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 feel like I’m going insane reading these comments about how difficult it is to read analog clocks,
Some of 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.
Read again.
I just don’t see what any of this has to do with laziness.
I can confirm. You are not insane.
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 to the full hour / to quarter past / … ). Not saying you can’t get that info from a digital clock as well, of course you can; but the physicality of analog clocks lends a good bit of intuition to this, I feel.
That does make sense.
I get that, but I personally find that I often do care about the exact time, down to the minutes, and that’s harder to track with an analogue clock. I don’t have particular problems in reading them, I just often prefer digital clocks.
But I will agree that I feel analogue clocks give a better vibe of the time, since its basically a pie chart of how far you are in the day.
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).
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?
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
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…
no more peeking onto parked car’s dashboards to read the analogue clock there.
Eventually, Lexus might stop including the analog clock as a luxury feature.
Kids don’t know cursive either. Nobody needs it anymore.
Being “taught” cursive in school was torture, anyway.
I was taught block lettering in technical drafting class, 8th grade. Cursive is a lettering specifically created to be easy to handwrite. It flows on paper, as opposed to the repetitive short strokes of block lettering.
The way they taught us cursive was the complete opposite of the intent of cursive. Rigidly proscribed characters with marks only for form, ignoring all function. It was agonizingly tedious and physically painful writing all of those nonsensical scrawls. I immediately switched back to my own chicken scratch after grade school because it was not only orders of magnitude faster, but at least didn’t make my hand painfully seize up into a claw.
Decades later, as my handwriting evolved, a number of my own script letters began to resemble those wretched cursive runes, because I had apparently blindly stumbled upon the actual correct method for writing to flow from nib to parchment, as opposed to whatever those torturous rituals scarred me with as a child.
The problem you describe is very real, and not just in the US or the UK, but in most of Europe as well. A big part of writing is how to actually write, not just the letters et al.
I mean the literal way you move you arm, the angle you write at, how you hold you pen, etc.
I didn’t learn any of that, and as an intensely dyslexic and left-handed individual, writing was extremely painful to me. That is, until 10th grade where I taught myself calligraphy.
It turns out that, when learning calligraphy, you do learn how to write properly.
After that, my handwriting in school (and for the rest of my life) became much better: I didn’t have hand-pain anymore, I didn’t smudge the ink, and, of course, my handwriting was very orderly and neat. Teachers even started commenting on it!
Most notably for me though: writing became fun. For me, as a dyslexic, this literally felt revolutionary.
Anyway, that is what I think they should teach in schools.
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”. It’s 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.
Counter point: I can write a hell of a lot faster on a keyboard if I need to take notes.
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.
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
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.
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
I am not referring to students with diagnosed disabilities - I am referring to the vast majority without.
… in the context that many students can’t read analog clocks and shouldn’t get help. Pretty sure there is no official diagnosis for this so no problem and they don’t deserve to know how much time they have left in a biology exam. Again, there is no reason to discriminate against people lacking unrelated skills, if diagnosed or undiagnosed.
Let me put it this way: if someone is not disabled and still unable or too lazy to understand the clock, they shouldn’t be in the exam room in the first place.
This is not a “discrimination” - most exams are for the people with a some level of the IQ, certainly above the level of a radiator. Or a stool.
unable or too lazy to understand the clock,
They can understand the clock? Just not the analog clock. Why should they anyways? It’s not like that’s the only way to tell time and since reading analog clocks is an unrelated skill why do u think they’re not fit to write exams? It has nothing to do with IQ, it’s just that analog clocks aren’t as common as they used to be. Hence, they’re less used to them than previous generations. They probably can learn to read them if they wanted to, but they just don’t bother, since they don’t really need it these days
Just not the analog clock. Why should they anyways?
Because it is is widely used?
Why should they learn alphabet in the first place? Why should they learn numbers?
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?
Let me rephrase it than - if someone is an idiot, they shouldn’t be in the exam room. If you are concerned about it, it may be because you fit the category.
