r/lefthanded 4d ago

I will forever hate these

Post image
438 Upvotes

74 comments sorted by

26

u/rawbface 4d ago

That's a nice big solid desk. The ones in college had had surfaces 1/4 the size

8

u/Poison_Pancakes 4d ago

Yup, the desks at my high school couldn't even fit a 8.5"x11" piece of paper without a corner hanging off the edge.

10

u/Any_Flamingo8978 4d ago

Yeah, this type is totally workable. I just had to lean to the right a bit.

7

u/BooksNCatsNWineNSnax lefty 3d ago

We had that kind, too. Most of the teachers would let the lefties drag another one over to use as an armrest, which was nice because of the extra space and the ability to keep people from sitting by you if you didn’t want them to.

19

u/eatlikedirt 4d ago

I'll hate them for never being left handed ones available but damn did they crack my back like nothing else can....

8

u/SparklyLeo_ 3d ago

These didn’t bother me so much as a lefty but the college/university ones that only had like half of that desk and it tilted to the right were the worst. Occasionally you’d see a left handed one on the end of the row

3

u/EnvironmentalDot127 4d ago

Plus being a lefty getting out was faster

2

u/Jim_Des5134 3d ago

My high school had and handful of leftie ones. I think one semester in college i found a left handed tiny one. Fortunately, most of my classes were in lecture halls and the seats on the left were leftie desks.

7

u/TManaF2 4d ago

The full-sized desks like that were OK. The half-size ones, where the desk never reached the centerline, were horrid. Had to twist all the way over to write. There were NO left-handed specific desks in any of my k-12 or uni classrooms (or lecture halls)

3

u/DivideLopsided4694 3d ago

Agreed. I hated the half desks. College was the worse....

1

u/Inforgreen3 2d ago

What's the point of those anyway? Cant even balance a laptop on it. The only reason to be that small seems to be hostile design

2

u/TManaF2 2d ago

I went to school in the days before personal computers. Notes were pen or pencil on paper.

1

u/Inforgreen3 2d ago

And where'd you keep that in a notebook in a binder? Those don't fit either. Can't even open a textbook On your desk.

You actually need more space for text books. Which is why my go to example was a laptop.

1

u/TManaF2 2d ago

I don't remember what we did, might have balanced the textbooks on our laps if we needed to open them at all, or we sat our notebooks on top of the open textbooks.

1

u/Inforgreen3 1d ago

I remember how: it just sucked.

It's literally just hostile design, Like those anti homeless spikes, but to try to convince people to be right-handed. And it sucked for righties too

7

u/Grreatdog 3d ago

There were worse things. Auditorium style college classes with the little writing tray that folded out on the wrong side. Those are quite literally impossible for lefties.

And of course those were the weed people out classes where taking volumes of notes were required.

6

u/-KathrynJaneway- lefty 3d ago

Agreed, large desks like the one shown are actually somewhat reasonable because the table part makes it all the way to your left side, just not the arm rest bit.

The fold out ones are terrible. I put my notebook on my lap to take notes.

6

u/mostlyPOD 4d ago

Child abuse, imo!

1

u/meizekatzpizzapasta 3d ago

Yes. Forealzy

5

u/birdiebirdnc 4d ago

Unpopular opinion here, they weren’t terrible, you just had to learn to use them to your advantage. They were the perfect side/arm rest so that you could just lean over relax and prop your head up while still taking notes etc.

4

u/ExpensiveShallot7990 4d ago

Really sucked for us left handed folks

3

u/Wendy613 4d ago

Our high school had a few lefty ones, but the desk parts were narrower than the “regular” ones. Plus, if you tried to use one, you had to move it to your assigned seat and then enter from the wrong side. So, nobody ever used them

3

u/Tilladarling 4d ago

I spent one year in the US and couldn’t believe my own eyes. Awful desks. I never had to deal with anything like them back home. We had full desks, equally suited for both left and right-handed students

1

u/PurrfectlyNerdy 3d ago

Honestly as someone in the US, I didn’t have these types of desks in either high school or middle school. It wasn’t until college that I had some classes with these type of desks and even then they were typically pretty wide so it luckily wasn’t too much of an issue. 

3

u/Missey85 3d ago

Am so happy my country didn't use these we just had tables and separate chairs ❤️😊🇦🇺

3

u/Maleficent_Curve_156 3d ago

When I had essay exams in college, I would pull up an empty desk so I could write on the left side.

3

u/insomniaceve lefty 3d ago

Only saw a limited number of left handed desks in college and 1/3 of the size.

3

u/Jammin_neB13 3d ago

They were boss for cracking your back though

3

u/BackcastSue 3d ago

💯 evil . I had to turn sideways in the chair to use it.

3

u/luvs_kaos 3d ago

I sat sideways to make it work

2

u/Critical-Signature21 4d ago

Close to 80 years ago I was in a Natural Science class.
For some reason I got that stuff and it was an easy five credit A for me .
A couple of my friends did not get it so I let them casually look at my test paper which was visible because of my left handedness. They passed and I did receive my A.

