First: Some UK teachers exchanged the analogue with digital clocks. This was only to reduce interruptions by some students (during a specific kind of UK exams), who had trouble determining the remaining time in the heat of the exam battle.
Secondly: The use of analogue clocks is taught at UK schools. What's missing is the practice that former generations of pupils had. No more wristwatches, public clocks all but gone, and (what I am nostalgically missing from my youth) no more peeking onto parked car's dashboards to read the analogue clock there. Times have changed, and this specific partially lost ability is not the schools' fault. (Not to say that other things aren't...)
Can we please bury that stupid old meme, as it has been based on some inaccurate buzz and largely giving a completely inaccurate impression of the topic from the start...
First you learn how to write ordinary letters. That trains your fine motor skills so you can write them reliably (try writing with your non-dominant yourself hand to see).
What cursive teaches you is how to write quickly. Of course, no one will write in pure, perfect cursive. Most people settle for a style somewhere in between. It teaches you the concept of "you can combine letters together to make you write faster" and "here are a bunch of ways to combine them". It's a good thing, Especially if they end up going to college.
Giving them a few more weeks of practice in reading and writing is a great way to avoid them being partially illiterate.
I was taught block lettering in technical drafting class, 8th grade. Cursive is a lettering specifically created to be easy to handwrite. It flows on paper, as opposed to the repetitive short strokes of block lettering.
The way they taught us cursive was the complete opposite of the intent of cursive. Rigidly proscribed characters with marks only for form, ignoring all function. It was agonizingly tedious and physically painful writing all of those nonsensical scrawls. I immediately switched back to my own chicken scratch after grade school because it was not only orders of magnitude faster, but at least didn't make my hand painfully seize up into a claw.
Decades later, as my handwriting evolved, a number of my own script letters began to resemble those wretched cursive runes, because I had apparently blindly stumbled upon the actual correct method for writing to flow from nib to parchment, as opposed to whatever those torturous rituals scarred me with as a child.
The problem you describe is very real, and not just in the US or the UK, but in most of Europe as well. A big part of writing is how to actually write, not just the letters et al.
I mean the literal way you move you arm, the angle you write at, how you hold you pen, etc.
I didn't learn any of that, and as an intensely dyslexic and left-handed individual, writing was extremely painful to me. That is, until 10th grade where I taught myself calligraphy.
It turns out that, when learning calligraphy, you do learn how to write properly.
After that, my handwriting in school (and for the rest of my life) became much better: I didn't have hand-pain anymore, I didn't smudge the ink, and, of course, my handwriting was very orderly and neat. Teachers even started commenting on it!
Most notably for me though: writing became fun. For me, as a dyslexic, this literally felt revolutionary.
Anyway, that is what I think they should teach in schools.
I used to troll my teachers with inane questions to help my friends prepare for exams or quizzes that we knew were coming. I can't expect it's changed much.
This was only to reduce interruptions by some students (during a specific kind of UK exams), who had trouble determining the remaining time in the heat of the exam battle
I am not being funny but if someone is unable to read the time perhaps they shouldn't be in the exam room in the first place.
It is like saying that all questions will be read out loud all the time and verbal answers recorded instead of written ones - because some students are illiterate.
Students with dyslexia do get special treatment. There is no reason to discriminate against people lacking an unrelated skill and it's not funny to demand it so we at least agree on something
That being said, there's a difference between having a disability and just not having had enough practice.
Just having an analogue clock in all rooms and halls of a school is a way to give people the opportunity to get the practice.
In higher grades you can have an analogue clock in front and a digital "cheat" one in the back. If they're not sure, they can glance at that. And if that cheat clock is only in every other room. Most will learn because it's easier that way.
When reading the clock comes as a topic of the curriculum in 1st or 2nd grade, having the teacher ask a student to read the time periodically from the classroom clock for a few months will make sure everyone has had at least some opportunities to practice.
Of course, if someone does have a problem bordering on disability, accomodate them. Regardless of whether their parents took the time and money to have it diagnosed or not. But a quarter of a class having it is either bad luck or just bad methodology.
The post talks explicitly about teenagers in exam halls. Don't know if "exam hall" is a term for regular class rooms but either way it talks about teenagers. True, younger kids should learn it. Even if without practice, you have a hard time as a teenager, you can revive the skill later. Source: I did.
... in the context that many students can't read analog clocks and shouldn't get help. Pretty sure there is no official diagnosis for this so no problem and they don't deserve to know how much time they have left in a biology exam. Again, there is no reason to discriminate against people lacking unrelated skills, if diagnosed or undiagnosed.
Let me put it this way: if someone is not disabled and still unable or too lazy to understand the clock, they shouldn't be in the exam room in the first place.
This is not a "discrimination" - most exams are for the people with a some level of the IQ, certainly above the level of a radiator. Or a stool.
They can understand the clock? Just not the analog clock. Why should they anyways? It's not like that's the only way to tell time and since reading analog clocks is an unrelated skill why do u think they're not fit to write exams? It has nothing to do with IQ, it's just that analog clocks aren't as common as they used to be. Hence, they're less used to them than previous generations. They probably can learn to read them if they wanted to, but they just don't bother, since they don't really need it these days
Honestly if you can't calculate things on an abacus you shouldn't be in the exam room tbh. Sure, calculators have been invented and have ultimately replaced the abacus in nearly every facet of day to day life, but surely you know how to add beads together?
We're letting kids use GPS to get to school now? What the street signs and constellations aren't good enough for you?
Let me rephrase it than - if someone is an idiot, they shouldn't be in the exam room. If you are concerned about it, it may be because you fit the category.
What makes people who didn't learn to read analog clocks idiots?
Wrong question. The correct would be: what make people who are too lazy or too stupid to learn the clock idiots - but that would be a rhetorical one.
it's just stupid af to judge people's intelligence based on an unrelated life skill.
Intelligence is an ability to obtain knowledge and skills. If someone lacks both, it is a strong indication of them not having enough intelligence to obtain them.
They do know how to read the clock (digital ones :) ) Again, it doesn't make them idiots or lazy for not learning something they don't really need to learn
Intelligence is an ability to obtain knowledge and skills. If someone lacks both, it is a strong indication of them not having enough intelligence to obtain them.
What makes you think they don't have the ability to learn how to read analog clocks just because they don't? You might not know how ride a horse, but that doesn't mean you can't learn how to. Are you an idiot for not learning how to?
Passing exams is not an entitlement, it is an achievement. If someone is an idiot unable to understand the clock, they shouldn't be in the exam room in the first place - and they certainly shouldn't expect someone will start explaining clock to them when they are supposed to write an exam.
I feel like I'm going insane reading these comments about how difficult it is to read analog clocks, how it needs too much understanding of maths, how it takes too long,...
Can someone please confirm: you just look, for a fraction of a second, at the clock face and know the time, right?
Learning to read the clock was like... A couple of lessons and some homework in the 2nd grade, and everyone got it.
I am in the transition age range of people who have trouble reading analog clocks and I must admit I had trouble with it until I started wearing a watch as an accessory as a teenager. The issue isn't that it's hard, it's just something that you need practice at to do quickly and a lot of young people just don't look at analog clocks to tell time very often. It's not a matter of being stupid or not being taught how to do it, it's like mental "muscle memory" that just isn't built up in a world where digital clocks are everywhere, including in your pocket 24/7
Watches were pretty ubiquitous before the smart phone was popularized. Though, digital watches were common since the '80s, so I'm not sure how much that really figures in. There is some truth, though, in needing to regularly do it to keep the skill.
It isn't lazy to have a mastered skill and use it. It's lazy not taking the time to master it.
That being said, the biggest lazies of them all are the curriculum writers which don't make teaching future working adults how to use a clock a priority in grade school.
I don’t know, I’ve never particularly liked analogue clocks. I don’t think I ever thought of them as difficult to read, but it’s far superior to look at an exact number like digital usually features.
Disagree - it rarely matters to me if it's 13:24:56 or 13:25:05, but I do find the instant and intuitive gauging of time deltas super useful (as in, how long it's going to be to the full hour / to quarter past / ... ). Not saying you can't get that info from a digital clock as well, of course you can; but the physicality of analog clocks lends a good bit of intuition to this, I feel.
I get that, but I personally find that I often do care about the exact time, down to the minutes, and that's harder to track with an analogue clock. I don't have particular problems in reading them, I just often prefer digital clocks.
But I will agree that I feel analogue clocks give a better vibe of the time, since its basically a pie chart of how far you are in the day.
To be fair if you are never exposed to it (and judging by the comments that seems to have happened in the US) you can't tell the time by "just looking at it". But analog clocks are objectively simpler to teach to children (let's say three to eight years old).
Throughout middle school and high school, my bedroom clock was one of these, just the mechanism, no face, no numbers, hanging off the edge of a shelf. I had no trouble reading it. I still can easily read an analog clock with no numbers or any face marks.
Clock reading was covered in kindergarten and cursive writing taught in 1st grade. These were some of the first wrinkles pushed into our little growing brains in the early 80s by school. That these things are no longer being taught so early explains why so many people are willing to immediately accept the Google AI overview as gospel and are wearing Crocs everywhere they go.
FWIW, I went to school in mid-2000. My sibling even later. They still taught it back then, and at least here, I am pretty sure they still do. (And why would they not, after all...)
Not exactly responding to you, but wanted to post somewhere where people would see it (hopefully)
We are not removing clocks or the standards, but it is not as important as many other standards in my grade level and 3rd grade. As a joke, I am going to bring a kid to our intervention team who can't tell time as his only academic issue. We will all get a good laugh out of it.
Every 2nd/3rd grade teacher I've worked with believes their students can tell time by the end of the year. This being said, regression is a well known phenomenon in education over breaks, but this is regression is due to analog clocks disappearing in society I assume and devastating to a newly acquired skill. Here are the 2nd grade standards, I would say this and counting money have become completely unsupported at home in my Title 1 school. Most teachers I have ever met care about kids and want them to learn, but there is only so much to do. They spend a lot more time out of school in their childhood than other places. Do the math!
2.OA.A Adding/Subtracting within 100 word problem and representations
2.OA.B Memorizing add/sub facts to 20
2.OA.C Equal groups (building blocks for multiplication)
2.NBT.A Place value (broken into 4 substandards, its kind of really fucking important)
2.NBT.B Place value (broken into 4 more substandards, its kind of really fucking important)
2.MD.A Measure and estimate in metric and standard (broken into 4 substandards, it is kind of really fucking important)
2.MD.B Addition and Subtraction in relation to length
2.MD.C Time to nearest 5 minutes and money
2.MD.D Interpreting graphs
Understanding the concept is fast. Getting good at sight-reading a clock face actually takes time to get familiar with it. If you only ever really see the clock in school, and You can choose to ignore it for phones or other digital clocks, you're never gonna get good enough at it that you'll be as fast as checking a phone.
Literally noone I know in real life has any problem whatsoever reading analog clocks, no matter the "brain capacity", neuro-typicality, state of drunkenness,... It is an extremely simple "skill".
Same reason you might use 22/7 instead of the exact value of π. If I look at a clock and see it's about ten to 2, it's rare to never that I actually need to know it's 1:53:22.57365785285978520256734567314854372354675466099.
They are actually a helpful way to show passage of time visually, without abstract math knowledge. For example my son has downsydrome, he could read time from analog and understand passage of time and time left on it, but numbers counting up to 60 was abstract.. Like its 47 minutes past 5 how close to the hour is it getting? No clue unless he wrote it out as a math question and did the subtraction. But for him those were meaningless numbers anyway. 15 was no different than 45 for him. But visual cues of quarter past and quarter to made sense for him
Analog clocks are dated? Let's get rid of books because we have kindles. Just something was invented a very long time ago doesn't make it obsolete by any means. Or should we get rid of spoons or hammers? Those things are really somewhat dated.
Yeah I keep an analog clock on the wall because it's a more intuitive way to keep track of how long I've got to get ready to go out. I know where the angle of the minute hand will be when I have to be out the door, so it's quicker to glance it it and know if I gotta pick up the pace or I got plenty of time or whatever.
Dated does not mean obsolete. But it's hard to deny a digital clock is superior in almost every way.
Unlike the other examples you're giving, I fail to see in what aspect an analog clock beats a digital one. Sure they have a certain charm, but functionally they're just behind their digital counterpart.
For my son, that has downsydrome, analogs clocks made sense for him because he could see the time passing or time remaining to the hour, but digital requires abstract number concepts he struggled with. 15 or 45 didn't really mean anything to him sizewise, they are both 2 digit numbers. So he would struggle to grasp the time passing or time left... And making things worse we count 1-99 before the next unit but clocks are 1-59. How much time before 6 when it's 5:47? Becomes a math equation, but a glance on the clock is readily apparent.
Exactly. And that's also true for young children. Reading digital clocks is exactly that... reading. It doesn't mean you understand what it means or how to interpret it. Analog clocks however are a great tool at actually get a feeling for time.
I think the biggest issue judging by the comment section is that most Americans (at least it seems that way) are almost never exposed to analog clocks.
