NYC teachers stunned to learn students can’t read old clocks amid phone ban
www.independent.co.uk
At least 31 states and the District of Columbia restrict cell phones in schools

At least 31 states and the District of Columbia restrict cell phones in schools

New York City teachers say the state’s recently implemented cell phone ban in schools has showed that numerous students no longer know how to tell time on an old-fashioned clock.

“That’s a major skill that they’re not used to at all,” Tiana Millen, an assistant principal at Cardozo High School in Queens, told Gothamist of what she’s noticed after the ban, which went into effect in September.

Students in the city’s school system are meant to learn basic time-telling skills in the first and second grade, according to officials, though it appears children have fallen out of practice doing so in an increasingly digital world.

  • some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.world
    7·
    14 days ago

    I think every school I’ve ever been in had an analog clock in every room, but:

    • The “learning time” unit comes and goes in grade 1/2, and teachers might drop the practice shortly thereafter (while teachers of other grades abdicate responsibility)
    • Students eventually go home, where there may be no analog clocks.
    • Seeing clocks in public is also becoming rare, and it’s not uncommon to see a once-working historical time-piece become neglected and no longer working

    Another interesting thing, at least around me, is that audible “time-striking” on the hour seems like it might outlast all the large public clocks. I believe the vast majority of them are now digitally operated and emitted over a loudspeaker instead of being a mechanical system hooked up to an analogue clock with actual bells. It kind of makes sense, because that can be automated and requires far less maintenance and resources than a mechanical system or human bellringer.

    • FirstCircle@lemmy.mlEnglish
      31·
      14 days ago

      Seeing clocks in public is also becoming rare

      Is it? I hadn’t noticed but I’m probably not looking for clocks in the wild much either. I can think of one big quasi-public space (my YMCA gym) that has nothing but analog clocks up high on the walls. I could speculate that analog is easier than digital to read from a distance, or that large digital clocks designed to be read from a distance are more expensive than analog or hard to find, but I wouldn’t think either of these would be true.

      • sem@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        2·
        14 days ago

        There are wall clocks all over my life too, and especially at the swimming pool and the ski hill it is way easier to have an analog clock than a huge bright wall clock. (The pool has those too, but for pace clocks not for the time of day.)