# data[].attributes.body
https://www.sheknows.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/qjp4ebkyo3hyelp7eacs.jpeg?w=695&h=391&crop=1

# data[].attributes.body
https://blog.esslinger.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/E203.jpg

# data[].attributes.body
https://m.timecenter.com/pages/articles/img/girl-with-clock_small.jpg

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Jimmy Kimmel Hilariously Proved Kids Don't Know How to Tell Time Anymore

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Jimmy Kimmel proved that kids have no idea how to tell time with an analog clock in this hilarious stunt. See how the kids reacted

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- There is a debate about whether schools should continue to teach kids how to tell time.

In the United Kingdom, schools are now getting rid of analog clocks because kids just don't know how to read them. Some are now pushing for U.S. schools to follow suit.

RELATED: NC Lawmakers Launch Cursive Writing Investigation

"Everything is so digital today; it's not necessarily a good thing," said Bob Piotrowski, a clockmaker and horologist at Time After Time in Indian Land. "Why are we losing our contact to our past? Why should we do that when we should preserve that?"

However, some say kids just can't read good ol' clocks anymore. NBC Charlotte set out to discover if that's really true. We quizzed several kids on their analog clock skills. It wasn't a shining success.

The truth is the analog clock might be gathering dust in 2018. Yet there are still people like Bob who aren't giving up just yet.

"I don't want this to die," he said. "Time's not up. It's not over, it's not over 'til the bell strikes."
► Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the WFMY News 2 App now

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Should Schools Continue To Teach Kids How To Tell Time?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- There is a debate about whether schools should continue to teach kids how to tell time. In the United Kingdom, schools are now getting rid of analog clocks because kids just don't know how to read them. Some are now pushing for U.S. schools to follow suit.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Can you use a slide rule? Can you edit a video? These were two of the questions that came to me when I heard news of anxious debate over the fact that some schools were switching to digital clocks in exam halls because "teenagers cannot tell the time".

The story came about after comments from a former headteacher, Malcolm Trobe, now deputy general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, who said "the current generation aren't as good at reading the traditional clock face as older generations". To help minimise stress in important exams, he has suggested switching to digital clocks.

As a maths teacher and a parent, I know that one of the requirements in the key stage 1 curriculum is for children to be taught how to read a traditional clock face. On questioning friends, teachers and students, I found few don't achieve this. That older students might be finding calculating the time they have left in exams difficult is thus more likely about practice. For most pupils - and adults too - digital displays are simply more common, whether on train platforms, computer screens or mobile phones.

Trobe's comments don't appear to be backed up by any large-scale study, so I will offer the results of my own, rather unscientific, survey: although a couple got the time wrong before correcting themselves, all the teenagers I spoke to were able to read an analogue clock perfectly well. However, for many this wasn't an embedded reflex - doing so required a level of thought akin to performing a calculation. They get there, but they have to think about it.

Outrage at the apparent stupidity of millennials and the generations following them has become a trope for the press

It therefore seems sensible for Trobe to suggest that, when students are meant to be focusing all their thinking on answering exam questions, they are shown the time in the way they are most familiar with.

However, this still leaves us with the deeper question as to why this change in timekeeping technology has caused such a furore. Nobody is suggesting that children have no idea what time is; the sense of outrage seems to be because the devices children are using aren't the ones in common use 40 years ago.

I experienced the same exasperation when I was at school and my maths teacher discovered that none of us could use a slide rule. I remember the sneering dismissal of us as hopelessly stupid, the sigh that worried what the world was coming to.

In fact, when taught, we picked up the method quickly enough and enjoyed the nostalgic feel of using an "old" tool. But did we deem it a necessary skill to master and put to daily use? No.

This is what gave rise to my questions. How many of those now huffing about pupils so dim they can't read a clock face could themselves still calculate in pre-decimal currency, use an abacus, or calculate their longitude using a sextant? All these once-essential skills have fallen into disuse not because we have become more stupid, but because our tools have become more sophisticated.

