cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/41056130
At least 31 states and the District of Columbia restrict cell phones in schools
New York City teachers say the state’s recently implemented cell phone ban in schools has showed that numerous students no longer know how to tell time on an old-fashioned clock.
“That’s a major skill that they’re not used to at all,” Tiana Millen, an assistant principal at Cardozo High School in Queens, told Gothamist of what she’s noticed after the ban, which went into effect in September.
Students in the city’s school system are meant to learn basic time-telling skills in the first and second grade, according to officials, though it appears children have fallen out of practice doing so in an increasingly digital world.
Pains me that the article calls them “old” clocks and not “analog” clocks.
I heard a story about a kid telling an adult that they couldn’t read “circle time.” That any better?
Only slightly! 😂
🎵Then put your little hand in mine!🎵
Wow, arguably my favorite movie, but it took me way too long…
🎵Then put your little hand in mine!🎵
Behold, your analog clock.
Because they are fucking old. Old clocks. Useless clocks. Not a skill worth teaching, except as an anachronism when explaining why Big Ben and similar building clocks work the way they do.
it appears children have fallen out of practice doing so in an increasingly digital world.
Increasingly? Brother, we’re already there. It’s all digital. Have you seen the internet yet?
Schools haven’t adapted solely out of spite, to propagate this self-fulfilling cycle of teaching how they work, so that their own students can read school clocks. As soon as they leave the school zone, that knowledge is practically useless to them.
Not sure what kind of sequestered live you lead but schools are definitely not the only place you encounter them. Analog wall clocks and watch faces are still reasonably common.
They are very rare in public spaces over here. Pretty much only elderly have them in their homes
Nope, not really. You occasionally find them in some old government building, but only because it’s always existed that way, and they just don’t want to bother replacing it with a modern digital clock.
This line of thinking is the same as saying cursive writing is worth teaching.
Lol we bought one from IKEA recently.
Cursive is a font optimized for hand writing.
I don’t use analog clocks, but they are arguably easier to read with worse vision.
I didn’t know 12 year olds were on lemmy
deleted by creator
Maybe it wasn’t such a major skill after all 😄
Also, I’m old and remember waking up after partying hard and looking at an analog clock, not knowing whether it’s AM or PM. Those clocks suck. 24h or nothing. Also radio-controlled clocks are a blessing ngl.
Looking at the sky will often help with distinguishing AM vs PM
5 in my winter is about the same.
Yeah, if the sky isn’t totally overcast, then you see where the sun is
below the horizon in both cases
Fine but which side of the sky is tinted orange
You’re of course right. I was being a little facetious. I think it’s really just naps that have woken me to absolutely zero idea what time it is. My teenage bedroom had a window in shade with the blinds closed.
That requires me to get out of bed tho
Having a proper time format helps more
The direction and quality of light makes it clear as well. OTOH, I’ve found people who can’t tell which side of their house the sun rises and sets on.
Kind of funny reading this at a time when it’s pitch black outside except for an hour or two around noon.
I know by radio-controlled clock you probably meant the ones that automatically set the time, but I’m now imagining a kid with an RC car controller making the clock spin really fast
Why stop there? Why not the date and year too?
Yeah they probably can’t read cursive either.
I hope so. Cursive is worthless and needs to die.
I’m starting to struggle with this lately too
My 12-yo was never taught cursive, and it turns out her general reading of print is lagging, but she read handwritten cursive last night well enough.
well i know hell and damn and the b-word
which new york teacher was stunned because i have questions
Right, find me one. Teachers everywhere said kids can’t read analog clocks long before cellphone bans.
I learned to read an analog clock in elementary school. If schools aren’t teaching it anymore idk why they’re shocked that kids don’t know how.
Bet they can’t dial a rotary phone or hitch a horse to a wagon either.
deleted by creator
This is dishonest, because unlike horses and kerosene lamps, analog clocks are in every (european) town, on the churches, matkets, train stations etc…
deleted by creator
They seem bad at computers a lot of the time too. I know right wingers like to make public schools lives hell by slashing budgets constantly but like damn.
Nobody is “good with computers” until they can install their own operating system and manage files and backups.
My 2 cents.
“Old clocks”
I remember when I was in 5th grade, back in the early '80s, a kid didn’t know how to tell time on a clock. The adults then blamed the popularity of digital wristwatches. On one hand it doesn’t really matter, on the other it’s a great introduction to visualizing alternate numbering systems.
I was in 5th grade back in 00’s and if you don"t knoe how to tell time on a clock, you get made fun of. It offers a different, a more intuitive, perception of progressing time. It’s more like a progress bar than just counting numbers
We are the same age and I had my first analog wristwatch in 1st grade. When my niece was 4 in '86 or so I taught her to read a clock. Weird world, guess it’s not all about age.
Same shit, different Gen. The sundialists hated mechanical clocks, too.
This is not surprising at all. Even when taking about time relative to the analog clock, it gets difficult, a lady asked me for the time at Walmart, and she could not understand “half past six”. When I clarified that’s 6:30, she finally got it.