Anecdotally, I have seen many Americans aren't exposed to a lot. Like pointing out countries outside of North America is tricky for a lot of them. There is systematic degradation of their education system, but also this culture of "we are the best, we don't need nothing"
People are gonna downvote you but I definitely agree. I see why the trend is concerning but I dont think we need to keep everything around just because that's how it used to be. Some things are allowed to change. When the quartz watch was invented, mechanical watches had to find a new niche and luckily they did. Both are still valid but their roles changed and that's okay.
🤣 awesome. I'd love to see that.
Reminds me of a video where a guy tried to eat corncob by mounting it on a drill. IIRC he lot some teeth doing that "stunt".
I hope you are not serious. If the shadow (hand) is on two, it's two o'clock. If it's on three, it's three o'clock. If it's exactly between those two ticks it's half past two. There isn't even anything to learn (at least when they were invented). That's exactly how the hour hand on a clock works.
(Note: Today it would be a bit more complicated if you want wall-clock-time because the sun dial always tells local solar time and if you want the time in your time zone you would have to adjust for DST and use the equation of time for some smaller corrections)
You don't know how to read one - you've forgotten to calibrate it.
If you don't do that before use, it's measurements are meaningless. Correcting for DST and dates and other minor aspects of how time is handled in the modern era is important (blech screw DST), but this issue was present even in the roman era and is why sundials have movable faces. Premodern observatories (eg. stonehenge or the observatories at pisac) have references to correct the measurements for things like change in solar position and the progression towards the equinox for the same reason.
I don't think we should get rid of analog clocks, I just wanted to point out that your example here isn't a very good one to use.
What is progression towards the equinoxes? You mean precession of the equinoxes? That takes millennia and is very much negligible when reading sun dials on a day to day basis, or even year to year basis.
The orbital motions of the objects in our solar system is pretty messy and you are right that there goes more into designing accurate sun dials than just a stick in the ground, but I'd still argue that that's not part of "reading a sun dial" - which was the question I answered.
No, I mean the progression towards the equinoxes - historically the equinoxes were a common way to demark calendar dates, and as a result they're a useful reference point. Not universal, of course, but still frequently used enough to be useful when discussing this topic.
I get you're arguing because, well, this is the internet and I contradicted you. That's how it works, our egos are too tied up in our comments alone and it's too easy to read any tone into a comment that we'd like. We get defensive, our wounded egos make things heated. So in that spirit, let me be explicit that I'm not trying to be rude to you when I say this: You're oversimplifying the metaphor to make your point.
For example: I've been sitting around for a full day, but the damn clock says only twelve minutes have gone by.
You adjust a sundial in the morning every day, and then can read it from there (assuming it hasn't been jostled) - but you still have to be aware of the rules and conventions of the system, and work within it's boundaries. If we arbitrarily dismiss critical parts of it's operation, there will be no meaning in anything we have to say. The territory of things like "clocks don't measure time, they measure circles and everything we derive from them is thence wild and baseless speculation"; literally true and I can defend that position until we both die of carefully-measured old age, but reduced to the point that it's completely meaningless.
Analog clocks are mechanical imitations of sun dials. Ever wondered why clockwise is the way it is? It's because the sun moved that way (on the historically a bit more dominant northern hemisphere)
Ive tried to teach my students (High School) how to read an analog clock. Keep in mind, I dont have time to teach a whole class on it, just a little lesson on how now and then when they ask what time it is. They can read it for the class, but the next day theyve forgotten how completely.
Its not because theyre stupid or lazy. Its because they rarely get practice with it. We know how to read an analog clock because, yes we were taught it in school, but they were everywhere so we essentially had practice with it all the time. These kids see digital clocks 99% of the time. So when do they ever apply their knowledge?
The only students who can read the clock are the handful who have analog watches for fashion reasons because they use it all the time.
Its a matter of practice but in truth these kids dont really have to read an analog clock in the modern world.
I also wonder: what’s the goal of teaching this? Sure, a cursory lesson is a good idea, but making it a fundamental step seems nonsensical in a world that doesn’t require it at all. It’s like teaching how to sharpen a quill, it’s not needed anymore
NGL, wind up analog clocks are useful in places where the power goes out often. I have a 7-day grandfather clock and it's been a godsend when northeasters turn into ice storms that take down the power for days..
(Northern New England has wretched winter weather some years)
I don’t have a horse in this race, but your argument doesn’t hold up. If you want a way to tell the time during a power outage, you don’t need an analogue clock, you need one that runs on batteries.
I'm also horseless, but their analog clock is a wind-up, no batteries required. So if you're snowed in and can't get to the store, it's one less thing that will take up batteries.
I have a watch that is piwered by movement, and it is analog. Love the thing cause I don't have to remember to charge it or replace the batteries, it charges when I wear it. However if I forget to wear it it will likely die. But then I just give it a good shake and update the time.
I don't know why you would need a clock if you're trapped in your house. Maybe if you have to take pills at a specific time but usually you can be off by an hour or two which I can tell simply by looking outside and sensing time internally.
It's an easy way to introduce fractions, especially since it's common to hear/say it's a quarter passed 2, half passed 5, and a quarter to 9.
Also teaches multiples, since the numbers on the clock represent multiples of 5.
Helps with directions, clockwise is when the hands spin to the right and counter-clockwise to the left. You'd be amazed how many students can't tell their left from right.
I understand that learning left from right is a skill to learn. However, it was rare for a teenager to be unable to distinguish their left from right, unlike today.
As a parent, we made sure to have an analog clock in every room while my kids were growing up, and we made them prove they could read it. Still don’t work. Digital clocks are everywhere else and in many ways more convenient.
Analog clocks are an obsolete decice whose time has passed. I also tried to keep it alive into the next generation but it’s not happening. It’s time to give it up.
Let that be one of our hallmarks as we age: the last generation with analog clocks. I use an analog face on my digital watch, have analog decorative clocks and I’ll accept that my kids believe that old fashioned (they do accept the analog clock face on my old car I gave them though, or maybe don’t know how to change it)
I would argue that a lot of what I learned in school didn't have much opportunity to practice outside of school, but I agree that analog clocks are not a learning priority.
Most of the things that I was taught that I don't get practice with I do not remember how to do it anymore. Now I do have ADHD so that definitely does not help.
However I will say I do think in some cases learning how to do things you wont necessarily need outside of school can be useful as it can teach you other helpful things subconsciously. There are certain supporting skills that are developed when you learn those things that can be used in other contexts. Are there more effective ways to learn those supporting skills besides teaching things most people likely wont use again? Probably, but I don't really have an answer for what
I think removing everything that kids have a bit of a hard time trying to grasp just teaches kids to give up if anything isn't immediately apparent. Its not as much of a waste of time as cursive, and it's to be taught to think in another way.
I think that kids "learning how to learn" is really important, especially with how these AI models are stunting like a whole generation of people.
This is minor,
but I also think less things need electronic displays/components that are hard to recycle and increase dependency on exploiting X country for Y resource. Its also cool to just be able to build a physical mechanism which digital clocks have no real feasible option to do
I just found out my 10yo has been lagging behind in spelling because he's been using speech-to-text on his school issued iPad for class work. He doesn't have to think about it or try sounding it out, so of course an unpracticed in-development skill is waning. It's going to be an interesting parent-teacher meeting coming up.
Is it a feature you can disable on the iPad? I never considered that kids would be doing that. My spelling was never great but I just always chalked it up to the way my brain worked. Even when I spent a couple years in college spending most of my free time reading books both to myself and our loud to my partner I still didn't remember how certain words were spelt because I often didn't write them. If I never wrote them as you are saying I imagine it would have been much worse.
I would rather learn how to build an analog clock. In the olden days clock makers were highly respected & incredibly intelligent, it's quite an intellectual & mechanical art & science & craft to build an analog clock.
Cursive is wayyyy more accessible for lots of people with chronic pain in their arm/hand/wrist. Also helps prevent those conditions for those who have do a lot of hand writing. I dread the day that people will no longer be able to read the least painful way to write or me.
If I'm honest with myself my handwriting was always shit. If I was writing you a letter you'd be able to read it, but taking notes in college was all but useless for me. The speed at which you would have to write left me unable to find any of it legible so I was able to take in more information by just sitting down and listening/watching instead of scrambling to figure out what they were talking about now after I wrote down whatever I thought was important prior to that. Professors write fast because they do it all the time, and the amount of time it would take me to read then write what they wrote would overlap the time they spent over the next 15 seconds telling you why it was important. If I wrote down why it's important I'm behind on the next bit of information and scrambling. When a professor posted their notes online so I could review it that way it was so much easier for me. (Makes note taking way easier)
What's interesting about this is that we are not taught how to take notes. People used to have classes that taught what is actually a complicated skill. I have gone through enough schooling that my note taking just happens without much thought, but it took me real effort to get there.
I had a couple teachers try to spend a single class about note taking but I think note taking is different for everyone, much like learning styles. Telling someone to skip a,b, and ,c and just write d because they view it as the important information only works for people who think exactly how they think. So I would try something like that and would end up with.
1974 - congress - didn't pass till 1980.
That means nothing to someone unless they know more context, which the context clues in my experience are tied to someone's individual thought processes. In this case it would be mentions of maybe reconciliation process, simple majority, and budget. But for others it could be other things.
It is minor but part of a bigger problem. Show them a globe and ask them to point our where Austria is and then ask them where Australia is. Most couldn't do it. And many wouldn't even know the difference
Cursive is good for some people because arthritis, but most people do not use cursive aside from their signature.
I spent a good chunk of 1st and 2nd grade learning it so I can read it but it really did not teach me anything. It's not like learning a new way of thinking, it's just muscle memory and practice.
I'm not saying learning how to write is a waste of time, I write alot and while its typing now, I definitely needed to learn to use a pencil. But cursive is like learning how to type on a Devorak(?) keyboard
Its becoming a reality though. I work in a school (primary and secondary) and the exams officer is putting digital clocks only in the exam rooms for that reason.
Students not being able to read an analogue clock being a reason may seem silly, but being able to read one shouldn't be a requirement to be able to do well in exams, especially UK exams where students have enough to deal with already.
This has got to be AI written or cherry picked data. They’re pulling clocks to save a few $ if anything. Old schools used to have synchronized analog systems. I could easily see those things being removed.
Really? I never knew any of them were synchronized, that's cool if so. I seem to remember us pulling them off the wall at our schools and changing them twice a year or replacing the batteries. Having them wired with synchronization may be overboard, but it is kind of cool
Yes I remember sometimes they would remotely adjust our clocks and you could see the hands moving quickly until they stopped in their intended position. Pretty genius for the old days.
All my schools had them. Sometimes you'd catch them doing a resync and all the hands would spin around. I think they probably couldn't rotate CCW so had to go around the long way if they needed to roll back a few minutes.
My highschool was small (graduating class under 50; five small towns combined), and in the 90s, ours were synchronized, just realized I always wondered what they used.
Thank you, I’ll need to look into it, it was obvious they were synced because they got adjusted for daylight savings from somewhere and they all slowly changed time over the course of an hour if I recall correctly, it always fascinated me.
Would that not mean if the power goes out after say a hurricane, the all the clocks have to be reset manually or can they somehow change them all remotely? A mechanism going threw the walls to change them from a single location sounds like a lot of work to get a synchronized clock
At what point is it not just a digital clock with an analog interface if it has the ability to receive information digitally and perform tasks off of it. (I assume increase/decrease voltage to the motor).
Unless maybe that's how they do it, put all the clocks on an individual power source, then manipulate the current to increase/decrease the speed of the motors so they all move synchronized... Idk, cool concept though. Not sure how you would overcome the loss in varying distance of the clocks though.. it's possible but a lot of planning
Its the Hertz of ac current that comteols timing. But that's just how it counts the seconds not how it would tell if it is noon. But its uses analog electricity to keep time and maybe a digital comand to set time. Does make it digital or analog?
Could they be synchronised independently?
My grandfather in France had a clock that was receiving a radio signal I think from Strasbourg.
They've been around for a while.
I remember being up late during day light hour change and i would suddenly hear the second hand rush forward.
It would stop one whole hour on the switch back.
I would use it to adjust my watch.
Nowadays I use raw GPS and any mobile phone is synced from the network anyway.
Every year I taught for the past 30 years I have heard this but I will say that every year I had to go over how to read a clock at the beginning of the year and every time a kid would ask me what time it is I would point at the clock and ask them what time they think it is? At least they left the class knowing how to read a clock even though they were shit at writing essays.
It took me until age 15 to become comfortable reading analog clocks and confident knowing which way is left and right.
Hey cut me some slack, left/right gets confusing sometimes because of mirrors & facing people).
But I think learning how to tell time on an analog clock is an important skill because it broadens the mind regarding mechanics & mathematics, thereby developing more synapses in our brains & logic & mental computational skills.
I loved when a class would get quiet enough to hear the seconds hand click on the mechanical motor. I lived to see how close it was to the end of minute. One time in class I counted how black dots were on the ceiling. Wow I was bored
I counted the dots along the x axis, multiplied by the y axis count and took that as an estimate for the tile. Then did the same with the number of tiles across the ceiling. Then multiplied that by the number of classrooms... Same with the floor tiles. There was no end to it.
"little hand", "big hand" kind of stuff.... yeah, I vaguely recall going over that when I was in JK/SK, possibly in the first few grade levels. IDK, I'm old now, so I don't remember a lot of what happened when I was around 6.
Don't undersell all of the life lessons you learned from being the age you are.
