coincidence that it's happened twice in quick succession. If you think about all the many, many times that things haven't happened twice in quick succession, it's completely normal and expected that, very occasionally, it would. If it had happened five times in quick succession, then maybe, but twice feels like coincidence.
posted by penguin pie at 4:34 AM on September 17, 2021 [5 favorites]

Best answer: Does she live in the Philly area? A popular morning radio show had a segment about writing left-handed in the last week or so.
posted by jennypower at 6:12 AM on September 17, 2021 [4 favorites]

Response by poster: She does live in Philly! Which radio station?
posted by aniola at 8:12 AM on September 17, 2021

Response by poster: Er, which radio show, I mean.
posted by aniola at 8:17 AM on September 17, 2021

Went to Catholic schools in Philadelphia. I'm a lefty. They tried to convert me to a righty (via the Palmer method lol) until my parents put a stop to it. It was awful, they would sometimes tie my left arm so I couldn't "cheat". JFC, I was a very unhappy little boy.

I have no knowledge of a video.
posted by james33 at 8:23 AM on September 17, 2021

Best answer: Preston & Steve on WMMR. I tried searching for the clip but couldn't find it. They were specifically talking about how lefties hold writing instruments differently, but I think the topic of Catholic school teaching styles was in the mix too. Unfortunately, I didn't hear the entire segment.
posted by jennypower at 8:47 AM on September 17, 2021 [2 favorites]

My mom's a lefty who went to Catholic school near Philadelphia in the 50s. I'd love to hear the segment if anyone can find it.
posted by bink at 11:03 PM on September 19, 2021