Young Can 'only Read Digital Clocks'

[naomi24]

//That's the claim in a debate between teachers - with suggestions that digital clocks are being installed in exam halls for teenagers.
It follows a report in the Times Educational Supplement of a conference being told that pupils needed a digital clock to be able to tell the time.//

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-43882847

These are GCSE and A-level students so not so very young. Fine, they’ll be able to tell the time in exam halls – but what about in the rest of the world? Rather than simply install clocks they can read, I wonder if anyone has ever considered an option that would be far more useful to them - teaching them to tell the time?

[jim360]

What I mean is that, with respect to analogue clocks, we're probably in some sort of transition period. Look around you -- how many places are times indicated digitally? On AB it's the *only* way they're indicated; pretty much the same on computers, on television, on phones, etc etc. Analogue clocks are disappearing, so to insist that it's a vital life skill to read them is something that is increasingly less reasonable.

Don't be too surprised if, maybe even in your lifetime, it becomes redundant altogether. But just because that hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it's not in the process of happening.

[jim360]

Also JD, thanks for helping to reinforce my point :)

[Cloverjo]

I don't think so, Jim. I've just searched for 'clock' on Amazon and the result shows just about as many analogue clocks as digital.
I can see 4 analogue clocks from where I'm sitting now, and there are at least 2 more elsewhere in the house.

[jim360]

I'm not sure that a sample size of one house is particularly meaningful, when compared to almost the entirety of modern media.

[naomi24]

Jim, the world isn't restricted to what you see. It's a big place.

[jim360]

Shouldn't that be more meaningfully addressed to clover?

[Zacs-Master]

‘pixie374 It is botox. We should be teaching adults not to make daft, sweeping statements.’

Agree 100%

[naomi24]

Jim, No, it's addressed to you. I don't understand the mentality of anyone who argues against providing young people with the fundamental life skills they need.

[THECORBYLOON]

I've just done a search on Amazon.uk for "analogue clock" and it says more than 6,000 results. I did the same for "digital clock" and it says more than 70,000 results.

NAOMI if the use of a slide-rule is not a good analogy, what about quills and fountain pens?

[jim360]

I'm not arguing against providing children with the life skills they need. I'm arguing against the idea that reading analogue clocks is a "life skill they need", when it's becoming increasingly irrelevant. Digital clocks are taking over. The fact that clover's house is full of them in no way undermines that, when compared to the "bigger" role of media in people's lives.

[Zacs-Master]

100 years ago, fundamental life skills involved knowing how to light a real fire and knowing the 23rd psalm off-pat. Time change.

[jim360]

Really, all this post is is just the latest iteration of "young people aren't the same as when I was a child", that is the refrain of the ages. It doesn't hold water.

[mazie]

My Daughter has never had a clock in her house. She has three children all have mobile phones, tablets and there are two computers in the house. The cooker has a digital clock and all The kids help with the cooking. When she's at work the kids to go their uncles, he doesn't have clocks and his house is full of electronic gadgets, all digital. They are whizz kids with computers but none of them can use a traditional clock face.

[naomi24]

Jim, //I'm arguing against the idea that reading analogue clocks is a "life skill they need", when it's becoming increasingly irrelevant.

Digital clocks may be on the increase but it doesn't follow that the rest are redundant - or irrelevant. People need to be able to tell the time, whatever clock they're looking at.

[Zacs-Master]

Yes, it smacks of the classic ‘in my generation......’ negativity.

[jno]

same here, ummmm, not a circular clock in the house. It hasn't blighted jno jnr's life (I hope). But he's in his 30s, so he's not a digital native. If I had a child now I wouldn't rush out and buy an analogue clock any more than I'd buy a buggy whip.

[-Talbot-]

Well, it is dinner time... if my sundial is anything to go by.

[Zacs-Master]

The vast majority of young people have a smart phone.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/271851/smartphone-owners-in-the-united-kingdom-uk-by-age/

Can you give one instance, Naomi, where an under 18 would need to be able to read an analogue clock face?

[jim360]

Right now I'm struggling to imagine a situation where someone who couldn't read analogue clocks, and had no access to a digital one, would find that the most urgent problem they faced.

I agree that it's useful to be able to read analogue clocks, just as I find it useful to be able to work with both imperial and metric units. But it's a massive, massive stretch to call such skills "essential".

[Jackdaw33]

Quills may be obsolete but there is still a place for the fountain pen. Although I don't use mine much it still comes out when I need to compose a handwritten letter.