Part of the reason why kids seem so dumb is because they don't have that life experience yet. They're still figuring it out. I'm sure that when I was a kid people looked at me and thought I was pretty dumb, just like many adults do to the kids now. blave has the right attitude about it; teach them. Someone has to. If everyone shrugs it off that someone will do it, then nobody does it.
I've had, and honestly still do have issue with reading it rather than understanding. At least the way I was taught, it just sounds really weird, like 15:40 being "5 minutes till quarter to 4 in the afternoon".
I don't need to think about "fifteen forty".
But why add unnecessary complexity?
Like analog clocks are fine, they show time progress in a way digital don't.
But why read it in that more convoluted way? Like, I can tell you that you have 10100bin seconds to answer some question, and you can tell that's 20 seconds, but why the fuck do it that way. The only time it's "five minutes till quarter to four in the afternoon" rather than 15:40 is when writing an assay, perhaps.
Perhaps just the thing where you are from? I never heard anyone referring to "five minutes before quarter to", it is idiotic. You would say "twenty to four".
Probably not -- time isn't that relevant before society puts you on the path towards hourly labor. I learned in elementary, but then I also grew up with digital clocks like most folks under 50.
Edit: apparently we have either a lot of on-the-clock preschoolers or folks who don't know when digital clock radios were invented. Perhaps both. If you cared about the clock time before you were 5 I feel sorry for you.
24h analog clocks exist but they are pretty useless because you lose angular resolution. So unless you are a vampire that's up 24/7 a 12 hour wall clock has better angular resolution than a clock with 33% wasted area you'll never use/see because you are asleep
It's about how far the hand moves in a given time. On a normal 12h circle analog clock the hand moves 30° per hour. On a 24h analog clock that's halfed to 15° per hour.
I'm all in on 24hr clocks. I'm a veteran and currently work in healthcare. Use that 24hr times 40+ hours/week.
But, I also like regular clocks. Especially BIG building clocks or old time 4 side post clocks you can still find on some corners of cities & towns around the globe.
Reading analogue and digital clocks are kinda a different skill and use different parts of the brain. That's not to say either is better, it's just different.
You can teach three year olds to read analog clocks (see my other post) but I've yet so see three year olds reading and understanding digital clocks. I get the feeling in this thread that everybody that has issues with analog clocks is from the US and that might come from the fact that the US (at least it seems based on this thread) has almost no exposure to analog clocks.
One part of me wants to feel disappointed that kids aren't learning to read analog clocks, but another part of me thinks there was a time when people grew disappointed that the younger generations stopped learning to use an abacus in favor of digital calculators. I certainly don't want some old geezer giving me shit because I don't want to learn to use an abacus. I also don't want to be that old geezer.
No doubt. I wasn't trying to imply that either one is useless, but things change and new technology takes over. Another person replied to me comparing cursive and typing on a computer. I catch myself thinking that new generations are at a disadvantage because they don't learn the same things I did. But it may not always be necessary that they do. I am of the computer typing generation. I didn't learn to write beautiful cursive, but my life hasn't been negatively impacted even though many people have expressed sympathy for my awful education. I was just trying to say I think it's a rather normal thing for old systems to get phased out of a classroom from time to time. It's not really a good reason to believe that younger generations are doomed. But like I said I fall into that line of thinking myself from time to time.
I'm pretty certain that the only place where my students ever encounter an analog clock is at school. But teaching how to read analog clocks is required in our math education standards, so I have one and I use it, even though I think there are other, more relevant places to put our academic focus.
I'm 45 years old. I'm pretty sure we only ever had one analog clock in our house when I was growing up in the '80s, and that was my grandpa's alarm clock. The only places I've been where only analog clocks were available have been schools. Even our local bank in my small town changed to a digital clock on its sign outside.
Unfortunately, education systems are dictated by legislators, who are often old and out-of-touch. So I doubt we'll see a change in the education requirements any time soon. But, just like how keyboarding has replaced cursive in classrooms, it will eventually come.
Are you from the US? I'm completely amazed that there are counties we you are almost never exposed to analog clocks. I'm from Europe and analog clocks are everywhere. Every train station, public buildings, churches, clock towers, homes, wrist watches. Heck we even have tons of (but more because of esthetics instead of serious time keeping) sun dials on walls (which the analog clock and the clock wise direction is based on - for the north hemisphere).
Many appliances/devices have digital clocks but that's not because the are more modern/better but because they are way cheaper to produce and have less moving parts.
Seriously! I’m absolutely baffled by the comments here talking about how analog clocks are somehow this bizarre anarchism from the distant past that is just sooooooo difficult to understand. Wtf has been going on over there??
Mind you, they are the people who measure area in "stadiums" and the distance in "football field lengths" because they are too stupid to comprehend the metric system.
Dpes no one in Europe ever use object for a reference. Like it's as tall the efifle tower, or that like running 3 laps around a football feild.
Of I were to say that America east to west would stretch from the straights of jerblarter to paar Istanbul. Does break their mind because they only understand km.
Not currently teaching in a "US hole." I've been teaching in South America for 5 years and I have never noticed an analog clock in a public place here.
They still exist and will continue to exist in many contexts indefinitely, such as men's fashion and clock towers, so there it's not like they'll ever be "obsolete" per se. They are also extremely easy to learn, and are a good way to teach concepts like spatial reasoning and gears to kids. I think schools should teach about them for those reasons.
I disagree. I grew up in the 80s and 90s, and I had to read cursive all the time, since my boomer parents used it constantly.
When you read it regularly, it doesn't take any longer to read than block letters.
I never used cursive because I never got into enough of a habit of using it before technology made the skillset unnecessary. I think I write down one thing a month? if that? I use computers the rest of the time, whether it's the small rectangle that fits in my pocket, the larger folding rectangle that goes in my backpack, or the larger cube like one that sits under my desk at home.... I use computers about 1000x more than a pen.
That doesn't change the fact that I can look at cursive and know what it says as instantly as if it were typed text. Me not being able to, or simply not writing cursive is entirely a me problem.
My thoughts exactly. This just screams "old men afraid of change, thinking everything was better back in the day". The world is changing, things become obsolete because they're replaced by newer, better stuff all the time.
I'm sure people were complaining that kids were getting stupider when they stopped using abascuses, fucking cursive (I specifically remember people being upset about this one), dictionaries in book form, fountain pens, handwritten exams.
It's time for a lot of people to realise that they themselves have become the complaining old farts they always hated as kids.
I mean, not really. He knows analog clocks well enough that the hand position just inherently means something to him. Afternoon, and the little hand is almost halfway? Work day done! Just by position.
Somewhat analagous: I know how far a meter and a kilometer are, in principle, but when I consider distances I more intuitively understand them in feet and miles. It's what I'm used to.
My daughter got analog clocks before she could read when she was about three years old. IMHO it's a teaching skill issue. Take a normal wall clock, remove all hands except the hour hand, split the day into segments (brushing teeth, lunch, Kindergarten, etc.) and draw (did that in Gimp) some nice symbols and colors. Done. Explain stuff every time she asks "when" using that wall clock. Let that sink in for a year. Now add the minute hand back in.
Analog clocks are not really "obsolete" if you ask me. Hands on a circle aren't used enough. We have "clocks" (this time inverted - the circle spins and the hand/indicator is fixed) out of cardboards for a week to learn the days of the week, including "activity" symbols for kindergarten, "weekend", "music lesson", etc. a wheel for "day of the month", and one for month of the year also showing seasons.
The total amount of time that was invested in building those was about three or four hours but the value is huge when you have something to point to when she asks anything about time no matter it's about when we go to sleep, birthdays, holidays, etc.
Analog clocks imitate sun dials and of you have amazing eye sight/precision you would only need the hour hand. If the hand is exactly on 3, it's 3 o'clock. If the hand is exactly in the middle between 3 and 4 it's half past 3. If the hand is 4° after 5 it's 04:08. But because our eye sight doesn't have super resolution we just add another hand that makes a full circle when the hour hand moves an hour. And same with seconds. Second hand makes a full circle for 1 minute.
Back to birthdays - you can do that on the other direction as well but I wouldn't call it a clock, it's a circular calendar. Think about a disk (like a wall clock with only one hand) and seven equal segments. The days of the week, every morning we move the hand to the next day. Another disk with 31 segments (day of the month) and another separate disk with 12 segments. We typically move that one on the first of the month to the next step.
Now of we discuss events I can point to a segment and even though she is a young kid she immediately gets the scale of things because of something happens in a few hours (let's say she is meeting a friend) I show it to her on the normal analog clock with focus on the hour hand. But if she ask about Christmas I point on the "month" dial and she knows that it takes a very long time for that hand to move.
Typical analog clocks have all the hands on the same disk (for convenience and because it's compact). Our "child-clock" started originally as an normal analog clock with only the hour hand and is now a normal analog clock with hour and minute hand and three more separate disks for day of the week, day of the month and month of the year.
The part in the middle is a screenshot of some social media site and the blacked out parts are navigation bread crums, comment counts. The answer below has a blacked out user name, profile picture, etc.
I have no idea why they would remove UI elements from a screenshot.
Your fact check doesn't say it's fake. Even the "mostly false" mentioned in the fact check is a bit of a stretch if you read the "what's true" section.
Eh, we don't teach them how to read a sundial or make a fire anymore either. I don't see a problem with removing old technology from school instruction.
"Old technology" like, hammers, spoons and books 🤣 Let's get rid of the wheel. That crap was invented ages ago.
Update: and if you can't read a sun dial - which by the way is just reading the number the freaking shadow points at - the US should seriously consider teaching stuff like that again.
Such a shame that so few people know how to ride a horse these days. You still see them across the countryside and in many cities, but most people choose not to learn.
...which by the way is just reading the number the freaking shadow points at...
And how do you read an analog clock? By looking at the number the arm points at. Learning how to read the clock is not just "what number is it on" but it's getting familiar with the clock face so you can read it quickly. It's like the difference between spelling and reading.
You are right, nothing to argue against here. What I'm arguing against is just that digital clocks are somehow the successor of analog clock, which they are not. There is a reason why digital clocks are now everywhere and that's mainly cost. It's far cheaper to add a digital clock (sometimes just software because the hardware had a (segmented) display anyway). Nobody would add an analog clock to a microwave, because why would you. But because you need the display anyway to show the remaining time, why not show the actual time when there is nothing in it.
The other thing I'm arguing against is the claim that digital clocks are easier to read. That's just wrong. Assuming you have roughly the same amount of exposure to both types of clocks. Children about 3-5 have no problem understanding analog clocks (just focus their attention to the hour hand at first) but I have yet to see three/four year old kids reading and understanding digital clocks. Digital clocks are more like actual reading and you need a pretty solid understanding of time already to interpret what you read. An analog clock on the other side doesn't assume you know how long an hour is, quite the contrary, it helps children develop a feeling for how long minutes and hours are.
Yeah, I think we are pretty closely aligned on whether or not the analog clock face is necessary to daily life, and we just differ on if we should bother to teach it in school.
Also, I got a kick out of this...
Nobody would add an analog clock to a microwave
For the longest time, my grandparents microwave had an analog clock in it, and you literally turned dials to set a mechanical timer which ran the microwave.
Especially when this is a skill easily teached by parents. But who whants to interact with the humans one put into this world, I need to get this [insert trend item]
No, it's a meme made for older generations to feel superior to the younger generations. I've never met anyone who couldn't read analog (who wasn't very early primary school age).
Yeah they are. Try asking a simple question about geography. OR Remember in the movie Animal House how the Belushi character said that the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor. Say that today and most people still in school will readily nod in agreement
How hard can it actually even be? Nobody taught me how to read an analog clock, I just figured it out myself at age 9 by staring at my parents' analog clock for exactly 5 minutes, while carefully watching the hands move and counting.
When I realized that the second hand ticked 60 times per revolution, and after it had went around 5 times, and the longer of the two slow hands had advanced from the 12 to the 1, then I simply thought to myself "Well I get it now, that's not so hard!"
And yes I correctly extrapolated the correlation between the minute hand and the hour hand too.
Figuring things out yourself is always hit or miss. Either the specific neurons required for you to understand something fire or they don’t.
Relying children to figure something out for themselves is doubly stupid. Because for that to work, the child must want to learn the thing and then be able to understand it. If reading an analog clock isn’t something you need (and maybe you’re not even around analog clocks), then you won’t learn.
Very true yes, but even considering kids that aren't as inclined to learn on their own, it can't be too difficult for an adult or even older sibling to sit down for 5 minutes or so and explain it while watching the clock with them. It could be made even easier if you put it side by side with a synchronized digital clock/watch.
before long (no clue how long if you can't read an analogue clock) you'll have to teach them about 24 hrs in a day, 7 days in a week, 4 weeks in a month, 12 months a year. 365.
and why we have a Gregorian calendar why it wasn't always that way.
oh yeah, and the 29th of February (leap years).
If the yung-uns have no drive to turn back time and actually use and develop their brains, because my gen isn't going to rescue them and the boomers have also fallen into the internet trap. It's on them to save themselves, really.
If these trends keep going the way they are then idiocracy becomes reality.
Idk in our university lecture halls we had HH:MM.sss digital clocks and it's obviously superior for exams because you can just compare the numbers instead of translating and then comparing the numbers. And I'm pretty sure that's why they were digital, because it's easier to quickly compare.