You don’t know how to use an abacus? You must be an idiot.
No. Don’t know how to use the clock? You shouldn’t be in the exam room.
Except, they do know how to use a clock. Just not your favorite clock
Nope. They don’t know how to use the clock. The one widely used.
What makes people who didn’t learn to read analog clocks idiots? If you have a thing about analog clocks, just keep it to yourself.
it may be because you fit the category
Or maybe because it’s just stupid af to judge people’s intelligence based on an unrelated life skill.
What makes people who didn’t learn to read analog clocks idiots?
Wrong question. The correct would be: what make people who are too lazy or too stupid to learn the clock idiots - but that would be a rhetorical one.
it’s just stupid af to judge people’s intelligence based on an unrelated life skill.
Intelligence is an ability to obtain knowledge and skills. If someone lacks both, it is a strong indication of them not having enough intelligence to obtain them.
who are too lazy or too stupid
They do know how to read the clock (digital ones :) ) Again, it doesn’t make them idiots or lazy for not learning something they don’t really need to learn
Intelligence is an ability to obtain knowledge and skills. If someone lacks both, it is a strong indication of them not having enough intelligence to obtain them.
What makes you think they don’t have the ability to learn how to read analog clocks just because they don’t? You might not know how ride a horse, but that doesn’t mean you can’t learn how to. Are you an idiot for not learning how to?
They do know how to read the clock
They also know how to use calculator, they just don’t knot 2 times 2 is four without it. Neither have place during an exam.
What makes you think they don’t have the ability to learn how to read analog clocks
Because if they did, they would have done during lessons to learn it, sweetie 🙄
Yikes.
Also, since you ran out of arguments and started correcting people’s spelling, *then.
“yikes” what?
Passing exams is not an entitlement, it is an achievement. If someone is an idiot unable to understand the clock, they shouldn’t be in the exam room in the first place - and they certainly shouldn’t expect someone will start explaining clock to them when they are supposed to write an exam.
Why are you so adamant that reading an analog clock is required to pass an exam that doesn’t feature any material related to reading analog clocks?
Why are you so adamant that reading is required at all? You could just watch ticktock instead after all.
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).
👍
No, you shouldn’t pass exams if you are an idiot - and if you do take them, don’t expect a special treatment because of your stupidity.
And no, as I said people with diagnosed disability are a different matter.
Hopefully that clarifies it for you.
It took me until age 15 to become comfortable reading analog clocks and confident knowing which way is left and right.
Hey cut me some slack, left/right gets confusing sometimes because of mirrors & facing people).
But I think learning how to tell time on an analog clock is an important skill because it broadens the mind regarding mechanics & mathematics, thereby developing more synapses in our brains & logic & mental computational skills.
I’m old af and I still have to think about it
Once I figured out what hand I write with, it was all easy street from there. I used to tell myself “I write with my right hand”
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
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.
The less educated a populous is, the less likely they are to think critically, think for themselves, and ultimately the easier they are to control.
It’s getting really bad. Some people even use “populous” when they mean “populace.”
Do the blackboards in the US also say “breathe in, breathe out, repeat” so that half the class doesn’t just die?
No that’s silly, there’s no guarantee that they could read that.
What was scribbled out of this screenshot with black lines, and why was it scribbled out?
The part in the middle is a screenshot of some social media site and the blacked out parts are navigation bread crums, comment counts. The answer below has a blacked out user name, profile picture, etc.
I have no idea why they would remove UI elements from a screenshot.
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.
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 love 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.
We should make everyone mad. Don’t teach them to read analog clocks. Teach them to read digital clocks and sundials.
Cursive is wayyyy more accessible for lots of people with chronic pain in their arm/hand/wrist. Also helps prevent those conditions for those who have do a lot of hand writing. I dread the day that people will no longer be able to read the least painful way to write or me.
