President Barack Obama recounted to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday how, as a boy living in Indonesia, he was frequently hit with a ruler as punishment for writing with his left hand.
“When I was in Indonesia, it was considered bad manners [to write with ones left hand],” Obama said Wednesday. “Even though I would get hit with rulers, I just stuck with it,” he explained, according to a pool report of the conversation.
Obama was likely referring to his time at Santo Fransiskus Assisis — or St. Francis of Assisi — a Jakarta-area Catholic school he attended from 1968 through 1970.
Catholic nuns are famous for wielding rulers in an attempt to break bad habits.
But in Obama’s case, it didn’t work.
The left-handed president can often be spotted curling his wrist to see how his signature looks as he signs off on the nation’s laws.