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And that’s basically it!
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! 😂
Maybe someone should teach them...
One of the greatest dangers to a society is people assuming anything is innate or the next generation will magically know shit.
Nobody taught these kids how to read a clock. So they don't know how to read a clock.
This is a very minor thing, but it's an easier concept to grasp than the abstract concept of empathy we also stopped teaching kids.
I'm a millennial and I was taught how to read a clock in 2nd grade. Are they not teaching this basic skill anymore?
I'm a millenial, too. Even I use my phone or computer to tell time more often than anything. Before smart phones we had some solid years relying on wall clocks and watches. It was a skill we kept using after we learned it, unlike a lot of kids who haven't needed to flex that muscle since they were taught.
Yeah but smartwatches exist and digital watch faces look awkward on the ones with a round dial. Plus I have an analog clock on the wall for when the watch is charging and I don't feel like pulling out my phone... So it's still a useful skill to have.
Not saying it isn't useful, but that it's understandable someone might not have that skill.
What decade were you in second grade?
The mid 90s, LONG after digital clocks were already ubiquitous.
You didn't even have to read the article, just the excerpt from OP. "students are taught to read analog clocks in first and second grade in city public schools".
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.
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.
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.
Like a foreign language, use it or lose it.
Bet they can't dial a rotary phone or hitch a horse to a wagon either.
You should see them with a kerosene lamp.
This is dishonest, because unlike horses and kerosene lamps, analog clocks are in every (european) town, on the churches, matkets, train stations etc..
I never mentioned horses. You also never mentioned rotary phones. Knowing how to grout bricks would also be on the table, and those are everywhere in European towns.
Also, if it wasn't clear, both @OneWomanCreamTeam@sh.itjust.works and myself were just making an "obvious" joke of sorts. It isn't to insult people that do not know things, it is just a statement of: "obviously people that never used a thing have no idea how to use it."
I would actually prefer all people can learn and know stuff. I like that I know how to start a crank-start tractor and also how to shut it off by shorting out the magneto (although I hate transient energy from the spark going through the body). I don't use it as a joke or something I talk about, I just know it because I happened to learn it.
Want to learn some techniques to split wood with an axe? I can teach! I also can teach how to mess with a JSON API on a web site to get the data I want when the vendor doesn't know how to use documentation, or flash firmware on obscure hardware, or set up a mesh network, or build a ham radio antenna from random metal, or cross-compile an open-source CPAP analysis app using old QT APIs and modifying them to support modern platforms, yet can't find contact info with the vendor to let them know how to do what I did so they can compile for ARM Macs. Knowledge flows both ways.
TL;DR: Was a joke.
You're a teacher? Teach!
i went back to school last year and only a couple of my classmates under 30 could read clocks. kind of amazing.
"Old clocks"
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
Having a proper time format helps more
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