If I’m honest with myself my handwriting was always shit. If I was writing you a letter you’d be able to read it, but taking notes in college was all but useless for me. The speed at which you would have to write left me unable to find any of it legible so I was able to take in more information by just sitting down and listening/watching instead of scrambling to figure out what they were talking about now after I wrote down whatever I thought was important prior to that. Professors write fast because they do it all the time, and the amount of time it would take me to read then write what they wrote would overlap the time they spent over the next 15 seconds telling you why it was important. If I wrote down why it’s important I’m behind on the next bit of information and scrambling. When a professor posted their notes online so I could review it that way it was so much easier for me. (Makes note taking way easier)
What’s interesting about this is that we are not taught how to take notes. People used to have classes that taught what is actually a complicated skill. I have gone through enough schooling that my note taking just happens without much thought, but it took me real effort to get there.
and I yet I had a class in note taking and then years latter got points taken off because I didn’t take like that teacher wanted
Why the fuck would your notes be any of the teacher’s business?
I had a couple teachers try to spend a single class about note taking but I think note taking is different for everyone, much like learning styles. Telling someone to skip a,b, and ,c and just write d because they view it as the important information only works for people who think exactly how they think. So I would try something like that and would end up with.
1974 - congress - didn’t pass till 1980.
That means nothing to someone unless they know more context, which the context clues in my experience are tied to someone’s individual thought processes. In this case it would be mentions of maybe reconciliation process, simple majority, and budget. But for others it could be other things.
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.
As a parent, we made sure to have an analog clock in every room while my kids were growing up, and we made them prove they could read it. Still don’t work. Digital clocks are everywhere else and in many ways more convenient.
Analog clocks are an obsolete decice whose time has passed. I also tried to keep it alive into the next generation but it’s not happening. It’s time to give it up.
Let that be one of our hallmarks as we age: the last generation with analog clocks. I use an analog face on my digital watch, have analog decorative clocks and I’ll accept that my kids believe that old fashioned (they do accept the analog clock face on my old car I gave them though, or maybe don’t know how to change it)
I also wonder: what’s the goal of teaching this? Sure, a cursory lesson is a good idea, but making it a fundamental step seems nonsensical in a world that doesn’t require it at all. It’s like teaching how to sharpen a quill, it’s not needed anymore
It’s an easy way to introduce fractions, especially since it’s common to hear/say it’s a quarter passed 2, half passed 5, and a quarter to 9.
Also teaches multiples, since the numbers on the clock represent multiples of 5.
Helps with directions, clockwise is when the hands spin to the right and counter-clockwise to the left. You’d be amazed how many students can’t tell their left from right.
You’d be amazed how many students can’t tell their left from right.
wtf? this goes back further than analogue clocks… we used to have a ribbon on one hand until we learned to distinguish right from left
next you’re gonna tell me kids can’t tie shoe laces anymore right?
Of course it’s still needed. There still exist analog clocks almost everywhere. (At least in my country)
NGL, wind up analog clocks are useful in places where the power goes out often. I have a 7-day grandfather clock and it’s been a godsend when northeasters turn into ice storms that take down the power for days…
(Northern New England has wretched winter weather some years)
I don’t have a horse in this race, but your argument doesn’t hold up. If you want a way to tell the time during a power outage, you don’t need an analogue clock, you need one that runs on batteries.
I’m also horseless, but their analog clock is a wind-up, no batteries required. So if you’re snowed in and can’t get to the store, it’s one less thing that will take up batteries.
I don’t know why you would need a clock if you’re trapped in your house. Maybe if you have to take pills at a specific time but usually you can be off by an hour or two which I can tell simply by looking outside and sensing time internally.
which I can tell simply by looking outside
In a snow storm?
Not during the storm maybe idk it’s been a while since I was in a snow storm. but afterwards before I get power back.
Snopes article about this from 2018 stating it’s mostly false.
Well who would ever disagree with a Snopes article
Mostly misogynistic right wingers but I don’t know any on this site.
