Submitted 2 weeks ago by Mickey7@lemmy.world to [deleted]
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/f809cb9c-c018-4ad2-975f-68e4e399e1de.png
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 can confirm. You are not insane.
I feel like I’m going insane reading these comments about how difficult it is to read analog clocks,
These comments are made by lazy idiots arguing that there is nothing wrong with being lazy idiot.
I don’t understand how you could possibly classify looking at a clock as lazy.
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.
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.
Congratulations! ⭐
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…)
and are wearing Crocs everywhere they go.
Oooh, that’s harsh.
I’m 35. Math major. Work in STEAM. Well educated.
I hate analogue clocks. Why use subpar way of reading time if digital is so much better?
Because it’s not! Glad to help you clear that up.
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
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 on to the full hour / two quarter past / … ). Not saying you can’t get that info from a digital clock as well, of course you can; but the physically of analog clocks lends a good bit of intuition, I feel.
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).
How tf are we in 2025 and people are still spouting off as if all humans have the same brain capacity and capability?
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”.
Learning to read the clock was like… A couple of lessons and some homework in the 2nd grade, and everyone got it.
Yes, this meme is pretty obviously fake.
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
Lemmites will never miss an opportunity to make things difficult to draw attention to themselves.
Yeah but the “hard” work of reading an analog clock apparently offends some people. Just more of “feelings” nonsense vs. facts
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.
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.
Man I always felt analog clocks are just old age. I felt like that for about 30 years
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.
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.
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 their just behind their digital counterpart.
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.
Do you know how to read a sundial?
Or should we get rid of spoons or hammers?
I have to say, I’m auite 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!
Nah let’s ditch the analog clocks and instead teach them sundials. That will really stretch their brains.
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)
These clocks are somewhat dated, but removing them just feels like another symptom of a failing educational system.
Don’t worry because it’s a fake story.
wait analog is outdated?? what do you mean?? What else do people wear on their wrist?? some dystopian world your living in
Dated, not outdated. Or do I totally have the meaning of the word wrong?
As our schools fail they simply change the parameters to cover up their failures
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
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.
Its also cool to just be able to build a physical mechanism which digital clocks have no real feasible option to do
i am delighted to be able to introduce you to flip clocks.
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.
I love flip clocks
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.
Who would believe this nonsense?
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.
Snopes article about this from 2018 stating it’s mostly false.
I fail to see why problem an analogue clocks are a solution for.
Like cursive they are obsolete.
Analog clocks are just annoying, I support this change. Also let’s change format to 24hr format
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.
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’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.
It took me until age 15 to become comfortable reading analog clocks and confident knowimg which way is left and right (hey cut me some slack, left/right gets confusing sometimes because of mirrors & facing people).
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.
Imagine falling for this boomer rage bait when half the details are obviously and clearly censored.
I had to chec the community to verify I didn’t accidentally open c/fakeconservativememes
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.
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
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.
Are people really this stupid now?
Teenagers not being able to tell the time from analogue clocks is CRAZY (saying this as a teenager myself)
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.
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.
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.
What was scribbled out of this screenshot with black lines, and why was it scribbled out?
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.
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
Next schools will start removing textbooks because students cannot read. They will replace with audio books.
They are too loud, I had to insist to put the clock down and take the batteries out, since the ticking was too loud.
Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
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 2 weeks ago
Eventually, Lexus might stop including the analog clock as a luxury feature.
danc4498@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Kids don’t know cursive either. Nobody needs it anymore.
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Being “taught” cursive in school was torture, anyway.
Capricorn_Geriatric@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
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” is 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.
FelixCress@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
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 2 weeks ago
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
papalonian@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
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?
Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it 2 weeks ago
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 to learn how to read them).
👍
someguy3@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
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.
GladiusB@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
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 2 weeks ago
Support. First reasonable comment in here.
www.snopes.com/…/schools-removing-analog-clocks/
Vinstaal0@feddit.nl 2 weeks ago
Since smart watches are a thing some schools banned wristwatches during exams because they where not planning to look for the differences