“Ten to eleven” would get a blank stare, too, probably.
You’re a teacher? Teach!
I taught my gen-z kid to read an analog clock because I knew no one else would. I know he learned it.
He’s 27 now, and living back at home. Recently, we were in the kitchen and the cat was asking to be fed. He said, “I don’t think it’s time yet…” and then went to his room to check the time on his phone. The same analog clock he learned to read is on the wall in the kitchen, where it’s been his entire life. Apparently, he didn’t practice at all after I taught him and tested him on it, and now can’t read it? I dunno, I didn’t ask, I didn’t want to make a whole thing out of it.
Like a foreign language, use it or lose it.
Well, I can convert it, but it takes time. I’ve been told that people who think in analog time rather view it as a kind of progress bar and only convert it to the exact minute number when they are asked for the time by somebody else.
How is that even possible? The only clocks on display in my house are analog. Do people not have wall clocks? Do kids grow up never knowing what time it is? That’s a standard household furnishing.
Then again, it does say some students, so I probably should assume it’s a minority who never asked their parents what the fuck that thing on the wall was.
Microwave, stove, tv, computers… Digital by default or digital only. Who hangs a wall clock anymore?
Most people in my country, but I guess not USA, huh? I thought analog watches are almost always more fashionable than digital, too, so I’m really surprised it seems to be not used enough that a couple of dudes here dedicated paragraphs to oppose its use.
Idk, I have an analog hanging up. Some guy on lemmy who can’t even read analogs at a glance isn’t the sole arbiter of timekeeping for everyone’s house in the country.
I’m not in the USA. I do have an analog clock and watch though but they just sit in the closet.
Here’s the problem, I don’t have a lot of wall space and I already have clocks everywhere else. If the purpose is to know the time, then the purpose has been delivered like 5 times over. I don’t need to waste wall space on an analog clock.
Who wears watches for fashion?
I imagine a lot of folks. Everyone has a pocket watch nowadays. Building a habit to check your wrist instead of your pocket isn’t necessarily easy if it’s new.
the only clocks I have on display in my house are analog
That’s a choice. You don’t have to have any analog clocks. I don’t currently have any. I dislike decorational clocks and strictly have digital clocks as informational devices where I want the time at a glance. Not to mention, I have 4 appliances in the kitchen with digital clocks (oven, microwave, drip coffee, keurig). Meanwhile, I absolutely hate audible ticking, so the only analogs I’ve bought are watches.
Also, as a former child, I can tell you children do not know what time it is. I also had digital clocks available the whole time, ranging from my dad’s “James Bond” Casio, to the VCR flashing 12:00 all the time. Mostly, the pale teal VFD type.
It doesn’t make sense to think of reading an analog clock as a necessary skill. It’s like driving a manual car. Can you? I do it daily. I can count on one hand the number of times being able to drive stick saved me in an emergency situation by being the only transmission available (it’s a closed fist). All the same, I have never been in an emergency situation that was dependent on my ability to read an analog clock
Tick Tock. Tick Tock.
That shit gets it’s battery removed or taken off the wall and shoved in the bathroom whenever I end up at a hotel/motel with one.
Drives me insane.
I don’t mind ticking (up to a certain point), but my Dad used to have in his garage an analog clock that not only ticked but also had extremely audible whirring sounds. They were associated (I assume) with the gearing. Again, it never really bothered me - I didn’t spend much time in the garage and I’m pretty sure that clock had been around longer than I had (which is probably why it was so noisy). I was accustomed to it.
However, I remember the day my dad got hearing aids. One of the first things he observed was how noisy the clock was, asking if it had always been that way.
My dad spent a lot of time in his garage. Pretty sure that clock didn’t last out the week.
Hearing aids are such a QoL improvement once people admit they need them. There’s so much noise in the world that gets lost with age/damage. My dad got less irritable because he could actually understand normal talking levels. He definitely noticed some “new” noises in his house like yours did.
But now I have a new issue. I can hear him breathing and chewing through his own hearing aids since they’re cranked to 11. Whatever, I’ll take it.
My dad also got less irritable after. Before he got them, he got in a few (fairly slight) arguments with my mom due to him perceiving her as saying nonsense things - because he couldn’t hear the context. Unfortunately, my mom died before he got the hearing aids, but he definitely always loved her and the arguments stayed minor and surrounded by good connections. He fairly doted on her most of the time.
He lived for a long time after getting them and it was good to see, as you said, his QoL improvements.
I never had the issue you’re describing, but I think that’s in part because he could largely function with his limited hearing and mostly kept the aids off or on low settings. I’m glad you’re able to deal with the inconvenience!
That’s a choice to be stupid. When I was a child I was frustrated as hell I couldn’t read the signs Bugs Bunny held up, so I was chomping at the bit to learn. And these kids see “circle clocks” and just figure, “Meh. Guess it will always be a mystery.”
.-… — .-… — -.-
Youre choosing to be esoteric.
i went back to school last year and only a couple of my classmates under 30 could read clocks. kind of amazing.