Its becoming a reality though. I work in a school (primary and secondary) and the exams officer is putting digital clocks only in the exam rooms for that reason.
When my friend’s daughter was 9 years old and he was complaining how she didn’t know how to read an analogue clock.
I mean, I wound up teaching my nephews when they were 4 … not sure what’s stopping him from doing it though.
Students not being able to read an analogue clock being a reason may seem silly, but being able to read one shouldn’t be a requirement to be able to do well in exams, especially UK exams where students have enough to deal with already.
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.
very few continue to use an abacus. analog clocks will still be around for decades
*sigh* everyone always forgets about slide rules.
Beat me to it. If only my dad had saves his
Teacher here.
I’m pretty certain that the only place where my students ever encounter an analog clock is at school. But teaching how to read analog clocks is required in our math education standards, so I have one and I use it, even though I think there are other, more relevant places to put our academic focus.
I’m 45 years old. I’m pretty sure we only ever had one analog clock in our house when I was growing up in the '80s, and that was my grandpa’s alarm clock. The only places I’ve been where only analog clocks were available have been schools. Even our local bank in my small town changed to a digital clock on its sign outside.
Unfortunately, education systems are dictated by legislators, who are often old and out-of-touch. So I doubt we’ll see a change in the education requirements any time soon. But, just like how keyboarding has replaced cursive in classrooms, it will eventually come.
Are you from the US? I’m completely amazed that there are counties we you are almost never exposed to analog clocks. I’m from Europe and analog clocks are everywhere. Every train station, public buildings, churches, clock towers, homes, wrist watches. Heck we even have tons of (but more because of esthetics instead of serious time keeping) sun dials on walls (which the analog clock and the clock wise direction is based on - for the north hemisphere). Many appliances/devices have digital clocks but that’s not because the are more modern/better but because they are way cheaper to produce and have less moving parts.
Europe has a lot more cultural attachment to their buildings as they have histories that go back a lot longer.
Murica, doesn’t and its part of why they have such awful car centricity.
The car lobbyists were basically allowed to design American cities.
Seriously! I’m absolutely baffled by the comments here talking about how analog clocks are somehow this bizarre anarchism from the distant past that is just sooooooo difficult to understand. Wtf has been going on over there??
Mind you, they are the people who measure area in “stadiums” and the distance in “football field lengths” because they are too stupid to comprehend the metric system.
Dpes no one in Europe ever use object for a reference. Like it’s as tall the efifle tower, or that like running 3 laps around a football feild.
Of I were to say that America east to west would stretch from the straights of jerblarter to paar Istanbul. Does break their mind because they only understand km.
I’m from the US, but I’m currently a teacher in South America. Kids here are even worse at reading analog clocks than my students in the US were.
I’m 32, I wear an analog clock on my arm every day
Surely this comes from the American, not European point of view, yeah?
Teacher here.
I’m pretty certain that the only place where my students ever encounter an analog clock is at school.
What the actual fuck? Are you not using wrist watches at all at whatever US hole you are a teacher at? Because most of these are analogue.
Unless it change in last few years the cheapest wrist watched arw digital
Not currently teaching in a “US hole.” I’ve been teaching in South America for 5 years and I have never noticed an analog clock in a public place here.
Why would you use a wristwatch tho?
And I’m saying this as a European
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.
Really? I never knew any of them were synchronized, that’s cool if so. I seem to remember us pulling them off the wall at our schools and changing them twice a year or replacing the batteries. Having them wired with synchronization may be overboard, but it is kind of cool
Yep. The schools I went to had synchronized analog clocks. They would all “adjust” together if they were off at all. Some kind of clockwork solenoid.
All my schools had them. Sometimes you’d catch them doing a resync and all the hands would spin around. I think they probably couldn’t rotate CCW so had to go around the long way if they needed to roll back a few minutes.
My highschool was small (graduating class under 50; five small towns combined), and in the 90s, ours were synchronized, just realized I always wondered what they used.
