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

OMG, this ! I'm fairly sure the first time a kid said '45 past 10' to me my face went

OP - I work in a secondary school and our site manager was telling me the other day that he put in an order for a load of new clocks to replace broken ones ready for the new term; and management cancelled the order because there's no point, the kids can't read them and they all have the time on their Chromebooks. We both felt very old !

There is absolutely no reason why an exam board or the JCQ would stop a school having a digital clock on the wall. Are you getting mixed up with the ban on watches?

I don't have an analogue wrist watch, if people have watches they're usually digital.
Everyone has a phone with the time on it.
Analogue clocks in homes are being less and less common, many homes won't have one.
Most children barely have any reason to even look at an analogue clock.

In the future people will barely remember what the origin of the phrase 'clockwise' meaning turning to the right actually was.

I think that although it's taught in school, unless it's something you regularly practice it can be a struggle.

I have 3 DC- one could tell the time pretty accurately from 4 1/2 yo (that's actually very you and a massive boast) one has never mastered it- he'd come in to the kitchen, stare at the clock, and then look at the oven clock. One could properly tell the time at 8 1/2, which apparently is age appropriate, but always surprised me for some reason as she's very dyslexic.

Money...it's not a difficult concept but children are leaning about coins in school now and not real life. Actual coins don't feature heavily children's lives these days.

Being old fashioned I do have an "analogue" clock face on my Fitbit. I'm now wondering if that she's me.

*ages me

This really blows my mind. A 6 year old should be able to tell the time!

Private tutor here. I have to teach not only Y3s but also teenagers how to read an analogue clock.

😂😂😂 No.

The English dept bought 2 of them. All the other depts kept to analogues. They used them for 2 years and were then informed they couldn't use them anymore. I was there invigilating and the Exams Officer said they weren't allowed to do it anymore. Mind you, I stopped working there in summer 2018 so maybe it's changed.

Yes. Teach foreign language in.a secondary school. Before teaching the rune in French or Spanish,I whip.out my cardboard analogue clock to teach/practise it in English

My 5 year old has no need to tell the time - she asks Alexa. What time is it? How long until 12 o'clock? Put a timer on for one hour.

I'll leave this here ... m.youtube.com/watch?v=NIXSnEyvtzg

I’m 33 and I can - generally - read an analogue clock without a second thought. One caveat: the clock face needs all of the markings. I don’t care if it’s numbers, roman numerals or even just lines but I need all twelve to be there. Clocks with no markings, or just the 12, 3, 6 and 9 are useless to me.

I’m dyspraxic though, and I have a visual processing disorder. I can’t tell where the hands are pointing unless there are clear markings.

Yes this without a doubt.
I'm using cash to teach my GC about money as she thinks you just use a card and get what you want .

I had my parents staying over some time ago and they noted we don't have a single clock around the house. We used to use our devices to check the time.

Soon after they were gone we bought 3 big and one alarm analogue clocks. As soon as dc turned three I also got him a watch.
He can tell half past and o'clock. Other than that he'll say it's six and a bit (6:20) or almost seven (if 6:40).

He doesn't understand digital clocks yet. But hopefully that will come easily later.

Only if their parents haven't bothered to teach them. It's a life skill like tying shoelaces.

How weird. Someone got the wrong end of the stick there. Digital clocks have never been banned from public exams in the twenty years I’ve been teaching.

Well now I'm very smug that my five year old can read an analogue clock

because the 'big clock' above the television tells him whether or not he's allowed the TV on yet.

It's not necessarily that they're never taught, but when most if the clocks they see are digital then they're not getting a lot if practice.

No need to sound so smug.

Not sure why people are shocked, it's an obsolete skill and no longer necessary. Most kids no longer learn to play with meccano, use chalkboards or learn how to poach pheasants, times change (literally)

I'm 36 and I have to do a double take sometimes.

DD was taught and did know but seems to have lost the skill as it's rarely used. I think if it's a simple time it's easy but 20 to would 🤯

I've just changed mine to an analogue face, on the strength of this thread!

I think you have missed the point. They can read the time at a young age, it's just from a digital clock.

It's not like they don't know what time is! And yes unsurprisingly things have changed in 60 years. That's can't be a surprise?

I'm really surprised by this. DD is just finishing Year 4, they learnt it last year and she can read an analogue clock fine.