If you were used to analog clocks, you'd read the remaining time just off the clock. As you would just read the time off it – no need for any translation or comparison, just one glimpse and you'd know it. For several decades this superiority of analog clocks was a main argument against the use of digital clocks. Digital clocks are more precise, though.
It's definetrly because they don't want to teach this thing that takes like 10 minutes to explain and not because recalibrating every daylight savings hour one by one is a hassle.
Being older (mid fifties) I was taught the analogue clock.
My eyes no longer work so well for reading, and an analogue clock face allows you to see the hands and know the time without having to work out where I've left my glasses.
On my phone's sleep screen I'm using large high contrast digits so I guess I'm using both styles.
Also much easier to visualise time deltas on a clock face.
Probably because it doesn't look much like AI. At least today. In a few years we probably won't have to ask that question because they would be practically indistinguishable.
Digital clocks are just objectively better. They are easier to read, cheaper, and more accurate. While the reason for swapping out the clocks is bad, the end result is still good.
45 year old here...I'm pretty sure I've never bought an analog clock and I think it would be weird for a school—or any place, really—to have one. I'm not surprised kids don't learn outdated technology and anybody who is mad about it should pick up a slide rule.
392 Comments
Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de · 124 pts · 299d
First: Some UK teachers exchanged the analogue with digital clocks. This was only to reduce interruptions by some students (during a specific kind of UK exams), who had trouble determining the remaining time in the heat of the exam battle.
Secondly: The use of analogue clocks is taught at UK schools. What's missing is the practice that former generations of pupils had. No more wristwatches, public clocks all but gone, and (what I am nostalgically missing from my youth) no more peeking onto parked car's dashboards to read the analogue clock there. Times have changed, and this specific partially lost ability is not the schools' fault. (Not to say that other things aren't...)
Can we please bury that stupid old meme, as it has been based on some inaccurate buzz and largely giving a completely inaccurate impression of the topic from the start...
joyjoy@lemmy.zip · 15 pts · 299d
Eventually, Lexus might stop including the analog clock as a luxury feature.
danc4498@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 299d
Kids don’t know cursive either. Nobody needs it anymore.
Capricorn_Geriatric@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 298d
I feel that learning cursive is important.
First you learn how to write ordinary letters. That trains your fine motor skills so you can write them reliably (try writing with your non-dominant yourself hand to see).
What cursive teaches you is how to write quickly. Of course, no one will write in pure, perfect cursive. Most people settle for a style somewhere in between. It teaches you the concept of "you can combine letters together to make you write faster" and "here are a bunch of ways to combine them". It's a good thing, Especially if they end up going to college.
Giving them a few more weeks of practice in reading and writing is a great way to avoid them being partially illiterate.
MBech@feddit.dk · 4 pts · 298d
Counter point: I can write a hell of a lot faster on a keyboard if I need to take notes.
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 299d
Being "taught" cursive in school was torture, anyway.
Paula_Tejando@lemmy.eco.br · 3 pts · 298d
I was taught block lettering in technical drafting class, 8th grade. Cursive is a lettering specifically created to be easy to handwrite. It flows on paper, as opposed to the repetitive short strokes of block lettering.
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 298d
The way they taught us cursive was the complete opposite of the intent of cursive. Rigidly proscribed characters with marks only for form, ignoring all function. It was agonizingly tedious and physically painful writing all of those nonsensical scrawls. I immediately switched back to my own chicken scratch after grade school because it was not only orders of magnitude faster, but at least didn't make my hand painfully seize up into a claw.
Decades later, as my handwriting evolved, a number of my own script letters began to resemble those wretched cursive runes, because I had apparently blindly stumbled upon the actual correct method for writing to flow from nib to parchment, as opposed to whatever those torturous rituals scarred me with as a child.
Uebercomplicated@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 298d
The problem you describe is very real, and not just in the US or the UK, but in most of Europe as well. A big part of writing is how to actually write, not just the letters et al.
I mean the literal way you move you arm, the angle you write at, how you hold you pen, etc.
I didn't learn any of that, and as an intensely dyslexic and left-handed individual, writing was extremely painful to me. That is, until 10th grade where I taught myself calligraphy.
It turns out that, when learning calligraphy, you do learn how to write properly.
After that, my handwriting in school (and for the rest of my life) became much better: I didn't have hand-pain anymore, I didn't smudge the ink, and, of course, my handwriting was very orderly and neat. Teachers even started commenting on it!
Most notably for me though: writing became fun. For me, as a dyslexic, this literally felt revolutionary.
Anyway, that is what I think they should teach in schools.
GladiusB@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 299d
I used to troll my teachers with inane questions to help my friends prepare for exams or quizzes that we knew were coming. I can't expect it's changed much.
technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 298d
Support. First reasonable comment in here.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/schools-removing-analog-clocks/
Vinstaal0@feddit.nl · 3 pts · 298d
Since smart watches are a thing some schools banned wristwatches during exams because they where not planning to look for the differences
someguy3@lemmy.world · -3 pts · 299d
My wrist watches were always digital, public clocks in suburbia I'm just gonna say never existed, in cars wtf?
I can only see this as an education problem.
FelixCress@lemmy.world · -34 pts · 299d
I am not being funny but if someone is unable to read the time perhaps they shouldn't be in the exam room in the first place.
It is like saying that all questions will be read out loud all the time and verbal answers recorded instead of written ones - because some students are illiterate.
lugal@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 28 pts · 299d
Students with dyslexia do get special treatment. There is no reason to discriminate against people lacking an unrelated skill and it's not funny to demand it so we at least agree on something
Capricorn_Geriatric@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 298d
I agree.
That being said, there's a difference between having a disability and just not having had enough practice.
Just having an analogue clock in all rooms and halls of a school is a way to give people the opportunity to get the practice.
In higher grades you can have an analogue clock in front and a digital "cheat" one in the back. If they're not sure, they can glance at that. And if that cheat clock is only in every other room. Most will learn because it's easier that way.
When reading the clock comes as a topic of the curriculum in 1st or 2nd grade, having the teacher ask a student to read the time periodically from the classroom clock for a few months will make sure everyone has had at least some opportunities to practice.
Of course, if someone does have a problem bordering on disability, accomodate them. Regardless of whether their parents took the time and money to have it diagnosed or not. But a quarter of a class having it is either bad luck or just bad methodology.
Edit: all this applies to elementary school.
lugal@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 298d
The post talks explicitly about teenagers in exam halls. Don't know if "exam hall" is a term for regular class rooms but either way it talks about teenagers. True, younger kids should learn it. Even if without practice, you have a hard time as a teenager, you can revive the skill later. Source: I did.
FelixCress@lemmy.world · -12 pts · 299d
I am not referring to students with diagnosed disabilities - I am referring to the vast majority without.
lugal@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 13 pts · 299d
... in the context that many students can't read analog clocks and shouldn't get help. Pretty sure there is no official diagnosis for this so no problem and they don't deserve to know how much time they have left in a biology exam. Again, there is no reason to discriminate against people lacking unrelated skills, if diagnosed or undiagnosed.
FelixCress@lemmy.world · -14 pts · 299d
Let me put it this way: if someone is not disabled and still unable or too lazy to understand the clock, they shouldn't be in the exam room in the first place.
This is not a "discrimination" - most exams are for the people with a some level of the IQ, certainly above the level of a radiator. Or a stool.
Karl@literature.cafe · 8 pts · 299d
They can understand the clock? Just not the analog clock. Why should they anyways? It's not like that's the only way to tell time and since reading analog clocks is an unrelated skill why do u think they're not fit to write exams? It has nothing to do with IQ, it's just that analog clocks aren't as common as they used to be. Hence, they're less used to them than previous generations. They probably can learn to read them if they wanted to, but they just don't bother, since they don't really need it these days
FelixCress@lemmy.world · -9 pts · 299d
Because it is is widely used?
Why should they learn alphabet in the first place? Why should they learn numbers?
papalonian@lemmy.world · 25 pts · 299d
Honestly if you can't calculate things on an abacus you shouldn't be in the exam room tbh. Sure, calculators have been invented and have ultimately replaced the abacus in nearly every facet of day to day life, but surely you know how to add beads together?
We're letting kids use GPS to get to school now? What the street signs and constellations aren't good enough for you?
FelixCress@lemmy.world · -26 pts · 299d
Let me rephrase it than - if someone is an idiot, they shouldn't be in the exam room. If you are concerned about it, it may be because you fit the category.
Karl@literature.cafe · 11 pts · 299d
What makes people who didn't learn to read analog clocks idiots? If you have a thing about analog clocks, just keep it to yourself.
Or maybe because it's just stupid af to judge people's intelligence based on an unrelated life skill.
FelixCress@lemmy.world · -18 pts · 299d
Wrong question. The correct would be: what make people who are too lazy or too stupid to learn the clock idiots - but that would be a rhetorical one.
Intelligence is an ability to obtain knowledge and skills. If someone lacks both, it is a strong indication of them not having enough intelligence to obtain them.
Karl@literature.cafe · 11 pts · 299d
They do know how to read the clock (digital ones :) ) Again, it doesn't make them idiots or lazy for not learning something they don't really need to learn
What makes you think they don't have the ability to learn how to read analog clocks just because they don't? You might not know how ride a horse, but that doesn't mean you can't learn how to. Are you an idiot for not learning how to?
FelixCress@lemmy.world · -14 pts · 299d
They also know how to use calculator, they just don't knot 2 times 2 is four without it. Neither have place during an exam.
Because if they did, they would have done during lessons to learn it, sweetie 🙄
Saganaki@lemmy.zip · 9 pts · 299d
You don’t know how to use an abacus? You must be an idiot.
FelixCress@lemmy.world · -14 pts · 299d
No. Don't know how to use the clock? You shouldn't be in the exam room.
Karl@literature.cafe · 13 pts · 299d
Except, they do know how to use a clock. Just not your favorite clock
FelixCress@lemmy.world · -14 pts · 299d
Nope. They don't know how to use the clock. The one widely used.
papalonian@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 299d
Yikes.
Also, since you ran out of arguments and started correcting people's spelling, *then.
FelixCress@lemmy.world · -10 pts · 299d
"yikes" what?
Passing exams is not an entitlement, it is an achievement. If someone is an idiot unable to understand the clock, they shouldn't be in the exam room in the first place - and they certainly shouldn't expect someone will start explaining clock to them when they are supposed to write an exam.
DesolateMood@lemmy.zip · 6 pts · 299d
Why are you so adamant that reading an analog clock is required to pass an exam that doesn't feature any material related to reading analog clocks?
FelixCress@lemmy.world · -7 pts · 299d
Why are you so adamant that reading is required at all? You could just watch ticktock instead after all.
Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it · 4 pts · 299d
Ah, okay, I can't take exams because my dyscalculia makes it difficult for me to read a clock (and it's not worth my time).
👍
FelixCress@lemmy.world · -9 pts · 299d
No, you shouldn't pass exams if you are an idiot - and if you do take them, don't expect a special treatment because of your stupidity.
And no, as I said people with diagnosed disability are a different matter.
Hopefully that clarifies it for you.
smiletolerantly@awful.systems · 61 pts · 299d
I feel like I'm going insane reading these comments about how difficult it is to read analog clocks, how it needs too much understanding of maths, how it takes too long,...
Can someone please confirm: you just look, for a fraction of a second, at the clock face and know the time, right?
Learning to read the clock was like... A couple of lessons and some homework in the 2nd grade, and everyone got it.
Jyrdano@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 299d
I can confirm. You are not insane.
markovs_gun@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 298d
I am in the transition age range of people who have trouble reading analog clocks and I must admit I had trouble with it until I started wearing a watch as an accessory as a teenager. The issue isn't that it's hard, it's just something that you need practice at to do quickly and a lot of young people just don't look at analog clocks to tell time very often. It's not a matter of being stupid or not being taught how to do it, it's like mental "muscle memory" that just isn't built up in a world where digital clocks are everywhere, including in your pocket 24/7
JcbAzPx@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 298d
Watches were pretty ubiquitous before the smart phone was popularized. Though, digital watches were common since the '80s, so I'm not sure how much that really figures in. There is some truth, though, in needing to regularly do it to keep the skill.
FelixCress@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 299d
Some of these comments are made by lazy idiots arguing that there is nothing wrong with being lazy idiot.
buttnugget@lemmy.world · -3 pts · 298d
I don’t understand how you could possibly classify looking at a clock as lazy.
FelixCress@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 298d
Read again.
buttnugget@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 298d
I just don’t see what any of this has to do with laziness.
Capricorn_Geriatric@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 298d
It isn't lazy to have a mastered skill and use it. It's lazy not taking the time to master it.
That being said, the biggest lazies of them all are the curriculum writers which don't make teaching future working adults how to use a clock a priority in grade school.
FelixCress@lemmy.world · -2 pts · 298d
You don't see how people too lazy to understand the clock are too lazy?
buttnugget@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 298d
I do not. I don’t conceive of looking at something as having anything to do with the concept of laziness. I feel like I’m missing something huge.
