Schools Are Removing Analogue Clocks From Exam Halls As Teenagers Cannot Tell The Time

[Skwim]

"Schools are removing analogue clocks from examination halls because teenagers are unable to tell the time, a head teachers’ union has said.

Teachers are now installing digital devices after pupils sitting their GCSE and A-level exams complained that they were struggling to read the correct time on an analogue clock.

Malcolm Trobe, deputy general secretary at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said youngsters have become accustomed to using digital devices.

“The current generation aren’t as good at reading the traditional clock face as older generations,” he told The Telegraph.

“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.”
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This has got to be the head-shaker of the month.

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[sun rise]

What is the younger generation coming to? Can they even dial a rotary phone for heaven's sake? Can they even recognize a rotary phone or know what a typewriter is? I'll bet they have trouble chipping flint into spears as well.

 

[Kapalika]

I do find that kind of weird but at the same time reading an analog clock is kind of a three-step process unlike a digital clock but I don't think it's particularly hard. I know some people who get confused if times are not in military time, ect It more so depends on what you are used to.

But ya put it up to the British to focus on something so silly. I bet you all those students have cellphones anyway that can tell them the time.

 

[Father Heathen]

Instead of removing the clocks, why not do their actual job and teach them how to tell time?

 

[SomeRandom]

To be fair, if society uses analogue clocks less and less, telling the time on an analogue clock will naturally become a skill that's left by the wayside. Not even some places of employment have analogue clocks these days.

 

[Phantasman]

What is the younger generation coming to? Can they even dial a rotary phone for heaven's sake? Can they even recognize a rotary phone or know what a typewriter is? I'll bet they have trouble chipping flint into spears as well.

Yep. Like depending on the computer register at a McDonalds to know what change to give back from a five.

One EMP devise could turn our youth into blithering idiots that would be easily over taken.

 

[Subduction Zone]

What is the younger generation coming to? Can they even dial a rotary phone for heaven's sake? Can they even recognize a rotary phone or know what a typewriter is? I'll bet they have trouble chipping flint into spears as well.

When I went to university I learned how to dial with the "hook". I am pretty sure that it can still be done with a land line. My school had its own phone system so we only had to dial five numbers.

 

[Polymath257]

And so many of them don't even know how to use a slide rule: you know, an analog calculator.

 

[atanu]

Well. Someone said that primitives were less intelligent.

 

[Sha'irullah]

My physics professor just mentioned this a few days ago. Joking about students in his intro physics class unable to understand an analogue clock.

 

[Subduction Zone]

And so many of them don't even know how to use a slide rule: you know, an analog calculator.

I still regret selling my old slipstick.

 

[Mock Turtle]

I can remember when I was in infants schools and one of the few who could tell the time from a clock.

 

[atanu]

I read an Asimov short story long back. In an intergalactic spacecraft, due to fuel crunch they needed to drastically cut weight. They could throw away men/women or they could throw away some computing machinery. Luckily, in the spaceship there was an old man who knew manual computation, so they could discard computers and could save people.

 

[Glaurung]

I understand how someone accustomed to digital time may have trouble with an analog clock.

But really, just get an analog watch and practice with it for a few days.

 

[Brickjectivity]

Removing analogue clocks might intuitively seem to help on tests, but digital clocks still have 60 seconds per minute and 60 minutes per hour. What if students are confused and think they have 100 minutes per hour for their tests? Analogue clocks are clearer.

 

[Skwim]

Instead of removing the clocks, why not do their actual job and teach them how to tell time?

Thinking about this, I believe this is one of those skills parents should be responsible for. I recall my mother teaching my brother how to read a wall clock by pasting minute numbers next to the hour numbers e.g. 4:20, 7:35 11:55. She would then quiz him at various times during the day. Didn't take him long at all to learn.

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[Jumi]

On a more serious note, we're getting old. The youth of today will have no idea how wonderful modems sounded like when connecting.

 

[Mock Turtle]

I understand how someone accustomed to digital time may have trouble with an analog clock.

But really, just get an analog watch and practice with it for a few days.

I haven't had a digital watch for many decades - just annoying - much better to have a solar-powered, radio-timed analogue, like a Citizen Eco-Drive - a bit chunky though.

 

[Father Heathen]

Apparently a lot of schools are also dropping cursive.

 

[Rival]

Apparently a lot of schools are also dropping cursive.

Because it's pretty useless and there are children with fine motor skills disorders who will never learn. My cursive was always terrible and there was a point I reached where I gave up. It seems to me to be more of an artistic skill - some have that skill, some don't. I don't think it's fair to push it on everyone. IMO it's like telling someone off for not being able to draw very well. Add to this I have small handwriting, cursive makes it downright illegible.