Probably the clocks all used a synchronous motor. It spins baaed on ac current. After juat set the clocks to the right time when you plig them in
Would that not mean if the power goes out after say a hurricane, the all the clocks have to be reset manually or can they somehow change them all remotely? A mechanism going threw the walls to change them from a single location sounds like a lot of work to get a synchronized clock
Im sire there is. A way to send a comand to clockw to fast-forward to a certain time.
At what point is it not just a digital clock with an analog interface if it has the ability to receive information digitally and perform tasks off of it. (I assume increase/decrease voltage to the motor).
Unless maybe that’s how they do it, put all the clocks on an individual power source, then manipulate the current to increase/decrease the speed of the motors so they all move synchronized… Idk, cool concept though. Not sure how you would overcome the loss in varying distance of the clocks though… it’s possible but a lot of planning
Its the Hertz of ac current that comteols timing. But that’s just how it counts the seconds not how it would tell if it is noon. But its uses analog electricity to keep time and maybe a digital comand to set time. Does make it digital or analog?
Could they be synchronised independently? My grandfather in France had a clock that was receiving a radio signal I think from Strasbourg. They’ve been around for a while. I remember being up late during day light hour change and i would suddenly hear the second hand rush forward. It would stop one whole hour on the switch back. I would use it to adjust my watch. Nowadays I use raw GPS and any mobile phone is synced from the network anyway.
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.
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 they’re just behind their digital counterpart.
People are gonna downvote you but I definitely agree. I see why the trend is concerning but I dont think we need to keep everything around just because that’s how it used to be. Some things are allowed to change. When the quartz watch was invented, mechanical watches had to find a new niche and luckily they did. Both are still valid but their roles changed and that’s okay.
Do you know how to read a sundial?
I hope you are not serious. If the shadow (hand) is on two, it’s two o’clock. If it’s on three, it’s three o’clock. If it’s exactly between those two ticks it’s half past two. There isn’t even anything to learn (at least when they were invented). That’s exactly how the hour hand on a clock works.
(Note: Today it would be a bit more complicated if you want wall-clock-time because the sun dial always tells local solar time and if you want the time in your time zone you would have to adjust for DST and use the equation of time for some smaller corrections)
You don’t know how to read one - you’ve forgotten to calibrate it.
If you don’t do that before use, it’s measurements are meaningless. Correcting for DST and dates and other minor aspects of how time is handled in the modern era is important (blech screw DST), but this issue was present even in the roman era and is why sundials have movable faces. Premodern observatories (eg. stonehenge or the observatories at pisac) have references to correct the measurements for things like change in solar position and the progression towards the equinox for the same reason.
I don’t think we should get rid of analog clocks, I just wanted to point out that your example here isn’t a very good one to use.
What is progression towards the equinoxes? You mean precession of the equinoxes? That takes millennia and is very much negligible when reading sun dials on a day to day basis, or even year to year basis.
The orbital motions of the objects in our solar system is pretty messy and you are right that there goes more into designing accurate sun dials than just a stick in the ground, but I’d still argue that that’s not part of “reading a sun dial” - which was the question I answered.
No, I mean the progression towards the equinoxes - historically the equinoxes were a common way to demark calendar dates, and as a result they’re a useful reference point. Not universal, of course, but still frequently used enough to be useful when discussing this topic.
I get you’re arguing because, well, this is the internet and I contradicted you. That’s how it works, our egos are too tied up in our comments alone and it’s too easy to read any tone into a comment that we’d like. We get defensive, our wounded egos make things heated. So in that spirit, let me be explicit that I’m not trying to be rude to you when I say this: You’re oversimplifying the metaphor to make your point.
For example: I’ve been sitting around for a full day, but the damn clock says only twelve minutes have gone by.
You adjust a sundial in the morning every day, and then can read it from there (assuming it hasn’t been jostled) - but you still have to be aware of the rules and conventions of the system, and work within it’s boundaries. If we arbitrarily dismiss critical parts of it’s operation, there will be no meaning in anything we have to say. The territory of things like “clocks don’t measure time, they measure circles and everything we derive from them is thence wild and baseless speculation”; literally true and I can defend that position until we both die of carefully-measured old age, but reduced to the point that it’s completely meaningless.