FelixCress@lemmy.world · -2 pts · 298d
In this case I am afraid I doubt in my ability to explain anything to someone of your ability.
buttnugget@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 298d
I don’t know, I’ve never particularly liked analogue clocks. I don’t think I ever thought of them as difficult to read, but it’s far superior to look at an exact number like digital usually features.
smiletolerantly@awful.systems · 14 pts · 298d
Disagree - it rarely matters to me if it's 13:24:56 or 13:25:05, but I do find the instant and intuitive gauging of time deltas super useful (as in, how long it's going to be to the full hour / to quarter past / ... ). Not saying you can't get that info from a digital clock as well, of course you can; but the physicality of analog clocks lends a good bit of intuition to this, I feel.
Redex68@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 298d
I get that, but I personally find that I often do care about the exact time, down to the minutes, and that's harder to track with an analogue clock. I don't have particular problems in reading them, I just often prefer digital clocks.
But I will agree that I feel analogue clocks give a better vibe of the time, since its basically a pie chart of how far you are in the day.
smiletolerantly@awful.systems · 3 pts · 298d
Yeah, vibe of the time is a good description
buttnugget@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 298d
That does make sense.
wischi@programming.dev · 5 pts · 298d
To be fair if you are never exposed to it (and judging by the comments that seems to have happened in the US) you can't tell the time by "just looking at it". But analog clocks are objectively simpler to teach to children (let's say three to eight years old).
DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 298d
Throughout middle school and high school, my bedroom clock was one of these, just the mechanism, no face, no numbers, hanging off the edge of a shelf. I had no trouble reading it. I still can easily read an analog clock with no numbers or any face marks.
Fedizen@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 298d
Congratulations! ⭐
Pat_Riot@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 298d
Clock reading was covered in kindergarten and cursive writing taught in 1st grade. These were some of the first wrinkles pushed into our little growing brains in the early 80s by school. That these things are no longer being taught so early explains why so many people are willing to immediately accept the Google AI overview as gospel and are wearing Crocs everywhere they go.
smiletolerantly@awful.systems · 2 pts · 298d
FWIW, I went to school in mid-2000. My sibling even later. They still taught it back then, and at least here, I am pretty sure they still do. (And why would they not, after all...)
AntEater@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 298d
Oooh, that's harsh.
technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 298d
Yes, this meme is pretty obviously fake.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/schools-removing-analog-clocks/
F0od@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 298d
Not exactly responding to you, but wanted to post somewhere where people would see it (hopefully)
We are not removing clocks or the standards, but it is not as important as many other standards in my grade level and 3rd grade. As a joke, I am going to bring a kid to our intervention team who can't tell time as his only academic issue. We will all get a good laugh out of it.
Every 2nd/3rd grade teacher I've worked with believes their students can tell time by the end of the year. This being said, regression is a well known phenomenon in education over breaks, but this is regression is due to analog clocks disappearing in society I assume and devastating to a newly acquired skill. Here are the 2nd grade standards, I would say this and counting money have become completely unsupported at home in my Title 1 school. Most teachers I have ever met care about kids and want them to learn, but there is only so much to do. They spend a lot more time out of school in their childhood than other places. Do the math!
2.OA.A Adding/Subtracting within 100 word problem and representations
2.OA.B Memorizing add/sub facts to 20
2.OA.C Equal groups (building blocks for multiplication)
2.NBT.A Place value (broken into 4 substandards, its kind of really fucking important)
2.NBT.B Place value (broken into 4 more substandards, its kind of really fucking important)
2.MD.A Measure and estimate in metric and standard (broken into 4 substandards, it is kind of really fucking important)
2.MD.B Addition and Subtraction in relation to length
2.MD.C Time to nearest 5 minutes and money 2.MD.D Interpreting graphs
2.G Shapes and Attributes
GeneralEmergency@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 298d
eronth@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 298d
Understanding the concept is fast. Getting good at sight-reading a clock face actually takes time to get familiar with it. If you only ever really see the clock in school, and You can choose to ignore it for phones or other digital clocks, you're never gonna get good enough at it that you'll be as fast as checking a phone.
Spaniard@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 298d
Yes.
I used to have some complex thinking I was slow at reading time in an analog watch, these days I feel much more confident.
GeneralEmergency@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 298d
Lemmites will never miss an opportunity to make things difficult to draw attention to themselves.
sommerset@thelemmy.club · 0 pts · 298d
Man I always felt analog clocks are just old age. I felt like that for about 30 years since I was a little kid. Its easier to read digital
Mickey7@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 298d
Yeah but the "hard" work of reading an analog clock apparently offends some people. Just more of "feelings" nonsense vs. facts
tlmcleod@lemmy.dbzer0.com · -2 pts · 298d
How tf are we in 2025 and people are still spouting off as if all humans have the same brain capacity and capability?
smiletolerantly@awful.systems · 6 pts · 298d
Literally noone I know in real life has any problem whatsoever reading analog clocks, no matter the "brain capacity", neuro-typicality, state of drunkenness,... It is an extremely simple "skill".
tlmcleod@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 297d
Congratulations? Your bias doesn't prove a thing
ThirdConsul@lemmy.ml · -2 pts · 298d
I'm 35. Math major. Work in STEM. Well educated.
I hate analogue clocks. Why use subpar way of reading time if digital is so much better?
smiletolerantly@awful.systems · 4 pts · 298d
Because it's not! Glad to help you clear that up.
jaupsinluggies@feddit.uk · 3 pts · 297d
Same reason you might use 22/7 instead of the exact value of π. If I look at a clock and see it's about ten to 2, it's rare to never that I actually need to know it's 1:53:22.57365785285978520256734567314854372354675466099.
BCsven@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 298d
They are actually a helpful way to show passage of time visually, without abstract math knowledge. For example my son has downsydrome, he could read time from analog and understand passage of time and time left on it, but numbers counting up to 60 was abstract.. Like its 47 minutes past 5 how close to the hour is it getting? No clue unless he wrote it out as a math question and did the subtraction. But for him those were meaningless numbers anyway. 15 was no different than 45 for him. But visual cues of quarter past and quarter to made sense for him
Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 46 pts · 299d
Analogue clocks are a great example of kids having to understand a concept and apply it. And it's simple enough that anyone can learn it.
I often see examples where children are required to memorize a set solution, instead of showing understanding and reaching the solutions themselves.
These clocks are somewhat dated, but removing them just feels like another symptom of a failing educational system.
wischi@programming.dev · 14 pts · 299d
Analog clocks are dated? Let's get rid of books because we have kindles. Just something was invented a very long time ago doesn't make it obsolete by any means. Or should we get rid of spoons or hammers? Those things are really somewhat dated.
SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca · 7 pts · 299d
Yeah I keep an analog clock on the wall because it's a more intuitive way to keep track of how long I've got to get ready to go out. I know where the angle of the minute hand will be when I have to be out the door, so it's quicker to glance it it and know if I gotta pick up the pace or I got plenty of time or whatever.
Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 299d
Dated does not mean obsolete. But it's hard to deny a digital clock is superior in almost every way.
Unlike the other examples you're giving, I fail to see in what aspect an analog clock beats a digital one. Sure they have a certain charm, but functionally they're just behind their digital counterpart.
BCsven@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 298d
For my son, that has downsydrome, analogs clocks made sense for him because he could see the time passing or time remaining to the hour, but digital requires abstract number concepts he struggled with. 15 or 45 didn't really mean anything to him sizewise, they are both 2 digit numbers. So he would struggle to grasp the time passing or time left... And making things worse we count 1-99 before the next unit but clocks are 1-59. How much time before 6 when it's 5:47? Becomes a math equation, but a glance on the clock is readily apparent.
wischi@programming.dev · 2 pts · 298d
Exactly. And that's also true for young children. Reading digital clocks is exactly that... reading. It doesn't mean you understand what it means or how to interpret it. Analog clocks however are a great tool at actually get a feeling for time.
I think the biggest issue judging by the comment section is that most Americans (at least it seems that way) are almost never exposed to analog clocks.
BCsven@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 297d
Anecdotally, I have seen many Americans aren't exposed to a lot. Like pointing out countries outside of North America is tricky for a lot of them. There is systematic degradation of their education system, but also this culture of "we are the best, we don't need nothing"
janewaydidnothingwrong@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 299d
People are gonna downvote you but I definitely agree. I see why the trend is concerning but I dont think we need to keep everything around just because that's how it used to be. Some things are allowed to change. When the quartz watch was invented, mechanical watches had to find a new niche and luckily they did. Both are still valid but their roles changed and that's okay.
Capricorn_Geriatric@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 298d
I have to say, I'm quite fond of my pneumatic hammer. When will my pneumatic silverware become a thing?
I just can't be bothered to expend any energy while I'm eating! It's supposed to give me energy, after all!
wischi@programming.dev · 1 pts · 298d
🤣 awesome. I'd love to see that. Reminds me of a video where a guy tried to eat corncob by mounting it on a drill. IIRC he lot some teeth doing that "stunt".
WoodScientist@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 299d
Do you know how to read a sundial?
wischi@programming.dev · 8 pts · 299d
I hope you are not serious. If the shadow (hand) is on two, it's two o'clock. If it's on three, it's three o'clock. If it's exactly between those two ticks it's half past two. There isn't even anything to learn (at least when they were invented). That's exactly how the hour hand on a clock works.
(Note: Today it would be a bit more complicated if you want wall-clock-time because the sun dial always tells local solar time and if you want the time in your time zone you would have to adjust for DST and use the equation of time for some smaller corrections)
Warl0k3@lemmy.world · -3 pts · 299d
You don't know how to read one - you've forgotten to calibrate it.
If you don't do that before use, it's measurements are meaningless. Correcting for DST and dates and other minor aspects of how time is handled in the modern era is important (blech screw DST), but this issue was present even in the roman era and is why sundials have movable faces. Premodern observatories (eg. stonehenge or the observatories at pisac) have references to correct the measurements for things like change in solar position and the progression towards the equinox for the same reason.
I don't think we should get rid of analog clocks, I just wanted to point out that your example here isn't a very good one to use.
wischi@programming.dev · 3 pts · 299d
What is progression towards the equinoxes? You mean precession of the equinoxes? That takes millennia and is very much negligible when reading sun dials on a day to day basis, or even year to year basis.
The orbital motions of the objects in our solar system is pretty messy and you are right that there goes more into designing accurate sun dials than just a stick in the ground, but I'd still argue that that's not part of "reading a sun dial" - which was the question I answered.
Warl0k3@lemmy.world · -2 pts · 299d
No, I mean the progression towards the equinoxes - historically the equinoxes were a common way to demark calendar dates, and as a result they're a useful reference point. Not universal, of course, but still frequently used enough to be useful when discussing this topic.
I get you're arguing because, well, this is the internet and I contradicted you. That's how it works, our egos are too tied up in our comments alone and it's too easy to read any tone into a comment that we'd like. We get defensive, our wounded egos make things heated. So in that spirit, let me be explicit that I'm not trying to be rude to you when I say this: You're oversimplifying the metaphor to make your point.
For example: I've been sitting around for a full day, but the damn clock says only twelve minutes have gone by.
You adjust a sundial in the morning every day, and then can read it from there (assuming it hasn't been jostled) - but you still have to be aware of the rules and conventions of the system, and work within it's boundaries. If we arbitrarily dismiss critical parts of it's operation, there will be no meaning in anything we have to say. The territory of things like "clocks don't measure time, they measure circles and everything we derive from them is thence wild and baseless speculation"; literally true and I can defend that position until we both die of carefully-measured old age, but reduced to the point that it's completely meaningless.
wischi@programming.dev · 2 pts · 299d
Do you have a link or something that explains "progression towards the equinoxes". I never heard of that and can't find anything about it.
FelixCress@lemmy.world · -3 pts · 299d
Yes. The same as analogue clock, genius 🙄
WoodScientist@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 299d
Nah let's ditch the analog clocks and instead teach them sundials. That will really stretch their brains.
wischi@programming.dev · 3 pts · 299d
Analog clocks are mechanical imitations of sun dials. Ever wondered why clockwise is the way it is? It's because the sun moved that way (on the historically a bit more dominant northern hemisphere)
technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 298d
Don't worry because it's a fake story.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/schools-removing-analog-clocks/
Rezoie@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 299d
wait analog is outdated?? what do you mean?? What else do people wear on their wrist?? some dystopian world your living in
Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 298d
Dated, not outdated. Or do I totally have the meaning of the word wrong?
Rezoie@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 294d
😭
joel_feila@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 299d
I remember getting a compliment more then once jn school. I was good t talong what i learned in once class and applying it to another
Rezoie@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 299d
Mickey7@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 299d
As our schools fail they simply change the parameters to cover up their failures
PlaidBaron@lemmy.world · 40 pts · 299d
Ive tried to teach my students (High School) how to read an analog clock. Keep in mind, I dont have time to teach a whole class on it, just a little lesson on how now and then when they ask what time it is. They can read it for the class, but the next day theyve forgotten how completely.
Its not because theyre stupid or lazy. Its because they rarely get practice with it. We know how to read an analog clock because, yes we were taught it in school, but they were everywhere so we essentially had practice with it all the time. These kids see digital clocks 99% of the time. So when do they ever apply their knowledge?
The only students who can read the clock are the handful who have analog watches for fashion reasons because they use it all the time.
Its a matter of practice but in truth these kids dont really have to read an analog clock in the modern world.
