Do young people today have difficulty telling the time on analogue clocks?

[Draconis]

I've heard this from a couple of people now and wondered how much truth there is in it

If it all goes

I'm not forcing anyone to, just saying that if youngsters want to understand the rest of us, they'll have to understand analogue.
I had to learn Roman numerals (mainly to read some clocks) and I'm not a Roman...

of course it can't be true, as everyone learns how to tell the time whilst still in nursery school."

I very much doubt that any nursery schools would be teaching this. I've never come across any that do.

I'm not forcing anyone to, just saying that if youngsters want to understand the rest of us, they'll have to understand analogue.
I had to learn Roman numerals (mainly to read some clocks) and I'm not a Roman...

I think youngsters are managing just fine. It's oldsters who are surprised at this. 😄

I think there are two separate things.

Even if you prefer to see the time written in digital format, there is no reason not to use language to convey that in different ways depending on circumstances.

You can read out “02:55” as “two fifty five”, but you can just as easily read it out as “five to three” (assuming you understand the basics of how time works).

The way you read it changes the emphasis, and so can convey more meaning.

Even if my kids could only read digital I’d want to get them comfortable with using these sorts of expressions . Losing them would make our language that little bit less rich and less versatile.

Even if my kids could only read digital I’d want to get them comfortable with using these sorts of expressions . Losing them would make our language that little bit less rich and less versatile.

of course.

But theres no disputing that's the way it's going.

And in reverse young people's digital prowess and knowledge is hugely 'richer' than ours.

Is analogue really obsolete? I don't think it is.

There are still lots of resources for children, to help them learn. Clearly toy manufactures still consider that parents will want to teach their children.

There is this one by Galt Toys and this one from Ladybird", or this, or this from Orchard Toys or alternatively there are actual clocks, like this one.

My mum still sometimes says prices in schillings.

"2 & 6 " etc It fascinates me that people used to do all that maths in their head! So rich and wonderful.

But it's rare now to hear anything like that except on period tv dramas. My kids wouldn't have a clue!

Is analogue really obsolete? I don't think it is.

Obsolete?

More " In decline"

True. But then I can't read a sun dial ....I guess things move on.

I even ordered a clock for my son so he could learn but he refuses ( asd) so I'm at a loss

I run a business which sometimes means clients coming to our house. Many of the younger ones are baffled and fascinated in equal measure by the grandfather clock with its Roman numerals.

Sorry if this has been mentioned earlier in the thread but fun fact for the day: the Roman numeral for 4 is normally IV but on clocks it is IIII. Look at a church clock next time you are out.

Sigh. They do. And the children leave primary knowing fine well how to tell the time. And then they spend the next few years seeing the time on phones and screens, and so they fall out of practice.

I can’t remember half the stuff my teenagers are doing now in maths and French, but I definitely knew it once. See?

Absolutely disgraceful that you can’t read a sun dial. How on earth do you know when it’s noon?

😂

@Tetchypants the problem with sun dials is they are wrong for half the year 😂

To be fair, so is my oven clock

My DCs (10, 12) have a good idea. They each have an analogue clock in their bedrooms. They will double check that they're right, but they are both dyslexic and it is common skill for dyslexic people to struggle to pick up anyway.

Ds10 has to visualise my car to get left or right correct, it's not instinctive yet. Last year he impressed me when using google maps to direct me on a partially familar route when my phone/ car had a bluetooth fail and he used clock directions to get me around a string of roundabouts (e.g. turn off at 1 o'clock). He found the clock face easier to visualise quickly than L/ R.

As I said, it is a skill I would expect a primary school child to have!

I don't know how many times this needs explaining. Learning is not permanent unless the knowledge is used regularly. A six-year-old who can read an analogue clock will not necessarily grow up to be a sixteen or twenty-six-year-old who can unless they regularly read analogue clock faces as part of their daily life, and many children and young people do not.

As I said, it is a skill I would expect a primary school child to have!

They probably did whilst it was being taught. And then didn't use an analogue clock again.
So in their teens they'd forgotten.

Unfortunately if these skills aren't taught in school then many children will not have the opportunity to gain them.

I'm late thirties and had to be taught in school to tell the time and tie my laces. My mother couldn't be bothered and was too busy with younger siblings. I never learned to swim as our schools didn't have a pool. And don't get me started on diet, I'm surprised we didn't have rickets.