You say that, but I recall in elementary school a lot of students struggled on learning it right away. It is a skill that should still be taught, but in today's world, digital time is basically everywhere.
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Schools are removing analogue clocks from exam halls as teenagers 'cannot tell the time'
- Thread starter Deleted member 15428
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You say that, but I recall in elementary school a lot of students struggled on learning it right away. It is a skill that should still be taught, but in today's world, digital time is basically everywhere.
Yeah, I agree with that. I probably take my understanding of analogue for granted. Looking at a digital clock, I get the same sense of remaining time, probably because I learned analogue first.
Oh okay, I didn't realize people may have trouble with that when it comes to digital clocks. That's a concept that will take some time for me to digest (referring mostly to your last sentence, I have heard about time compression as you age) but I can totally see where you're coming from.
In that case, just put little squares inside analog clocks that display the time digitally (or on top or to the side or wherever). That way both sides get what they want. It can't be that much more expensive, if at all, to make such hybrid clocks.
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No dude, fuck off with that noise. Not every kid is going to be a programmer. Reading a clock from a young age is a basic skill. Period.
A lot of math work in younger years and on many standardized test use clocks in math problems. It involves critical thinking.
I really want a Tokyoflash.
Like the comparison with cursive is already really bad and makes no sense, but the shit about sundials is genuinely disturbing, and it just gets worse from there.
And this would be why I can't stand all the posts defending this decision.
Like the comparison with cursive is already really bad and makes no sense, but the shit about sundials is genuinely disturbing, and it just gets worse from there.
This post covers everything of merit in this thread. Stating that analog clocks require any real effort or that they're "outdated" is a symptom of a very serious problem. I'm pretty sure most or all of the people defending this are robots.
Wait, I lied, this is also a really good post.
Asked my sixth-grade English class if they knew how to read an analogue clock today, thanks to this thread. All of them said yes and were really confused. They learned it in grades 1-3. So this seems to be a retention and practice problem rather than a teaching one.
My point is that kids today and in the future have digital time displayed on all of the devices they use. Smartphones, televisions, computers and tablets....even in cars and on microwaves.
More than likely they will never really need to tell the time from an analogue clock. So I can understand deciding not to teach it anymore.
What the fuck?
When I was a kid they taught us how to tell analogue time in preschool, how the hell do these teenagers not know this? Were their teachers to busy showing them how to play Minecraft?
When I was a kid they taught us how to tell analogue time in preschool, how the hell do these teenagers not know this? Were their teachers to busy showing them how to play Minecraft?
For the past 2 years in computer class I have had a 3D modeling unit in Maya and Unreal Engine for my high schoolers, and both times I've had a student beg me to be able to use Minecraft for our assessment instead. So this got a laugh from me.
this is just sad
don't blame the schools... blame the parents.
if your parents didn't teach you how to read a clock then you had an unfortunate childhood.
don't blame the schools... blame the parents.
if your parents didn't teach you how to read a clock then you had an unfortunate childhood.
Oh ok that's good to hear. So you think this is a segregated issue related mostly to the schools in the article then?
I would've loved to have subjects in Maya and Unreal at school when I was a kid
Jeesus. When I was in like 4th grade another kid scolded me for having a digital watch (Because it was cool) because I'm supposed to be able to tell the time by looking at the hands. I knew how to tell time back then. I just liked the watch.
It's probably happening in more than one school, but I teach in an Asian school so rote learning is still somewhat of a thing that helps build concepts in early grades. We have fun assessments and projects of course, but we also have grinding, difficult lessons because sometimes that's the only way you can teach something and keep it in someone's head (reading, geography, history, linear algebra, etc.).
It's nothing fancy. We learn how to make lighting, textures, and normal/displacement maps from photographs in UE4, then we rig a simple character in Maya and learn to make it move around and collide with things, then we model out full rooms of the students' choice and put it all together. I only have the kids once a week so we're not learning anything too complex, but thank god Maya is free for students and UE4 is free for everyone. Minecraft is great for primary kids to play in their free time, but by high school we should really be looking into professional software more often.
Considering how schools don't teach how to read analog after the first grade at best and most homes with analogs sinply have it only because it's always been there otherwise it's digital? Who is surprised. It's just a little bit of re learning.
Shit, why even bother to teach math nowadays when you can just use the calculator on your phone?
Why bother to learn how to read when text-to-speech software exists?
I'd agree with you if analogue clocks were more complicated than sticks pointing at numbers.
The youngest in my family writes his name out for his signature... the death of cursive, my aunt has told me some stories about kids complaining about writing as they are more comfortable with keyboards/devices. You can tell by their penmanship it's a struggling norm lol
With cursive not really being taught much I'm not really surprised this is the case here. Neither of my younger sisters (15/11) are able to tell the time from an analog clock. I always found reading analog clocks fun and easy but I certainly understand why this is happening even if I'll miss them for the most part. All just enjoy the "code speak" with my mother that my sisters wont understand when I say "quarter past X" or "quarter of Y", etc...
