At least 31 states and the District of Columbia restrict cell phones in schools
New York City teachers say the state’s recently implemented cell phone ban in schools has showed that numerous students no longer know how to tell time on an old-fashioned clock.
“That’s a major skill that they’re not used to at all,” Tiana Millen, an assistant principal at Cardozo High School in Queens, told Gothamist of what she’s noticed after the ban, which went into effect in September.
Students in the city’s school system are meant to learn basic time-telling skills in the first and second grade, according to officials, though it appears children have fallen out of practice doing so in an increasingly digital world.
I’ve been hearing this since I was a kid, though back then they just blamed the use of digital clocks instead of phones.
“These newfangled analog clocks with hands are killing the ability of people to understand clock bells. Kids these days.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Striking_clock
A striking clock is a clock that sounds the hours audibly on a bell, gong, or other audible device. In 12-hour striking, used most commonly in striking clocks today, the clock strikes once at 1:00 am, twice at 2:00 am, continuing in this way up to twelve times at 12:00 mid-day, then starts again, striking once at 1:00 pm, twice at 2:00 pm, and the pattern continues up to twelve times at 12:00 midnight.
The striking feature of clocks was originally more important than their clock faces; the earliest clocks struck the hours, but had no dials to enable the time to be read.[1] The development of mechanical clocks in 12th century Europe was motivated by the need to ring bells upon the canonical hours to call the community to prayer. The earliest known mechanical clocks were large striking clocks installed in towers in monasteries or public squares, so that their bells could be heard far away.
I just want to say, as someone who lives near such a bell, I’m grateful that they appear to observe “quiet hours” between 8pm and 8am. When I first moved in, I was worried it’d be dinging all night. Thank goodness that’s not the case.
I just have car alarms going off for no reason at 4am to worry about.
I used to think it was a meme too and I still think it is to a point. But several of my recent jobs were at universities and I have met several people younger than me now who cannot read an analog clock, use a mouse, copy a file to a flash drive, or make change. To say nothing of their ability to find information that can’t be googled (like the location of a classroom). I have really begun to feel that the general population has absolutely failed GenZ and I really hope we can break the pattern before GenAlpha gets much older.
Elder millennial here, I also struggle reading analogue clocks to this day. I can, but it just takes me a long time to do so. And I’ve been like this since I was a little kid.
“Numerous students”
Gotta love that completely nebulous and undefined number. It also sounds like a non-zero number simply have to be instructed to read the clock in order to understand it. Could be like 20 kids out of a school of 400. Oh noes the education system has completely failed!
They actually gave us a number but gave it to us on a abacus and now we can’t comprehend it.
If only there was a place they could learn that.
It’s not that stunning, they didn’t grow up with them and you don’t really see them in public these days.
We explicitly learned analog clocks in 1st grade, had worksheets and everything. What the hell are schools doing these days?
People forget skills they don’t use. I’m guessing you and I had plenty of practice reading analog clocks over the years until the skill became completely ingrained.
It helped that every school in the district ran analog clocks exclusively, so you had to learn it if you wanted to know what time it was at school.
Yup. I learned cursive in the 2nd or 3rd grade. Probably the last time I used it as well. If I needed to write something in cursive, I would be pretty screwed. I remember some of the easier stuff, like the vowels. But if I needed to write a “q” or “k” I don’t think I could remember it.
With that said, learning how to read an analog clock is way easier. It’s a formula/method, and the numbers are right there. It’s not memorization. This should be something easy to teach.
The problem is that analog clocks are not in the curriculum for middle school and high school. It’s hard to find time to teach middle schoolers how to read clocks when you are struggling through “To Kill a Mockingbird” with a bunch of students on a 4th grade reading level.
Teenagers in inner city schools not knowing how to read analog clocks is a much more complicated issue than it seems on the surface. The solution is not “well they should have just had the childhood that I had and it wouldn’t be a problem”
Judging by the stories my mom has after teaching for decades they no longer really teach anything. Nor are they allowed to. These days they have to follow a script for everything down to how you move your hands and when.