Do you have a link or something that explains “progression towards the equinoxes”. I never heard of that and can’t find anything about it.
Yes. The same as analogue clock, genius 🙄
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.
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?
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)
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
deleted by creator
As our schools fail they simply change the parameters to cover up their failures
It’s only happened twice, but I’ve run into kids who couldn’t read an analog clock. You know what I did?
I taught them. It took, like, 30 seconds. I know it took 30 seconds because I was wearing a goddamn watch.
Still can’t understand how any kid cannot do it. Isn’t that something you learn from your parents before you even go to school
I think I learned how to read a clock in preschool, not from my parents
“little hand”, “big hand” kind of stuff… yeah, I vaguely recall going over that when I was in JK/SK, possibly in the first few grade levels. IDK, I’m old now, so I don’t remember a lot of what happened when I was around 6.
… Unless the parents are idiots as well.
I’ve had, and honestly still do have issue with reading it rather than understanding. At least the way I was taught, it just sounds really weird, like 15:40 being “5 minutes till quarter to 4 in the afternoon”.
I don’t need to think about “fifteen forty”.thinking is hard
But why add unnecessary complexity?
Like analog clocks are fine, they show time progress in a way digital don’t.But why read it in that more convoluted way? Like, I can tell you that you have 10100bin seconds to answer some question, and you can tell that’s 20 seconds, but why the fuck do it that way. The only time it’s “five minutes till quarter to four in the afternoon” rather than 15:40 is when writing an assay, perhaps.
But why read it in that more convoluted way?
Perhaps just the thing where you are from? I never heard anyone referring to “five minutes before quarter to”, it is idiotic. You would say “twenty to four”.
Probably not – time isn’t that relevant before society puts you on the path towards hourly labor. I learned in elementary, but then I also grew up with digital clocks like most folks under 50.
Edit: apparently we have either a lot of on-the-clock preschoolers or folks who don’t know when digital clock radios were invented. Perhaps both. If you cared about the clock time before you were 5 I feel sorry for you.
we yearned for the mines… but we didn’t need no stinking clock because it was always dark.
canary sure was useful though.
I remember learning in second grade.
The older you are the more you actually learned in school.
Don’t undersell all of the life lessons you learned from being the age you are.
Part of the reason why kids seem so dumb is because they don’t have that life experience yet. They’re still figuring it out. I’m sure that when I was a kid people looked at me and thought I was pretty dumb, just like many adults do to the kids now. blave has the right attitude about it; teach them. Someone has to. If everyone shrugs it off that someone will do it, then nobody does it.
I fail to see why problem an analogue clocks are a solution for.
Like cursive they are obsolete.
good point. that’s why we have no need to study history since every thing in the past is obsolete
because a digital clock is not right twice a day
My daughter got analog clocks before she could read when she was about three years old. IMHO it’s a teaching skill issue. Take a normal wall clock, remove all hands except the hour hand, split the day into segments (brushing teeth, lunch, Kindergarten, etc.) and draw (did that in Gimp) some nice symbols and colors. Done. Explain stuff every time she asks “when” using that wall clock. Let that sink in for a year. Now add the minute hand back in.
Analog clocks are not really “obsolete” if you ask me. Hands on a circle aren’t used enough. We have “clocks” (this time inverted - the circle spins and the hand/indicator is fixed) out of cardboards for a week to learn the days of the week, including “activity” symbols for kindergarten, “weekend”, “music lesson”, etc. a wheel for “day of the month”, and one for month of the year also showing seasons.
The total amount of time that was invested in building those was about three or four hours but the value is huge when you have something to point to when she asks anything about time no matter it’s about when we go to sleep, birthdays, holidays, etc.
birthdays? so you have a clock with 365 (+¼) minutes?
