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New York teachers stunned to learn some students can’t read time on old clocks after phone ban comes into play
(www.independent.co.uk)
this post was submitted on 03 Jan 2026
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Maybe someone should teach them...
One of the greatest dangers to a society is people assuming anything is innate or the next generation will magically know shit.
Nobody taught these kids how to read a clock. So they don't know how to read a clock.
This is a very minor thing, but it's an easier concept to grasp than the abstract concept of empathy we also stopped teaching kids.
I'm a millennial and I was taught how to read a clock in 2nd grade. Are they not teaching this basic skill anymore?
I'm a millenial, too. Even I use my phone or computer to tell time more often than anything. Before smart phones we had some solid years relying on wall clocks and watches. It was a skill we kept using after we learned it, unlike a lot of kids who haven't needed to flex that muscle since they were taught.
Yeah but smartwatches exist and digital watch faces look awkward on the ones with a round dial. Plus I have an analog clock on the wall for when the watch is charging and I don't feel like pulling out my phone... So it's still a useful skill to have.
Not saying it isn't useful, but that it's understandable someone might not have that skill.
You didn't even have to read the article, just the excerpt from OP. "students are taught to read analog clocks in first and second grade in city public schools" l
you ought to change your pedantry to instructed because some of them did not learn
What decade were you in second grade?
The mid 90s, LONG after digital clocks were already ubiquitous.
You didn't even have to read the article, just the excerpt from OP. "students are taught to read analog clocks in first and second grade in city public schools".
Obviously they are not. You can say it's on the ciriculim, but they were obviously not taught
Obviously, it was a skill learned in early grade school and subsequently forgotten through lack of practice. You know, as stated in the article and multiple comments here.
While I agree with that, it's not exactly rocket surgery. If you once heard how it works, how hard can it be to figure out it again?
or maybe they should invest in digital clocks rather than continuing to use an archaic, obsolete technology.
Yes. You read that right.
Analog clocks are obsolete.
Same with the fountain pen and dip pens and calligraphy (and the cursive writing styles that relied on them,) carrier pigeons and the telegraph. not to mention all sorts of other technologies that are of only passing interest.
You probably don't know how to read a sundial, or to locate yourself on a map using a magnetic compass.
While there's some esoteric value in such skills, the skills themselves are obsolete and useless to modern life. We're not preparing them for the past. we're preparing them for the future.
Guaranteed the teachers aren't using the analog clocks if they don't have to either.
(edit, I can't find the full article, everything points back to that atlantic article. The gyst that they cropped out so crudely is two fold: the point of cursive was to minimize blotting caused by lifting and setting the pen across each letter when using a pen with a nib. It required a relatively light hand when writing, so as to glide over the page and not dig itn. Ball point pens, on the other hand, transfer ink differently- you're rolling a ball over the surface- and they require significantly more pressure. the fluid motions of cursive writing cramp the hand sooner compared to print, if you're writing with a ball point.)
This is incorrect. I'm a teacher and CONSTANTLY use the analog clock for multiple reasons.
This is not like learning to write cursive - reading an analog clock is a trivial skill that should not take longer than a day for anyone to master.
My eyes are on my phone constantly, so no time is lost.
We could start by replacing broken ones with digital clocks using the money that would've gone towards fixing such machinery.
Please don't teach kids to insert all-caps words into their sentences. If you need to emphasize a word on the Internet, you can italicize.
Irrelevant. This function would be served regardless of what type of clock is on the wall. A digital wall clock would serve just as well, and likely be less expensive to maintain than the electromechanical clocks you presumably use. (something about obsolete technologies becoming increasingly more expensive to maintain.)
See the above reply.
an irrelevant red herring with a false dichotomy. Clocks in public places are mostly installed by the people who maintain those public places. We all pay taxes to keep those places up. I don't need to personally fund such a project and you know it.
It may be trivial, and there may be some benefit besides learning to read said clock. But like cursive, it's an irrelevant skill that generally won't be used outside of class. That's how it's like cursive. Or, if you prefer, using a slide rule. as a teacher, I am, however, sure you understand that you only have so many hours of instruction available. A day spent on this, is a day not spent on something else. You might have arguments for why this is more important than that something else, but its still an obsolete technology that, like the slide rule and fountain pens, is going away. Nostalgia is not a good enough reason to keep it around.
btw, my middle school had all digital wall clocks back in the mid 90's, and probably had them for quite some time before i was there.
non-cursive is infuriatingly slow to write.
I have no idea people hate on cursive (beyond the normal anti-intellectual reasons of hating the idea of teaching people things that aren't immediately applicable to industry).
Cursive didn't come out of nowhere, it fills a legitimate need, and it's a skill that expresses your individual creative self in an activity you might do everyday (maybe more!) It does wonders for your self-confidence and happiness in life to write on paper well. Paper and pen has been humanity's companion for centuries if not millennia, and one doesn't do themselves any favors by intentionally shunning their own handwriting ability. And you dont have to pick between using a keyboard and learning cursive: just do both.
Analogue clocks are *easier to read at a glance and maybe at a distance too.
Says the guy who apparently can only sting together an insult.
Stuff changes. Each generation does things differently. Stone Age people probably said the same thing when they stopped teaching their children to flintknap after everyone started using bronze tools.
We abandon old technology when it becomes obsolete, and eventually the skills associated with them. And that’s normal.
We don’t have enough hours in a lifetime to learn all the stuff we’ve abandoned, and analog clock faces are going that way. It’s okay. This is normal.