Think about this for a second, we will eventually need a replacement idiom for "A broken clock is right twice a day"...
Though, on a more serious note, this is more of the educators' failure than the students'... We can't really say "These post-millennials are ruining the housing market with their inability to understand analogue clocks" when the teachers and parents around them failed to teach. What I'm saying is that we need a better reason, not excuse, to blame them for the world's problems.
Though, on a more serious note, this is more of the educators' failure than the students'... We can't really say "These post-millennials are ruining the housing market with their inability to understand analogue clocks" when the teachers and parents around them failed to teach. What I'm saying is that we need a better reason, not excuse, to blame them for the world's problems.
It's wrong to blame the younger generation(s). This can't be overstated. Those who are ignorant of glorious round time have been put on the defensive by this misdirected criticism, so of course some will resort to being proud of their ignorance.
The loss of this skill is due to a cultural shift. It's likely less due to curriculum, and more due to fewer analog clocks on the walls of homes and public buildings. They haven't disappeared, but they're certainly not by every bedside or on every kitchen wall anymore. I'd bet the decline of wristwatches has had a similar impact.
Round-wise is a useful language in which to display time; the metric system is superior because we count in base ten; writing in cursive is faster and more efficient than printing. But no matter how aggressively we fight to preserve or encourage the adoption of these things, if they're not a part of daily life, they won't become ingrained in the popular consciousness. Just like unique languages when cultures are assimilated, or stories passed down orally.
I think most of us agree that it's distressing to lose knowledge as a society, just as it's distressing to lose biodiversity, but the fault lies with the inexorably shifting tides of culture, not with teachers or students.
Best way to preserve analog time is simply to put up more analog clocks and try to make analog watches fashionable. Maybe they'll come back like vinyl; maybe they'll disappear forever like solving moderately complex mathematical problems on paper.
You are absolutely right... It's just kind of disappointing that something so fundamental and basic (at least to us) as reading the clock seems like a special skill for the newer generation.
Radiologists still use the clock face numbers to help describe where the breast tumor is located in relation to the nipple. "Right-sided 2 cm tumor located at 5 o'clock, 3 cm away from the nipple. Depth 4 cm perpendicular to skin."
If your mother gets breast cancer, pray her surgeon knows how to read an analogue clock.
If your mother gets breast cancer, pray her surgeon knows how to read an analogue clock.
I think its worth keeping in mind this story is about a school in England. A number of people here as just assuming or about a different country. Also, as I previously pointed out 300 odd posts ago, learning this skill is part of the national curriculum at Key Stage 1 as part of basic mathematics, these kids should have known this by age 5 or 6, let alone teens I1t doesn't really matter how people feel about it, these pupils should have known it. The primary education system failed them or perhaps, some kids (or parents) are looking for an excuse as to why an exam didn't go the way they hoped.
Removing this from the curriculum would not free up the time required that you could teach kids programming, your talking about a very small part of learning basic maths at a very young age.
It does make me sad to see sommany people happy to give up a skill just because it's old or they don't use it.
Removing this from the curriculum would not free up the time required that you could teach kids programming, your talking about a very small part of learning basic maths at a very young age.
It does make me sad to see sommany people happy to give up a skill just because it's old or they don't use it.
Your full post was great, so please don't take this selective quote as me ignoring it.
But please tell me the above quote is not true, what methods are currently being used to teach equations/maths if not on paper?
But is it time to stop? I couldn't possibly tell from the big round thing(??) that guy's holding.
oh shit :lol
I went to 5 different schools in three different countries during the early years where they'd teach cursive, and all of them taught it or used it in class. I'm guessing you're younger than I am, though.
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Seriously. And if this is seriously a "problem" then why the fuck are they just going ahead and removing the clocks? Like. This is so inconsequential. This is a vestige akin to cursive handwriting; just a very neutral sign of the times.
Telling the time from a young age is a basic skill. It doesn't really matter what sort of clock they use.
Why tho? It's an arbitrary skill that has almost no use anymore. Our generation stopped learning old shit too. Some things can be left behind.
"Almost no use anymore"
Is there a war on analogue clocks in the anglosphere the rest of the world is completely missing?
When I was a little kid they taught us how to use clocks in school. Also when we were learning English, I guess it was a two-for-one but they'd have sheets with clocks on them and we had to write the time that the clocks showed in English.
This just further demonstrates how some countries have a horrendously bad education system.
This just further demonstrates how some countries have a horrendously bad education system.
Must be. I'm in Asia, and if I tilt my head up about 20 degrees here at my desk, there's an analogue clock right there. If I walk across the hall to the other office, another one is waiting for me there, and in every other room on this floor. When I exit the building in about 15 minutes, I will see like twelve analogue clocks over the entrance, displaying the times from different global cities.