Disruptive student? Just keep teaching like nothings going on.
Student struggling with a subject? Don’t stop to help or try a different method to help them learn. No child left behind so they’ll still move up a grade even if they can’t read or do simple addition.
Just make sure the students are in the classroom so the school gets money. Nothing else matters.
Still not teaching about taxes… or anything useful, clearly.
I work in schools. We have them in every hallway and classroom. But the kids do not know how to read them, and they don’t even seem interested to learn even though it would take all of two minutes to wrap their head around. Seen it in the middle and high schools.
‘Old clocks’? You mean… analog clocks? The ones in practically every household outside of America?
where can I get one of those Anal OG clocks?
Outside of america ,explain more
When I grew up we looked at the height of the pile in the hourglass and we liked it! The rich kids all had sundial wristwatches though.
Ok zoomer
pfff bet you were one of those poors with a bucket with a hole in it
Some might call this a "teachable moment ", no?
They still teach analog clocks in kindergarten or 1st grade. All my kids learned.
Possibly the case here as well. I learned roman numerals in school enough to pass whatever was on tests, but everything past 18 is a mystery to me now; probably because there isn’t a final fantasy 20 or whatever yet.
Unless it’s deeply internalized, knowledge atrophies from disuse.
Possibly the case here as well. I learned roman numerals in school enough to pass whatever was on tests
Note that there are multiple systems of writing them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_numerals
While subtractive notation for 4, 40, and 400 (IV, XL, and CD) has been the usual form since Roman times [citation needed], additive notation to represent these numbers (IIII, XXXX, and CCCC)[9] very frequently continued to be used, including in compound numbers like 24 (XXIIII),[10] 74 (LXXIIII),[11] and 490 (CCCCLXXXX).[12] The additive forms for 9, 90, and 900 (VIIII,[9] LXXXX,[13] and DCCCC[14]) have also been used, although less often.
The two conventions could be mixed in the same document or inscription, even in the same numeral. For example, on the numbered gates to the Colosseum, IIII is systematically used instead of IV, but subtractive notation is used for XL; consequently, gate 44 is labelled XLIIII.[15][16]
Especially on tombstones and other funerary inscriptions, 5 and 50 have been occasionally written IIIII and XXXXX instead of V and L, and there are instances such as IIIIII and XXXXXX rather than VI or LX.[17][18]
Modern clock faces that use Roman numerals still very often use IIII for four o’clock but IX for nine o’clock, a practice that goes back to very early clocks such as the Wells Cathedral clock of the late 14th century.[19][20][21] However, this is far from universal: for example, the clock on the Palace of Westminster tower (commonly known as Big Ben) uses a subtractive IV for 4 o’clock.[20][c]
IIII for four o’clock but IX for nine o’clock
Very interesting - I have a newer Timex with RN on my (left) wrist right now and never thought about alternate notations for the numbers. Turns out it uses “IIII” for 4 but “IX” for 9 rather than spelling it all out in additive form. The designers made a curious choice for people wearing the watch on their left - the 9 o’clock “IX” is upside down so that it reads “XI” from the point of view of the wearer rather than, thus it looks like 9 is 11.
We had to learn RN when I was a kid, and I assume that’s only because there were a few RN clocks remaining out in the world. I’ve never felt like I need to process the numerals on a clock anyway - once you know what position corresponds to what hour you’re good to go. Many clocks and watches don’t have numerals at all and that doesn’t impair most people from using them.
the 9 o’clock “IX” is upside down so that it reads “XI” from the point of view of the wearer
What do you mean? For roman numeral clock faces, all the ones I’ve ever seen have had them oriented radiating from the center.
So happy to hear this. I thought maybe I was just ancient…
They teach it but since they will not use this skill they will forget how to
Good thing they are in that place where all the professional teacher are.
“Old clocks”?
Those are just clocks
There’s an interesting technology connections video on how analog clocks can be easier to parse how “far” through the hour/day you are with just a quick glance. Hand almost at the top means the hours almost up, for instance.
do we need a video essay to know that a clock display that is basically just progress bars is a good way to tell progress in that progress bar?