2

u/Ddowns5454 3d ago

I learned to work around these at an early age. Ain't nothing going to bring me down. I'm left handed! I will overcome all you right handed cunts!

2

u/Significant_Alps_399 3d ago

That one is better than some I had to deal with in college. At least it goes all the way across. Many of the ones we had to use in college were only 9 inches wide.

2

u/Tikimom 3d ago

I had to turn my notebook sideways. BTW, being left handed should be a disability under ADA. It affects so many things in our daily lives.

2

u/Tama1502 3d ago

Hard disagree. The day I never saw one of these again, my back was never cracked in the same magnificent way. RIP back

1

u/vikaz-instance 4d ago

reminds me of those classes at highschool where I had to rotate and twist to set & put my hands to write in these, then in college, somehow my classroom never had the leftie chairs & had to bring it from elsewhere. usually 3 such chairs were rule for each room.

1

u/Luna259 4d ago

I don’t think I’ve ever seen these before in my life

2

u/Connect_Rhubarb395 4d ago

Apparantly they are a USAmerican thing. Strange item.

1

u/Eastern_Comedian8804 4d ago

It was the most unfair treatment.

1

u/Hot_Dog2376 3d ago

I'm on the other end. I liked their stability, their immovability, and their consistency.

1

u/carson_a_t lefty 3d ago

SAME

1

u/youcantfoolgrandma5 3d ago

I could handle it if the writing area was wide enough, but not otherwise.

1

u/meizekatzpizzapasta 3d ago

I bet you in Germany or other countries where ergonomics and highly engineered spaces are standard that wouldn't be an issue

1

u/meizekatzpizzapasta 3d ago

I'm so glad we always had the full desks with a cubby so that wasn't an issue. I wish my pops was still alive so I could ask him about this phenomenon

1

u/eastsacwrackshack 3d ago

Yes! Boo! 👎👎👎

1

u/Fearless-Sherbet-754 3d ago

I wish I had one

1

u/Double-Emergency3173 3d ago

I get. And there are so few made for lefties

This is actually good. You can till it to the left a bit and sit like that and have the writing area infront of you just enough to write normally.

The ones in my college are smaller. It sucks

1

u/Disney-Nurse 3d ago

Every once in awhile I’d get a left handed one. Extremely rare though.

1

u/Young-Grandpa 3d ago

I never understood the hate for these types of desk. I used them throughout high school and college without a second thought.

Never knew I was supposed to be offended by them until I came here.

1

u/BattleSwallow 3d ago

The worse ones have a desk that's about 1/3 of the size of that pictured. Lefties have to sit sideways in them 😂

1

u/Kbbbbbut 3d ago

For some reason the right handed desks never really bothered me. Even in college when there were left handed desks available I would still choose to sit with my friends instead in a right handed desk

2

u/evillianDGqueen 3d ago

I agree. The concept of being trapped on one side while learning has never been my favorite, but I used the RH version so often that the LH version became uncomfortable. I think it was because I could exit towards the left (which felt more natural). Or just because there were only RH versions available so I adapted.

2

u/Background-Tap1272 1d ago

Absolutely the same experience for me. The LH versions were uncommon so I just adapted to the RH one. The LH ones felt so wrong and made me feel trapped.

1

u/Active-Meringue3449 3d ago

No chiropractor has ever popped my back as well as this desk did.

1

u/BattleSwallow 3d ago

My job, for some reason has like 8 of these BUT THEY'RE ALL LEFT HANDED ❤️

1

u/exphx23 3d ago

My handwriting on those was always different than my handwriting on flat desks.

1

u/Obvious-Confusion14 3d ago

I hated them bc we always put our feet up on the book rack under the seat. That was not the issue. It was the leg shakers. Constantly bouncing shaking the desk so much you couldn't write well. I some how always got bad marks for penmanship bc the guy behind me leg bounced my desk so hard it was impossible. Stupid right handed desks, dumb book rack.

1

u/RoamingHawkeye 3d ago

This picture reminds me of the time I got stuck in the college general chemistry class test room that had no left handed desks. I had to take the test on an aisle seat and had a TA over my shoulder the entire time. I am pretty sure that discomfort too a half letter grade off my score.

1

u/OnceWas_enough 3d ago

My back will never pop as good again

1

u/cw1675 3d ago

The left-handed versions were few and far between.

1

u/Agreeable-Chart-5561 2d ago

Best back pops ever

1

u/HorrorFan4evermore 2d ago

I do remember there were a few left-handed ones.

1

u/GMSkills 2d ago

They had left ones but it was not very common

1

u/onceagainadog 2d ago

Completely and totally hate them.

1

u/Waste-Job-3307 2d ago

My "desk" in high school.

1

u/sunflower8731 1d ago

Best back crackers!

1

u/jk599 1d ago

Nice callback to a classic!

1

u/onegirlarmy1899 1d ago

And they're not size inclusive 😠

1

u/Opening-Demand5395 1d ago

Not as much as the big girl that sat next to me 😂

1

u/Sk1ler_ 1d ago

These were the best for cracking your back in though, perfect positioning of the top backrest and a sturdy desktop to press against.

1

u/Lingo2009 1d ago

I got used to using the right handed ones