Well, in my day...
Posted on 05/04/2018 7:35:01 AM PDT by caww
“It is amazing the number of students I am coming across in year 10, 11 and in sixth form who do not know how to tell the time,” she began. “We live in a world where everything is digital. We are moving towards a digital age and they do not necessarily have analogue watches anymore and they have mobile phones with the time on.”
Teachers in the U.K. wrote about the situation on social media, with a “Mrs Keenan” tweeting that digital clocks had been installed in an exam hall. Another, Nicola Towle, wrote in a tweet, according to the BBC: “Our school has replaced the analogue clock with a digital one in the hall for exams because pupils couldn’t use it to tell the time.”
The situation isn’t only present in the U.K., though.
A 2017 survey in Oklahoma City found that only 1-in-10 children in the city between the ages of 6-12 owned a watch. Of that number, only 1-in-5 knew how to read the analog watches, according to KFOR.
(Excerpt) Read more at ajc.com ...
” nigh impossible to teach somebody something they have absolutely NO INTEREST in knowing. “
—
But it’s not impossible,just a bit more difficult.
It can be done.
.
“When I was a kid many clocks still had Roman Numerals-—so we were taught Roman numerals——simple.”
Oh yeah? Well, when I was a kid if we wanted to know the time we had to drag 20 ton stone blocks from Cornwall and assemble a Stonehenge!!!
I always wear a watch. I always think of time as a clock face with hour and minute hands. It gives me a concrete image of the minutes and hours and how they relate to each other. I always think of an hour in segments as on a clock face. It gives me a sense of how much of an hour has passed and how much is left. If I had not learned to tell time, I think I would have a hard time grasping the length of an hour. If I were to leave my watch behind and rely on my phone for time, I would still be picturing the clockface in my mind.
When teachers try to take it upon themselves to educate the youth in matters such as these, administration and parents tend to complain that it is unfair to students to be evaluated on material not deemed relevant to the subject.
God knows I've tried...
Next they’ll be doing away with math classes because kids can’t add. Soon to be follow by dropping English Lit because the majority of kids speak some foreign language.
"...I would still be picturing the clockface in my mind..."
True. We don’t learn how to use and abacus, an adding machine and we don’t learn shorthand anymore.
I can't tell you the number of times I've been with cell phone user's when asked what time it is as they struggle to ‘find’ the time...yet a quick glance at my watch always beats the best of them!
Sarcasm not necessary——many clocks had Roman numerals,including the ones on our classrooms———and still today there are many in public clock towers,like Big Ben.
.
Well I just will say that “digital anything’ is NOT reliable...it’s like everything else in technology..they race to get it out there and then spend years fixing what happens soon after, or don’t bother at all because the next generation is already on the table.
I have a ‘back up’ push button phone that has come in very handy when there’s an electricity black out. Thus I am still able to communicate even if all else is off. Also because I have internet through the phone company rather than cable I never have a creep along download etc.
aybe kf’s haing to learn Latin.
Big Ben goes digital..
I was thinking this exact thing. If a person doesn't have the best possible perspective on where they are within a given hour, I can see it having an effect on their ability to be punctual and planning tasks at work.
You are exactly right....”Pupils ‘prefer’ to remain ignorant only insofar as society caters to ignorance.”....
Within minutes of taking my first computer class I could easily see where this technology was headed....and shuddered at the ‘cost’ to society as well as who would control the information.....it was not difficult to see as well how it would affect the classrooms and students who were quickly ‘dependent’ and ‘hooked’ on it’s ‘glitter’.
Well, in my day...
My kids were very stubborn about learning to read an analog clock. I forced them to learn it anyway. Every time they asked me what time it was, I pointed to the analog with Roman numerals and said, “You tell me.”
I suppose Big Ben will be covered up now.
You stated...” If a person doesn’t have the best possible ‘perspective’ on where they are within a given hour, I can see it having an effect on their ability to be punctual and planning tasks at work.”
So then doesn’t that figure in with the idea of ‘control’....As with everything digital it lends itself to control to one degree or another. The less ‘we’ can see ahead or know of creates an avenue for our work or projects to be dictated.
It’s as though ‘life’ is being narrowed with the technology today. Everyone is to run in the same lane....with less and less control..
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.