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.
As kid I knew how to read the clock, still I found it confusing and I needed to consciously put effort in it and I’d need to take some time concentrating.
At some point I decided to just ignore the minute hand, the hour hand alone is good enough for most uses and that helped.
Interestingly early clocks just had the hour hand, the minute hand was a later invention.
It takes me about one second to read the time on an analogue clock, and yes, some slight cognitive effort compared to a digital clock. The main thing is to get it into your head that every elapsed number from the top “12” position is five minutes. So, when the minute hand is pointed at the “2,” it means 10 minutes into the hour, 15 minutes when it’s pointed at the “3”, 30 minutes at the “6,” etc. once you’ve got that wired into your brain, reading the minutes becomes much easier, which is usually what slows people down in the beginning.
This is how I read the time too. I also tend to round up to the nearest number often if precision isn’t required. Like if it’s 5:27, I’ll simply read it as 5:30.
Yes, I read the clock the same now, 50 years later. As a kid that was quite hard for me.
I’m not doing it anymore now, but focusing on the hour hand was my stepping stone as a kid.
And then - someone else mentioned, what you need to learn is how to read the minutes, which count to 60 in 5 minute blocks.
Another post mentioned having an analog wrist watch helps, and I agree, that’s how I got quick with reading the clock at a glance later.
The basic thing I wanted to say in the first place: For kids it is not so easy to lean this.