Analog clocks imitate sun dials and of you have amazing eye sight/precision you would only need the hour hand. If the hand is exactly on 3, it’s 3 o’clock. If the hand is exactly in the middle between 3 and 4 it’s half past 3. If the hand is 4° after 5 it’s 04:08. But because our eye sight doesn’t have super resolution we just add another hand that makes a full circle when the hour hand moves an hour. And same with seconds. Second hand makes a full circle for 1 minute.
Back to birthdays - you can do that on the other direction as well but I wouldn’t call it a clock, it’s a circular calendar. Think about a disk (like a wall clock with only one hand) and seven equal segments. The days of the week, every morning we move the hand to the next day. Another disk with 31 segments (day of the month) and another separate disk with 12 segments. We typically move that one on the first of the month to the next step.
Now of we discuss events I can point to a segment and even though she is a young kid she immediately gets the scale of things because of something happens in a few hours (let’s say she is meeting a friend) I show it to her on the normal analog clock with focus on the hour hand. But if she ask about Christmas I point on the “month” dial and she knows that it takes a very long time for that hand to move.
Typical analog clocks have all the hands on the same disk (for convenience and because it’s compact). Our “child-clock” started originally as an normal analog clock with only the hour hand and is now a normal analog clock with hour and minute hand and three more separate disks for day of the week, day of the month and month of the year.
They still exist and will continue to exist in many contexts indefinitely, such as men’s fashion and clock towers, so there it’s not like they’ll ever be “obsolete” per se. They are also extremely easy to learn, and are a good way to teach concepts like spatial reasoning and gears to kids. I think schools should teach about them for those reasons.
All of your examples are aesthetics…
cursive is faster than block face though.
not really. It’s faster while writing it sometimes. But if you factor in the time it takes to try reading it a year later you end up with a net loss
I disagree. I grew up in the 80s and 90s, and I had to read cursive all the time, since my boomer parents used it constantly. When you read it regularly, it doesn’t take any longer to read than block letters.
I never used cursive because I never got into enough of a habit of using it before technology made the skillset unnecessary. I think I write down one thing a month? if that? I use computers the rest of the time, whether it’s the small rectangle that fits in my pocket, the larger folding rectangle that goes in my backpack, or the larger cube like one that sits under my desk at home… I use computers about 1000x more than a pen.
That doesn’t change the fact that I can look at cursive and know what it says as instantly as if it were typed text. Me not being able to, or simply not writing cursive is entirely a me problem.
I’m tired of your modern woke bullshit. Why are you trying to teach kids to read clocks with mechanical hands? Use a sundial like a normal person.
Maybe you can’t see the gap in your education…?
I doubt they are unable to read an analog clock. Most adults are.
I am not able to read cursive though.
Like I can guess enough of it, but I just don’t encounter it enough to remember it.
Like imagine if you hadn’t tied a tie in 50 years. Would you still remember how?
Its not a useful skill, and anyone who wants to learn can do so in a few minutes of searching.
My thoughts exactly. This just screams “old men afraid of change, thinking everything was better back in the day”. The world is changing, things become obsolete because they’re replaced by newer, better stuff all the time.
I’m sure people were complaining that kids were getting stupider when they stopped using abascuses, fucking cursive (I specifically remember people being upset about this one), dictionaries in book form, fountain pens, handwritten exams.
It’s time for a lot of people to realise that they themselves have become the complaining old farts they always hated as kids.
I know a Gen X guy who “hates” digital clocks because “they don’t have hands to tell me what time it is.”
That might actually be a perfect example of mental gymnastics. What a strange justification of just liking something.
I mean, not really. He knows analog clocks well enough that the hand position just inherently means something to him. Afternoon, and the little hand is almost halfway? Work day done! Just by position.
Somewhat analagous: I know how far a meter and a kilometer are, in principle, but when I consider distances I more intuitively understand them in feet and miles. It’s what I’m used to.
