OK, so the post title is a bit presumptuous.
I’m not entirely sure that Biz is a genius. He’s probably not. (I hope not. Geniuses seem to be extremely misunderstood.)
But he’s been doing some backwards mirror writing and, well, my left-hander’s desk calendar pointed this out:
No doubt that Leonardo da Vinci was a genius. But he lacked a formal education and his natural mode of writing was left-handed mirror writing. In his personal notebooks the letters are written backward, and words and sentences read from right to left on the page. He used regular script only when he was writing to others.
Leonardo da Vinci, of course, was a lefty.
I’ve tried mirror writing before and found that it wasn’t as hard as I expected. As a lefty, I actually do find it easier to move from right to left. I often read articles and/or newspapers or magazines backwards. (Unfortunately, people don’t write the articles backwards so it takes some piecing together.)
I’m pretty sure I’m not a genius, but it’s interesting to note that backwards mirror writing is easier for us lefties.
When shopping for some boots and gloves this weekend, Biz wrote his name twice.
Here’s how he wrote his name on a chalkboard in LL Bean:
On the chalkboard, he wrote his name as if he were mirror writing.
Here’s how he wrote his name at the restaurant before eating lunch:
At the restaurant, he wrote his name upside down. We could read it, but it was upside down to him. He didn’t flip the placemat or anything.
He didn’t flinch in either case. He just wrote. In fact, I almost think upside down mirror writing was easier to him than writing his name normally. We usually have to help him write B-I-Z.
Of course, at not quite 4, he’s still getting the hang of the writing thing. He’s still learning his letters and figuring out how to hold a pencil properly. But I don’t remember G ever writing backwards. His letters may have looked backwards from time to time, but G wouldn’t write an entire word backwards or upside down.
Genius? Maybe not. But it is kind of curious.
Does your child ever do mirror writing or write upside down? Are they left-handed or right-handed?