Maybe not but technology connections is great.
no doubt it’s a great channel.
I have trouble with numbers (they didn’t have dyscalculia when I was a kid) and this was a chief complaint of mine, moving from elementary school to high school, where the clock were all digital. I had to “convert” it in my head to the clock face so my image-oriented brain could properly grasp it. Took me a few years to normalize it.
This isn’t interesting
Gen-Xer here - do they not teach kids this in kindergarten or 1st grade or w/e anymore?
Students in the city’s school system are meant to learn basic time-telling skills in the first and second grade, according to officials, though it appears children have fallen out of practice doing so in an increasingly digital world.
They’re supposed to, but if they never use it because they don’t have to, they’ll just forget how.
I mean parents should be teaching them too but here we are, blaming everyone else.
Yep, it seems to be the new American Way. I have one analog clock in our family room and I periodically ask my son the time. He’s not always right, but he’s pretty good.
I’m genX. I take him camping, hiking, biking and show him the plants and objects he can use when he needs them. Some of it sticks.
When society forgets the basic skills, a simple shock can bring it down. Permanently.
It takes just a few minutes to learn how to read an analog clock. Once you’ve got the idea, you’ll be slow deciphering the time at first, but once you start doing it, very quickly you’ll be reading it immediately with just a glance.
I see analog clocks all over the place, especially waiting rooms and public buildings, and I have a very nice pretty one in my house. I think the people saying they’re not being used anymore just aren’t noticing them, they’re just background scenery to them and don’t enter their consciousness.
I learned how to read one over 20 years ago, when am I supposed to get to the point where it’s just a glance? (And it’s not like I rarely encountered analog clocks growing up, the only clock I could see during breakfast was an analog clock…)
I don’t mind them but for me digital is much faster to read. Granted it’s still like 2 seconds at most so not like it really matters, but I find it to be noticably more mental effort.
How do you not read it at a glance? After 20 years you think you would just notice the general shapes, its all basically the same, especially if you simply round everything, which is what a lot of people do as time on an analog clock is rarely used super precise.
1/4 or 1/2 after or before, and almost.
Then what hour is the small hand approaching?
Quarter to 3.
Half past 1.
Almost 4.
Seems pretty simple. Unless you are used to 24 hours, then you would have to ignore or add 12.
If I know the hour already it’s usually at a glance since I just need to see the general area of the minute hand (unless it’s one of those clocks where the minute and hour hand are barely different in length so i have to first figure out which is which, but that’s just a design problem).
But otherwise, or if I need to know the time more precisely (which is kinda often tbh since nowadays I mainly see analog clocks in train stations) it takes me a second or two. Whatever it is that’d make me able to read them in an instant just never got wired in my brain i guess. Digital clocks I can read at a glance.
It might be digital clocks fault that I mostly think about time in minute precision and that then might have made it harder to ever build the pattern recognition for slightly rougher time reading from analog clocks
It would just depend on how often you actually use them, it’s just familiarity. If you had one in your house/classroom/office that you looked at whenever you wanted to know the time (as it used to be before digital), it would take only a quick glance. Your brain recognizes the shapes, just like it recognizes words in your native language immediately without figuring out the individual letters.
I think the people saying they’re not being used anymore just aren’t noticing them
Probably too busy getting shrimp neck and not looking up, LOL.
The morons here are the teachers.
People don’t know what they dont know and haven’t been taught. We have been relying on this idea that each next generation just has what the previous generation knows. It isn’t a practice thing it is a we haven’t prepared the new for what the world has to offer.
We do this everywhere and blame the uneducated and point and laugh. Fuck that.
I can’t wait for the students to learn and be proud when they do.I met my first kid who couldn’t tell time almost 10 years ago.
Teachers are just figuring this out now?
I met my first kid who couldn’t tell time before these teachers were born.
My coworker is 23 and couldn’t understand why I told him it was “a quarter to four” instead of the exact “three forty four”. A discussion followed about the way old people think.
or telling someone what 3 quarter lbs mean.