Eq0@literature.cafe · 14 pts · 299d
I also wonder: what’s the goal of teaching this? Sure, a cursory lesson is a good idea, but making it a fundamental step seems nonsensical in a world that doesn’t require it at all. It’s like teaching how to sharpen a quill, it’s not needed anymore
foodandart@lemmy.zip · 12 pts · 299d
NGL, wind up analog clocks are useful in places where the power goes out often. I have a 7-day grandfather clock and it's been a godsend when northeasters turn into ice storms that take down the power for days..
(Northern New England has wretched winter weather some years)
bleistift2@sopuli.xyz · 4 pts · 299d
I don’t have a horse in this race, but your argument doesn’t hold up. If you want a way to tell the time during a power outage, you don’t need an analogue clock, you need one that runs on batteries.
papalonian@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 299d
I'm also horseless, but their analog clock is a wind-up, no batteries required. So if you're snowed in and can't get to the store, it's one less thing that will take up batteries.
Comrade_Spood@quokk.au · 3 pts · 299d
I have a watch that is piwered by movement, and it is analog. Love the thing cause I don't have to remember to charge it or replace the batteries, it charges when I wear it. However if I forget to wear it it will likely die. But then I just give it a good shake and update the time.
Spaceballstheusername@lemmy.world · -2 pts · 299d
I don't know why you would need a clock if you're trapped in your house. Maybe if you have to take pills at a specific time but usually you can be off by an hour or two which I can tell simply by looking outside and sensing time internally.
papalonian@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 299d
In a snow storm?
Spaceballstheusername@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 299d
Not during the storm maybe idk it's been a while since I was in a snow storm. but afterwards before I get power back.
AA5B@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 299d
I’ve always wanted one of these but really only to remind me of my grandparents house from when I was a kid
GlendatheGayWitch@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 299d
It's an easy way to introduce fractions, especially since it's common to hear/say it's a quarter passed 2, half passed 5, and a quarter to 9.
Also teaches multiples, since the numbers on the clock represent multiples of 5.
Helps with directions, clockwise is when the hands spin to the right and counter-clockwise to the left. You'd be amazed how many students can't tell their left from right.
MeThisGuy@feddit.nl · 3 pts · 299d
wtf? this goes back further than analogue clocks.. we used to have a ribbon on one hand until we learned to distinguish right from left
next you're gonna tell me kids can't tie shoe laces anymore right?
GlendatheGayWitch@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 299d
I understand that learning left from right is a skill to learn. However, it was rare for a teenager to be unable to distinguish their left from right, unlike today.
MeThisGuy@feddit.nl · 1 pts · 299d
so kids these days are no longer taught that two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do? wild
olenkoVD@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 298d
Of course it's still needed. There still exist analog clocks almost everywhere. (At least in my country)
AA5B@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 299d
As a parent, we made sure to have an analog clock in every room while my kids were growing up, and we made them prove they could read it. Still don’t work. Digital clocks are everywhere else and in many ways more convenient.
Analog clocks are an obsolete decice whose time has passed. I also tried to keep it alive into the next generation but it’s not happening. It’s time to give it up.
Let that be one of our hallmarks as we age: the last generation with analog clocks. I use an analog face on my digital watch, have analog decorative clocks and I’ll accept that my kids believe that old fashioned (they do accept the analog clock face on my old car I gave them though, or maybe don’t know how to change it)
Default_Defect@anarchist.nexus · 4 pts · 299d
I would argue that a lot of what I learned in school didn't have much opportunity to practice outside of school, but I agree that analog clocks are not a learning priority.
Comrade_Spood@quokk.au · 1 pts · 299d
Most of the things that I was taught that I don't get practice with I do not remember how to do it anymore. Now I do have ADHD so that definitely does not help.
However I will say I do think in some cases learning how to do things you wont necessarily need outside of school can be useful as it can teach you other helpful things subconsciously. There are certain supporting skills that are developed when you learn those things that can be used in other contexts. Are there more effective ways to learn those supporting skills besides teaching things most people likely wont use again? Probably, but I don't really have an answer for what
DeadMartyr@lemmy.zip · 38 pts · 299d
I think removing everything that kids have a bit of a hard time trying to grasp just teaches kids to give up if anything isn't immediately apparent. Its not as much of a waste of time as cursive, and it's to be taught to think in another way.
I think that kids "learning how to learn" is really important, especially with how these AI models are stunting like a whole generation of people.
This is minor, but I also think less things need electronic displays/components that are hard to recycle and increase dependency on exploiting X country for Y resource. Its also cool to just be able to build a physical mechanism which digital clocks have no real feasible option to do
tooclose104@lemmy.ca · 11 pts · 299d
I just found out my 10yo has been lagging behind in spelling because he's been using speech-to-text on his school issued iPad for class work. He doesn't have to think about it or try sounding it out, so of course an unpracticed in-development skill is waning. It's going to be an interesting parent-teacher meeting coming up.
LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 298d
Is it a feature you can disable on the iPad? I never considered that kids would be doing that. My spelling was never great but I just always chalked it up to the way my brain worked. Even when I spent a couple years in college spending most of my free time reading books both to myself and our loud to my partner I still didn't remember how certain words were spelt because I often didn't write them. If I never wrote them as you are saying I imagine it would have been much worse.
juliebean@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 299d
i am delighted to be able to introduce you to flip clocks.
LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 299d
I would rather learn how to build an analog clock. In the olden days clock makers were highly respected & incredibly intelligent, it's quite an intellectual & mechanical art & science & craft to build an analog clock.
BCsven@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 298d
I love flip clocks
Droggelbecher@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 299d
Cursive is wayyyy more accessible for lots of people with chronic pain in their arm/hand/wrist. Also helps prevent those conditions for those who have do a lot of hand writing. I dread the day that people will no longer be able to read the least painful way to write or me.
LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 299d
If I'm honest with myself my handwriting was always shit. If I was writing you a letter you'd be able to read it, but taking notes in college was all but useless for me. The speed at which you would have to write left me unable to find any of it legible so I was able to take in more information by just sitting down and listening/watching instead of scrambling to figure out what they were talking about now after I wrote down whatever I thought was important prior to that. Professors write fast because they do it all the time, and the amount of time it would take me to read then write what they wrote would overlap the time they spent over the next 15 seconds telling you why it was important. If I wrote down why it's important I'm behind on the next bit of information and scrambling. When a professor posted their notes online so I could review it that way it was so much easier for me. (Makes note taking way easier)
Enekk@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 299d
What's interesting about this is that we are not taught how to take notes. People used to have classes that taught what is actually a complicated skill. I have gone through enough schooling that my note taking just happens without much thought, but it took me real effort to get there.
joel_feila@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 299d
and I yet I had a class in note taking and then years latter got points taken off because I didn't take like that teacher wanted
Pat_Riot@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 298d
Why the fuck would your notes be any of the teacher's business?
joel_feila@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 298d
I don't know bit it really pissed me off
LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 299d
I had a couple teachers try to spend a single class about note taking but I think note taking is different for everyone, much like learning styles. Telling someone to skip a,b, and ,c and just write d because they view it as the important information only works for people who think exactly how they think. So I would try something like that and would end up with.
1974 - congress - didn't pass till 1980.
That means nothing to someone unless they know more context, which the context clues in my experience are tied to someone's individual thought processes. In this case it would be mentions of maybe reconciliation process, simple majority, and budget. But for others it could be other things.
WoodScientist@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 299d
We should make everyone mad. Don't teach them to read analog clocks. Teach them to read digital clocks and sundials.
Mickey7@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 299d
It is minor but part of a bigger problem. Show them a globe and ask them to point our where Austria is and then ask them where Australia is. Most couldn't do it. And many wouldn't even know the difference
Miaou@jlai.lu · 1 pts · 299d
Learning how to write with a pen is a waste of time..?
DeadMartyr@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 290d
Cursive is good for some people because arthritis, but most people do not use cursive aside from their signature.
I spent a good chunk of 1st and 2nd grade learning it so I can read it but it really did not teach me anything. It's not like learning a new way of thinking, it's just muscle memory and practice.
I'm not saying learning how to write is a waste of time, I write alot and while its typing now, I definitely needed to learn to use a pencil. But cursive is like learning how to type on a Devorak(?) keyboard
technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 298d
It's extremely minor because it's extremely fake.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/schools-removing-analog-clocks/
SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world · 23 pts · 299d
Snopes article about this from 2018 stating it’s mostly false.
aarRJaay@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 299d
Its becoming a reality though. I work in a school (primary and secondary) and the exams officer is putting digital clocks only in the exam rooms for that reason.
arudesalad@piefed.ca · 3 pts · 299d
Students not being able to read an analogue clock being a reason may seem silly, but being able to read one shouldn't be a requirement to be able to do well in exams, especially UK exams where students have enough to deal with already.
lobut@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 299d
When my friend's daughter was 9 years old and he was complaining how she didn't know how to read an analogue clock.
I mean, I wound up teaching my nephews when they were 4 ... not sure what's stopping him from doing it though.
Mickey7@lemmy.world · -2 pts · 299d
Well who would ever disagree with a Snopes article
SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world · 4 pts · 299d
Mostly misogynistic right wingers but I don’t know any on this site.
technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 298d
People who believe memes are real.
technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 22 pts · 298d
What kind of boomer would believe this nonsense?
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/schools-removing-analog-clocks/
Karl@literature.cafe · 6 pts · 298d
Some ppl who just badly want to be angry.
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 299d
This has got to be AI written or cherry picked data. They’re pulling clocks to save a few $ if anything. Old schools used to have synchronized analog systems. I could easily see those things being removed.
technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 298d
Yes, it's very easy to debunk this nonsense. I'm kind of amazed that nobody but me has googled this.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/schools-removing-analog-clocks/
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 298d
Thank you for posting that.
LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 299d
Really? I never knew any of them were synchronized, that's cool if so. I seem to remember us pulling them off the wall at our schools and changing them twice a year or replacing the batteries. Having them wired with synchronization may be overboard, but it is kind of cool
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 299d
Yep. The schools I went to had synchronized analog clocks. They would all “adjust” together if they were off at all. Some kind of clockwork solenoid.
LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 299d
Yes I remember sometimes they would remotely adjust our clocks and you could see the hands moving quickly until they stopped in their intended position. Pretty genius for the old days.
hardcoreufo@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 299d
All my schools had them. Sometimes you'd catch them doing a resync and all the hands would spin around. I think they probably couldn't rotate CCW so had to go around the long way if they needed to roll back a few minutes.
Waraugh@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 299d
My highschool was small (graduating class under 50; five small towns combined), and in the 90s, ours were synchronized, just realized I always wondered what they used.
joel_feila@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 299d
Probably the clocks all used a synchronous motor. It spins baaed on ac current. After juat set the clocks to the right time when you plig them in
Waraugh@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 299d
Thank you, I’ll need to look into it, it was obvious they were synced because they got adjusted for daylight savings from somewhere and they all slowly changed time over the course of an hour if I recall correctly, it always fascinated me.
LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 299d
Would that not mean if the power goes out after say a hurricane, the all the clocks have to be reset manually or can they somehow change them all remotely? A mechanism going threw the walls to change them from a single location sounds like a lot of work to get a synchronized clock
joel_feila@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 299d
Im sire there is. A way to send a comand to clockw to fast-forward to a certain time.
LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 299d
At what point is it not just a digital clock with an analog interface if it has the ability to receive information digitally and perform tasks off of it. (I assume increase/decrease voltage to the motor).
Unless maybe that's how they do it, put all the clocks on an individual power source, then manipulate the current to increase/decrease the speed of the motors so they all move synchronized... Idk, cool concept though. Not sure how you would overcome the loss in varying distance of the clocks though.. it's possible but a lot of planning
joel_feila@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 299d
Its the Hertz of ac current that comteols timing. But that's just how it counts the seconds not how it would tell if it is noon. But its uses analog electricity to keep time and maybe a digital comand to set time. Does make it digital or analog?
childOfMagenta@jlai.lu · 3 pts · 299d
Could they be synchronised independently? My grandfather in France had a clock that was receiving a radio signal I think from Strasbourg. They've been around for a while. I remember being up late during day light hour change and i would suddenly hear the second hand rush forward. It would stop one whole hour on the switch back. I would use it to adjust my watch. Nowadays I use raw GPS and any mobile phone is synced from the network anyway.
ProfThadBach@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 298d
Every year I taught for the past 30 years I have heard this but I will say that every year I had to go over how to read a clock at the beginning of the year and every time a kid would ask me what time it is I would point at the clock and ask them what time they think it is? At least they left the class knowing how to read a clock even though they were shit at writing essays.
LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 299d
It took me until age 15 to become comfortable reading analog clocks and confident knowing which way is left and right.
Hey cut me some slack, left/right gets confusing sometimes because of mirrors & facing people).
But I think learning how to tell time on an analog clock is an important skill because it broadens the mind regarding mechanics & mathematics, thereby developing more synapses in our brains & logic & mental computational skills.
