British schoolkids are baffled by analog clocks

[William Parcher]

British schools are replacing analog clocks with digital ones to help clueless students

Some British schools are replacing analog clocks with digital ones because kids can’t read them — but it’s not a problem singular to Britain. Plenty of Americans kids can’t read them either.

British teachers recently tweeted that schools are changing the clocks, sometimes in rooms where important exams are taken, so students don’t waste time asking how much time is left.

The Telegraph recently quoted Malcolm Trobe, deputy general secretary at the Association of School and College Leaders, as saying:

“They are used to seeing a digital representation of time on their phone, on their computer. Nearly everything they’ve got is digital, so youngsters are just exposed to time being given digitally everywhere. … Schools will inevitably be doing their best to make young children feel as relaxed as [they] can be. There is actually a big advantage in using digital clocks in exam rooms, because it is much less easy to mistake a time on a digital clock when you are working against time.”...

Okay, so it's not just the Brit kids.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...s-with-digital-ones-to-help-clueless-students

 

[RecoveringYuppy]

And they don't know how to operate manual transmissions or rotary phones. Shocking.

 

[Venom]

And they don't know how to operate manual transmissions or rotary phones. Shocking.

But they won't be able to do their homework later in life not knowing clockwise and counterclockwise

 

[casebro]

And they don't know what that crank handle on the inside of my truck door is for. Lazy little assbites.

 

[zooterkin]

And they don't know how to operate manual transmissions

Actually, they probably do, I think most cars are still manual, though automatics are a lot more common in the UK than they once were.

 

[MikeG]

And they don't know how to operate manual transmissions or rotary phones. Shocking.

Yeah, because loads of kids in times past who were young enough to be taught how to tell the time were already driving.

And don't be afraid of breaking out of that little cocoon one day: most of the rest of the world use manual transmissions. Automatics are rare here, for instance.

 

[MikeG]

British schools are replacing analog clocks with digital ones to help clueless students

Okay, so it's not just even the Brit kids.......

My wife was teaching her class how to read an analogue clock just last week. It's in the National Curriculum, so every primary student will also be taught the same thing. Every clock in her school is analogue. A bit of perspective here might help.

 

[Brainster]

What's it, only about 50 years since digital clocks were invented? What I find somewhat amusing is that even with a digital readout on my phone, I still tend to round the time--4:03 is just past 4, 5:18 is quarter past 5, etc.

 

[Planigale]

The great thing about digital clocks is you now have all sorts of new times. Does anyone else have pi time? Shortly after 3pm when you all go and have a 'pie break"? e time really does not seem to have taken off. Irrational times are great for dates your partner is never on time "We'll meet at 2^1/2pm for lunch then?".

 

[Worm]

Ah Malcolm Trobe, my old headmaster...

Still.

There are actual advantages to understanding how analog clocks work, but I'm not massively surprised that kids are drifting out of that understanding.

 

[SezMe]

And they don't know what that crank handle on the inside of my truck door is for. Lazy little assbites.

And what do those little assbites use to tell someone to "roll the window up". "Click the window up"? "Swipe the window up"?

 

[SezMe]

One test some shrinks use to help diagnose a patient is to have them draw the face of a clock. The younger generations are doomed. Doomed, I tells ya.,

 

[MikeG]

One test some shrinks use to help diagnose a patient is to have them draw the face of a clock. The younger generations are doomed. Doomed, I tells ya.,

[aside] My father in law has just had his driving license removed because of this very test [/aside].

 

[wobs]

Our first born is currently learning about analogue time, and not for the first time, as she was obsessed with clocks on and off for some years. She's in year 2.

She has barely done digital. She probably thinks they're a pretty neat idea.

 

[Jack by the hedge]

What's it, only about 50 years since digital clocks were invented? ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayJ26CrhvKw

Flip digit clocks go back to at least 1903.

 

[Jack by the hedge]

My wife was teaching her class how to read an analogue clock just last week. It's in the National Curriculum, so every primary student will also be taught the same thing. Every clock in her school is analogue. A bit of perspective here might help.

It's like any kind of training - you can understand it when taught but if you don't regularly use it, a couple of years later you're scratching your head.

 

[MikeG]

It's like any kind of training - you can understand it when taught but if you don't regularly use it, a couple of years later you're scratching your head.

True, but as I said, every clock in the school is analogue.

 

[dann]

I worked at a library in the early 1980s when a boy, 12 years old, I think, asked me for the time. When I pointed at the analogue clock on the wall, he told me that he only understood digital time pieces. Casios were very common back then.

 

[P.J. Denyer]

My nephew is about 9 or 10, he has some fixation with being a little Edwardian so last time I saw him I gave him my pocket watch. He's definitely able to tell the time, although we're worried that they may be bring up another Rees-Mogg..

 

[ponderingturtle]

And they don't know how to operate manual transmissions or rotary phones. Shocking.

Or how to start a car with no electric starting motor! Or proper etiquette when emptying the camber pot out the window!