MisterD@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 299d
I'm old af and I still have to think about it
SoloCritical@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 299d
Once I figured out what hand I write with, it was all easy street from there. I used to tell myself “I write with my right hand”
Aneb@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 299d
I loved when a class would get quiet enough to hear the seconds hand click on the mechanical motor. I lived to see how close it was to the end of minute. One time in class I counted how black dots were on the ceiling. Wow I was bored
AntEater@discuss.tchncs.de · 3 pts · 298d
I counted the dots along the x axis, multiplied by the y axis count and took that as an estimate for the tile. Then did the same with the number of tiles across the ceiling. Then multiplied that by the number of classrooms... Same with the floor tiles. There was no end to it.
blave@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 299d
It’s only happened twice, but I’ve run into kids who couldn’t read an analog clock. You know what I did?
I taught them. It took, like, 30 seconds. I know it took 30 seconds because I was wearing a goddamn watch.
Mickey7@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 299d
Still can't understand how any kid cannot do it. Isn't that something you learn from your parents before you even go to school
blave@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 299d
I think I learned how to read a clock in preschool, not from my parents
MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 299d
"little hand", "big hand" kind of stuff.... yeah, I vaguely recall going over that when I was in JK/SK, possibly in the first few grade levels. IDK, I'm old now, so I don't remember a lot of what happened when I was around 6.
someguy3@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 299d
I remember learning in second grade.
Mickey7@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 299d
The older you are the more you actually learned in school.
MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 299d
Don't undersell all of the life lessons you learned from being the age you are.
Part of the reason why kids seem so dumb is because they don't have that life experience yet. They're still figuring it out. I'm sure that when I was a kid people looked at me and thought I was pretty dumb, just like many adults do to the kids now. blave has the right attitude about it; teach them. Someone has to. If everyone shrugs it off that someone will do it, then nobody does it.
FelixCress@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 299d
.... Unless the parents are idiots as well.
Mickey7@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 299d
No doubt the parents are idiots just like their kids
FelixCress@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 299d
Reversed Darwin. More and more of these.
user224@lemmy.sdf.org · 0 pts · 299d
I've had, and honestly still do have issue with reading it rather than understanding. At least the way I was taught, it just sounds really weird, like 15:40 being "5 minutes till quarter to 4 in the afternoon".
I don't need to think about "fifteen forty".
Mickey7@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 299d
thinking is hard
user224@lemmy.sdf.org · 1 pts · 299d
But why add unnecessary complexity?
Like analog clocks are fine, they show time progress in a way digital don't.
But why read it in that more convoluted way? Like, I can tell you that you have 10100
binseconds to answer some question, and you can tell that's 20 seconds, but why the fuck do it that way. The only time it's "five minutes till quarter to four in the afternoon" rather than 15:40 is when writing an assay, perhaps.FelixCress@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 299d
Perhaps just the thing where you are from? I never heard anyone referring to "five minutes before quarter to", it is idiotic. You would say "twenty to four".
balance8873@lemmy.myserv.one · -2 pts · 299d
Probably not -- time isn't that relevant before society puts you on the path towards hourly labor. I learned in elementary, but then I also grew up with digital clocks like most folks under 50.
Edit: apparently we have either a lot of on-the-clock preschoolers or folks who don't know when digital clock radios were invented. Perhaps both. If you cared about the clock time before you were 5 I feel sorry for you.
MeThisGuy@feddit.nl · 2 pts · 299d
we yearned for the mines.. but we didn't need no stinking clock because it was always dark.
canary sure was useful though.
sommerset@thelemmy.club · 8 pts · 299d
Analog clocks are just annoying, I support this change. Also let's change format to 24hr format
wraithcoop@programming.dev · 15 pts · 299d
Ironically, I want a 24h analogue clock
wischi@programming.dev · 11 pts · 299d
24h analog clocks exist but they are pretty useless because you lose angular resolution. So unless you are a vampire that's up 24/7 a 12 hour wall clock has better angular resolution than a clock with 33% wasted area you'll never use/see because you are asleep
Rezoie@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 299d
what's angular resolution now 😭😭😭💔💔
wischi@programming.dev · 2 pts · 299d
It's about how far the hand moves in a given time. On a normal 12h circle analog clock the hand moves 30° per hour. On a 24h analog clock that's halfed to 15° per hour.
MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 299d
I'm all in on 24hr clocks. I'm a veteran and currently work in healthcare. Use that 24hr times 40+ hours/week.
But, I also like regular clocks. Especially BIG building clocks or old time 4 side post clocks you can still find on some corners of cities & towns around the globe.
Sunflier@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 299d
AND PLEASE STOP CHANGING IT EVERY SIX MONTHS!!!!!
wischi@programming.dev · 6 pts · 299d
Why/How are analog clocks annoying?
sommerset@thelemmy.club · -3 pts · 299d
Digitals are way easier to read.
wraithcoop@programming.dev · 5 pts · 299d
Reading analogue and digital clocks are kinda a different skill and use different parts of the brain. That's not to say either is better, it's just different.
wischi@programming.dev · 2 pts · 299d
You can teach three year olds to read analog clocks (see my other post) but I've yet so see three year olds reading and understanding digital clocks. I get the feeling in this thread that everybody that has issues with analog clocks is from the US and that might come from the fact that the US (at least it seems based on this thread) has almost no exposure to analog clocks.
Fedizen@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 298d
I had to check the community to verify I accidentally opened c/fakeconservativememes.
It was a relief when I realized this wasn't c/Lemmy Shitpost.
DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social · 8 pts · 298d
Imagine falling for this boomer rage bait when half the details are obviously and clearly censored.
DrSteveBrule@mander.xyz · 7 pts · 299d
One part of me wants to feel disappointed that kids aren't learning to read analog clocks, but another part of me thinks there was a time when people grew disappointed that the younger generations stopped learning to use an abacus in favor of digital calculators. I certainly don't want some old geezer giving me shit because I don't want to learn to use an abacus. I also don't want to be that old geezer.
Mickey7@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 299d
very few continue to use an abacus. analog clocks will still be around for decades
DrSteveBrule@mander.xyz · 3 pts · 299d
No doubt. I wasn't trying to imply that either one is useless, but things change and new technology takes over. Another person replied to me comparing cursive and typing on a computer. I catch myself thinking that new generations are at a disadvantage because they don't learn the same things I did. But it may not always be necessary that they do. I am of the computer typing generation. I didn't learn to write beautiful cursive, but my life hasn't been negatively impacted even though many people have expressed sympathy for my awful education. I was just trying to say I think it's a rather normal thing for old systems to get phased out of a classroom from time to time. It's not really a good reason to believe that younger generations are doomed. But like I said I fall into that line of thinking myself from time to time.
nickiwest@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 299d
Teacher here.
I'm pretty certain that the only place where my students ever encounter an analog clock is at school. But teaching how to read analog clocks is required in our math education standards, so I have one and I use it, even though I think there are other, more relevant places to put our academic focus.
I'm 45 years old. I'm pretty sure we only ever had one analog clock in our house when I was growing up in the '80s, and that was my grandpa's alarm clock. The only places I've been where only analog clocks were available have been schools. Even our local bank in my small town changed to a digital clock on its sign outside.
Unfortunately, education systems are dictated by legislators, who are often old and out-of-touch. So I doubt we'll see a change in the education requirements any time soon. But, just like how keyboarding has replaced cursive in classrooms, it will eventually come.
wischi@programming.dev · 15 pts · 299d
Are you from the US? I'm completely amazed that there are counties we you are almost never exposed to analog clocks. I'm from Europe and analog clocks are everywhere. Every train station, public buildings, churches, clock towers, homes, wrist watches. Heck we even have tons of (but more because of esthetics instead of serious time keeping) sun dials on walls (which the analog clock and the clock wise direction is based on - for the north hemisphere). Many appliances/devices have digital clocks but that's not because the are more modern/better but because they are way cheaper to produce and have less moving parts.
Credibly_Human@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 299d
Europe has a lot more cultural attachment to their buildings as they have histories that go back a lot longer.
Murica, doesn't and its part of why they have such awful car centricity.
The car lobbyists were basically allowed to design American cities.
Snowcano@startrek.website · 4 pts · 299d
Seriously! I’m absolutely baffled by the comments here talking about how analog clocks are somehow this bizarre anarchism from the distant past that is just sooooooo difficult to understand. Wtf has been going on over there??
FelixCress@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 299d
Mind you, they are the people who measure area in "stadiums" and the distance in "football field lengths" because they are too stupid to comprehend the metric system.
joel_feila@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 299d
Dpes no one in Europe ever use object for a reference. Like it's as tall the efifle tower, or that like running 3 laps around a football feild.
Of I were to say that America east to west would stretch from the straights of jerblarter to paar Istanbul. Does break their mind because they only understand km.
nickiwest@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 299d
I'm from the US, but I'm currently a teacher in South America. Kids here are even worse at reading analog clocks than my students in the US were.
joel_feila@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 299d
Yeah the for a long timw the cheapest watches were digital ones. And omce led even old red ones you cloid make digital clocks very very cheap.
frank@sopuli.xyz · 6 pts · 299d
Surely this comes from the American, not European point of view, yeah?
FelixCress@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 299d
What the actual fuck? Are you not using wrist watches at all at whatever US hole you are a teacher at? Because most of these are analogue.
joel_feila@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 299d
Unless it change in last few years the cheapest wrist watched arw digital
nickiwest@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 299d
Not currently teaching in a "US hole." I've been teaching in South America for 5 years and I have never noticed an analog clock in a public place here.
Baizey@feddit.dk · 1 pts · 299d
Why would you use a wristwatch tho?
And I'm saying this as a European
PrettyFlyForAFatGuy@feddit.uk · 3 pts · 299d
I'm 32, I wear an analog clock on my arm every day
technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 298d
No need to feel disappointed about fake news.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/schools-removing-analog-clocks/
juliebean@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 299d
*sigh* everyone always forgets about slide rules.
joel_feila@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 299d
Beat me to it. If only my dad had saves his
blave@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 299d
It’s only happened twice, but I’ve run into kids who couldn’t read an analog clock. You know what I did?
I talked to them. It took, like, 30 seconds. I know it took 30 seconds because I was wearing a goddamn watch.
IWW4@lemmy.zip · 6 pts · 299d
I fail to see why problem an analogue clocks are a solution for.
Like cursive they are obsolete.
Ibaudia@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 299d
They still exist and will continue to exist in many contexts indefinitely, such as men's fashion and clock towers, so there it's not like they'll ever be "obsolete" per se. They are also extremely easy to learn, and are a good way to teach concepts like spatial reasoning and gears to kids. I think schools should teach about them for those reasons.
WoodScientist@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 299d
I'm tired of your modern woke bullshit. Why are you trying to teach kids to read clocks with mechanical hands? Use a sundial like a normal person.
IWW4@lemmy.zip · 0 pts · 299d
All of your examples are aesthetics..
DmMacniel@feddit.org · 5 pts · 299d
cursive is faster than block face though.
vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de · -3 pts · 299d
not really. It's faster while writing it sometimes. But if you factor in the time it takes to try reading it a year later you end up with a net loss
MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 299d
I disagree. I grew up in the 80s and 90s, and I had to read cursive all the time, since my boomer parents used it constantly. When you read it regularly, it doesn't take any longer to read than block letters.
I never used cursive because I never got into enough of a habit of using it before technology made the skillset unnecessary. I think I write down one thing a month? if that? I use computers the rest of the time, whether it's the small rectangle that fits in my pocket, the larger folding rectangle that goes in my backpack, or the larger cube like one that sits under my desk at home.... I use computers about 1000x more than a pen.
That doesn't change the fact that I can look at cursive and know what it says as instantly as if it were typed text. Me not being able to, or simply not writing cursive is entirely a me problem.
Ibaudia@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 299d
Yeah, they're still useful points of knowledge though. Wholistic education is important to teach kids how the world works.
MBech@feddit.dk · 4 pts · 299d
My thoughts exactly. This just screams "old men afraid of change, thinking everything was better back in the day". The world is changing, things become obsolete because they're replaced by newer, better stuff all the time.
I'm sure people were complaining that kids were getting stupider when they stopped using abascuses, fucking cursive (I specifically remember people being upset about this one), dictionaries in book form, fountain pens, handwritten exams.
It's time for a lot of people to realise that they themselves have become the complaining old farts they always hated as kids.
MajorasTerribleFate@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 299d
I know a Gen X guy who "hates" digital clocks because "they don't have hands to tell me what time it is."
BananaIsABerry@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 299d
That might actually be a perfect example of mental gymnastics. What a strange justification of just liking something.
MajorasTerribleFate@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 299d
I mean, not really. He knows analog clocks well enough that the hand position just inherently means something to him. Afternoon, and the little hand is almost halfway? Work day done! Just by position.
Somewhat analagous: I know how far a meter and a kilometer are, in principle, but when I consider distances I more intuitively understand them in feet and miles. It's what I'm used to.
wischi@programming.dev · 3 pts · 299d
My daughter got analog clocks before she could read when she was about three years old. IMHO it's a teaching skill issue. Take a normal wall clock, remove all hands except the hour hand, split the day into segments (brushing teeth, lunch, Kindergarten, etc.) and draw (did that in Gimp) some nice symbols and colors. Done. Explain stuff every time she asks "when" using that wall clock. Let that sink in for a year. Now add the minute hand back in.
Analog clocks are not really "obsolete" if you ask me. Hands on a circle aren't used enough. We have "clocks" (this time inverted - the circle spins and the hand/indicator is fixed) out of cardboards for a week to learn the days of the week, including "activity" symbols for kindergarten, "weekend", "music lesson", etc. a wheel for "day of the month", and one for month of the year also showing seasons.
The total amount of time that was invested in building those was about three or four hours but the value is huge when you have something to point to when she asks anything about time no matter it's about when we go to sleep, birthdays, holidays, etc.
MeThisGuy@feddit.nl · 2 pts · 299d
birthdays? so you have a clock with 365 (+¼) minutes?
wischi@programming.dev · 2 pts · 299d
Analog clocks imitate sun dials and of you have amazing eye sight/precision you would only need the hour hand. If the hand is exactly on 3, it's 3 o'clock. If the hand is exactly in the middle between 3 and 4 it's half past 3. If the hand is 4° after 5 it's 04:08. But because our eye sight doesn't have super resolution we just add another hand that makes a full circle when the hour hand moves an hour. And same with seconds. Second hand makes a full circle for 1 minute.
Back to birthdays - you can do that on the other direction as well but I wouldn't call it a clock, it's a circular calendar. Think about a disk (like a wall clock with only one hand) and seven equal segments. The days of the week, every morning we move the hand to the next day. Another disk with 31 segments (day of the month) and another separate disk with 12 segments. We typically move that one on the first of the month to the next step.
Now of we discuss events I can point to a segment and even though she is a young kid she immediately gets the scale of things because of something happens in a few hours (let's say she is meeting a friend) I show it to her on the normal analog clock with focus on the hour hand. But if she ask about Christmas I point on the "month" dial and she knows that it takes a very long time for that hand to move.
Typical analog clocks have all the hands on the same disk (for convenience and because it's compact). Our "child-clock" started originally as an normal analog clock with only the hour hand and is now a normal analog clock with hour and minute hand and three more separate disks for day of the week, day of the month and month of the year.
Mickey7@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 299d
good point. that's why we have no need to study history since every thing in the past is obsolete
MeThisGuy@feddit.nl · 2 pts · 299d
because a digital clock is not right twice a day
drhodl@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 299d
Maybe you can't see the gap in your education...?
Credibly_Human@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 299d
I doubt they are unable to read an analog clock. Most adults are.
I am not able to read cursive though.
Like I can guess enough of it, but I just don't encounter it enough to remember it.
Like imagine if you hadn't tied a tie in 50 years. Would you still remember how?
Its not a useful skill, and anyone who wants to learn can do so in a few minutes of searching.
FelixCress@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 299d
Or between his ears...?
rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 299d
What was scribbled out of this screenshot with black lines, and why was it scribbled out?
wischi@programming.dev · 3 pts · 299d
The part in the middle is a screenshot of some social media site and the blacked out parts are navigation bread crums, comment counts. The answer below has a blacked out user name, profile picture, etc.
I have no idea why they would remove UI elements from a screenshot.
technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 298d
Maybe it was the link to Snopes explaining how this is fake?
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/schools-removing-analog-clocks/
MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 299d
To the title, that's always been the case.
"no child left behind" turned into "make it easier until everyone passes" Shit isn't new. it's been going on for a long, long ass time.
oppy1984@lemdro.id · 6 pts · 298d
The less educated a populous is, the less likely they are to think critically, think for themselves, and ultimately the easier they are to control.
Octavio@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 298d
tym@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 298d
jaupsinluggies@feddit.uk · 1 pts · 297d
It's getting so bad that some people can't distinguish between British and American punctuation conventions.
AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 298d
Do the blackboards in the US also say "breathe in, breathe out, repeat" so that half the class doesn't just die?
No that's silly, there's no guarantee that they could read that.
technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 298d
Shit isn't new and it hasn't always been the case.
It's fake.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/schools-removing-analog-clocks/
MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 297d
I didn't say it was always the case.
This statement just seems like agreement to me.... Idk.
wischi@programming.dev · 1 pts · 298d
Your fact check doesn't say it's fake. Even the "mostly false" mentioned in the fact check is a bit of a stretch if you read the "what's true" section.
pir8t0x@ani.social · 4 pts · 298d
Teenagers not being able to tell the time from analogue clocks is CRAZY (saying this as a teenager myself)
Bytemeister@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 299d
Eh, we don't teach them how to read a sundial or make a fire anymore either. I don't see a problem with removing old technology from school instruction.
wischi@programming.dev · 3 pts · 298d
"Old technology" like, hammers, spoons and books 🤣 Let's get rid of the wheel. That crap was invented ages ago.
Update: and if you can't read a sun dial - which by the way is just reading the number the freaking shadow points at - the US should seriously consider teaching stuff like that again.
Arcka@midwest.social · 2 pts · 298d
Such a shame that so few people know how to ride a horse these days. You still see them across the countryside and in many cities, but most people choose not to learn.
Bytemeister@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 298d
And how do you read an analog clock? By looking at the number the arm points at. Learning how to read the clock is not just "what number is it on" but it's getting familiar with the clock face so you can read it quickly. It's like the difference between spelling and reading.
wischi@programming.dev · 1 pts · 298d
You are right, nothing to argue against here. What I'm arguing against is just that digital clocks are somehow the successor of analog clock, which they are not. There is a reason why digital clocks are now everywhere and that's mainly cost. It's far cheaper to add a digital clock (sometimes just software because the hardware had a (segmented) display anyway). Nobody would add an analog clock to a microwave, because why would you. But because you need the display anyway to show the remaining time, why not show the actual time when there is nothing in it.
The other thing I'm arguing against is the claim that digital clocks are easier to read. That's just wrong. Assuming you have roughly the same amount of exposure to both types of clocks. Children about 3-5 have no problem understanding analog clocks (just focus their attention to the hour hand at first) but I have yet to see three/four year old kids reading and understanding digital clocks. Digital clocks are more like actual reading and you need a pretty solid understanding of time already to interpret what you read. An analog clock on the other side doesn't assume you know how long an hour is, quite the contrary, it helps children develop a feeling for how long minutes and hours are.
Bytemeister@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 297d
Yeah, I think we are pretty closely aligned on whether or not the analog clock face is necessary to daily life, and we just differ on if we should bother to teach it in school.
Also, I got a kick out of this...
For the longest time, my grandparents microwave had an analog clock in it, and you literally turned dials to set a mechanical timer which ran the microwave.
istdaslol@feddit.org · 2 pts · 299d
Especially when this is a skill easily teached by parents. But who whants to interact with the humans one put into this world, I need to get this [insert trend item]
RejZoR@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 299d
Are people really this stupid now?
BetaDoggo_@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 299d
No, it's a meme made for older generations to feel superior to the younger generations. I've never met anyone who couldn't read analog (who wasn't very early primary school age).
technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 298d
Just the people who believe this nonsense.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/schools-removing-analog-clocks/
FelixCress@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 299d
Just read comments of some users in this very thread. "Idiocracy" was a documentary after all.
Mickey7@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 299d
Yeah they are. Try asking a simple question about geography. OR Remember in the movie Animal House how the Belushi character said that the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor. Say that today and most people still in school will readily nod in agreement
over_clox@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 299d
How hard can it actually even be? Nobody taught me how to read an analog clock, I just figured it out myself at age 9 by staring at my parents' analog clock for exactly 5 minutes, while carefully watching the hands move and counting.
When I realized that the second hand ticked 60 times per revolution, and after it had went around 5 times, and the longer of the two slow hands had advanced from the 12 to the 1, then I simply thought to myself "Well I get it now, that's not so hard!"
And yes I correctly extrapolated the correlation between the minute hand and the hour hand too.
bleistift2@sopuli.xyz · 4 pts · 299d
Figuring things out yourself is always hit or miss. Either the specific neurons required for you to understand something fire or they don’t.
Relying children to figure something out for themselves is doubly stupid. Because for that to work, the child must want to learn the thing and then be able to understand it. If reading an analog clock isn’t something you need (and maybe you’re not even around analog clocks), then you won’t learn.
over_clox@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 299d
Very true yes, but even considering kids that aren't as inclined to learn on their own, it can't be too difficult for an adult or even older sibling to sit down for 5 minutes or so and explain it while watching the clock with them. It could be made even easier if you put it side by side with a synchronized digital clock/watch.
MeThisGuy@feddit.nl · 3 pts · 299d
yeh but that's a very slippery slope..
before long (no clue how long if you can't read an analogue clock) you'll have to teach them about 24 hrs in a day, 7 days in a week, 4 weeks in a month, 12 months a year. 365.
and why we have a Gregorian calendar why it wasn't always that way.
oh yeah, and the 29th of February (leap years).
ain't nobody got time for that
over_clox@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 299d
Don't forget, if the year is divisible by 400, it's not a leap year...
Yeah, the finer grained details of timekeeping can get confusing, but I learned all that from online sources and curiosity by age 17.
We really do live in an amazing era where technology does so much for us behind the scenes, until AWS takes a shit anyways...
rirus@feddit.org · 3 pts · 298d
They are too loud, I had to insist to put the clock down and take the batteries out, since the ticking was too loud.
CrowAirbrush@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 298d
If the yung-uns have no drive to turn back time and actually use and develop their brains, because my gen isn't going to rescue them and the boomers have also fallen into the internet trap. It's on them to save themselves, really.
If these trends keep going the way they are then idiocracy becomes reality.
kugel7c@feddit.org · 3 pts · 299d
Idk in our university lecture halls we had HH:MM.sss digital clocks and it's obviously superior for exams because you can just compare the numbers instead of translating and then comparing the numbers. And I'm pretty sure that's why they were digital, because it's easier to quickly compare.
Kornblumenratte@feddit.org · 6 pts · 299d
If you were used to analog clocks, you'd read the remaining time just off the clock. As you would just read the time off it – no need for any translation or comparison, just one glimpse and you'd know it. For several decades this superiority of analog clocks was a main argument against the use of digital clocks. Digital clocks are more precise, though.
Mickey7@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 299d
The point wasn't about which is easier but that many really can't read an analog clock. And that's really sad.
bleistift2@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 299d
How did the seconds end up with three digits?
MeThisGuy@feddit.nl · 0 pts · 299d
micro seconds
FelixCress@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 299d
He never learned the clock.
vane@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 298d
Schools removing books as teenagers cannot read them.
pir8t0x@ani.social · 2 pts · 298d
Are we being serious right now bro?! 🤦
blimthepixie@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 299d
Big Ben will be digital by 2028...
DmMacniel@feddit.org · 2 pts · 299d
Why would a tower be digital?
blimthepixie@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 299d
I was being sarcastic
TronBronson@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 298d
This article is old enough to buy cigarettes now.
technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4 pts · 298d
Still fake too.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/schools-removing-analog-clocks/
Jankatarch@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 299d
It's definetrly because they don't want to teach this thing that takes like 10 minutes to explain and not because recalibrating every daylight savings hour one by one is a hassle.
CrackedLinuxISO@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 299d
When I was a student, my school had analog clocks that were synced via some electric system.
Kolanaki@pawb.social · 5 pts · 299d
My school didn't even have working clocks. :/
Tomato666@lemmy.sdf.org · 2 pts · 298d
Being older (mid fifties) I was taught the analogue clock. My eyes no longer work so well for reading, and an analogue clock face allows you to see the hands and know the time without having to work out where I've left my glasses. On my phone's sleep screen I'm using large high contrast digits so I guess I'm using both styles. Also much easier to visualise time deltas on a clock face.
Pika@rekabu.ru · 1 pts · 298d
Something like 30 years ago analogue clocks seemed to be dominant. Does that mean you lived through childhood and adolescence without reading time?
Tomato666@lemmy.sdf.org · 1 pts · 297d
Expensive digital watches with glowing led segment displays turned up late 70s, but battery life was shit. I never had one.
By the 90s cheaper digital with LCD screens were everywhere. Battery life was great.
Mickey7@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 298d
But the point wasn't about vision but the simple intelligence needed to read an analog clock
TempermentalAnomaly@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 299d
No one's asking the real question... Is that background image AI?
Nevermind that this was from 2018.
wischi@programming.dev · 1 pts · 299d
Probably because it doesn't look much like AI. At least today. In a few years we probably won't have to ask that question because they would be practically indistinguishable.
toppy@lemy.lol · 2 pts · 298d
Next schools will start removing textbooks because students cannot read. They will replace with audio books.
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 297d
"Don't test for Covid, it will only make our numbers increase!" -Donald Trump, 2020.
Juice@midwest.social · 1 pts · 298d
No time for learning, only tests
saturn57@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 299d
Digital clocks are just objectively better. They are easier to read, cheaper, and more accurate. While the reason for swapping out the clocks is bad, the end result is still good.
MeThisGuy@feddit.nl · 1 pts · 299d
they don't make the satisfying tik tik though
Hikermick@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 299d
Maybe it's because everyone has a clock in their pocket? One that is accurate and doesn't need batteries changed or altered twice a year
Dragonstaff@leminal.space · -4 pts · 298d
45 year old here...I'm pretty sure I've never bought an analog clock and I think it would be weird for a school—or any place, really—to have one. I'm not surprised kids don't learn outdated technology and anybody who is mad about it should pick up a slide rule.
tlmcleod@lemmy.dbzer0.com · -6 pts · 298d
Looks like .world is nothing but ableist assholes. From what I understand it's a lot of reddit refugees, so that tracks.