I also wonder if those complaining would be able to throw together a film with fades, dissolves and subtitles. All my students are fluent with such tools, which leave many of their parents looking rather dull in comparison.

Outrage at the apparent stupidity of millennials and the generations following them has become a trope for certain sections of the press, one that is crass and offensive. As GCSE season arrives I can't help but think that this storm over clock faces is an early shot in the annual "exams are getting easier" vein.

We have been here before. Indignation over such technological change is a generational shibboleth, a means of testing membership of the "proper" world as certain privileged adults have labelled it.

Rather than perpetuating a tired struggle about which technologies signify this proper intelligence in those coming after us, what we should celebrate instead is the extraordinary proficiency that our young people are developing with suites of tools so sophisticated they make telling the time seem like child's play.

* Kester Brewin is a maths teacher based in south-east London
Topics

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Should we call time on analogue clocks? Some teachers think so | Kester Brewin

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Can you use a slide rule? Can you edit a video? These were two of the questions that came to me when I heard news of anxious debate over the fact that some schools were switching to digital clocks in exam halls because "teenagers cannot tell the time".

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The digital world is taking over and everywhere you go, people are staring at their phones, laptops, televisions... the list could go on. From communicating with each other to checking time, it's all on a screen. And it's taking effect in the United Kingdom, especially in schools, starting with teachers removing analog clocks from exam rooms and replacing them with digital clocks.

Why are they doing this, you ask? Because they want to make it easier for children who find it difficult to read analog clocks when they're already stressed out by how much time they have left during an exam. "You don't want them to put their hand up to ask how much time is left," former principal Malcolm Trobe explained.

Getty Images

A digital clock could help remove any extra stress which helps the school achieve their goal of trying to make everything as "easy and straightforward as possible." Trobe, who is the deputy general secretary at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), told The Telegraph that children who are younger than 18 have become too accustomed to their digital information and that includes the clock. He said, "The current generation aren't as good at reading the traditional clock face as older generations."

"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," Trobe stated.

Being a former principal, he understands teachers' habit of prioritizing the kids. He said that the teachers wanted their students taking their exams to be as relaxed as possible since they already have to deal with the stress of writing answers. "Schools will inevitably be doing their best to make young children feel as relaxed as they can be. There is actually a big advantage in using digital clocks in exam rooms because it is much less easy to mistake a time on a digital clock when you are working against time."

Getty Images

Trobe mentions that there are still many children who don't seem to understand how to read a clock by the time high school rolls around, despite the fact that it is still taught to them when they were younger. "It may be a little sad if youngsters coming through aren't able to tell the time on clock faces," he said. "One hopes that we will be teaching youngsters to read clocks, however, we can see the benefit of digital clocks in exam rooms."

Stephanie Keenan, head of English at Ruislip High School in north-west London, spoke to The Telegraph and said that she belonged to one of the many schools that had made the switch from analog to digital clocks. Cheryl Quine, head of the department at Cockermouth School and chair of the West Cumbria Network, said they did the same "when some [students] couldn't read the exam room clock".

As for teacher's responses to this change in the UK, "I know we try to limit their frustration levels but as some point, when is it too much?" Erin Steffan, an American early childhood educator at Reformation Nursery School in Media, Pennsylvania told ABC News. "When I speak to my child and say, 'at quarter to four' you have to be ready... What does that mean? I have to speak to them in digital terms."

It also doesn't seem likely that this trend will catch on in the United States as being able to read an analog clock efficiently is still being stressed upon as part of the children's curriculum. This is a skill that Carol Burris, executive director of the Network for Public Education, believes will remain strong. "There's a lot of very complex mathematical manipulations that are involved in being able to tell time with an analog clock," Burris told CBS. "It takes some of the math skills students are learning and gives them an important real-world context."

Getty Images

But it's not just telling time that is being affected. In 2018, Sally Payne, the head pediatric occupational therapist at the Heart of England Foundation NHS Trust, found some disturbing news. She said that children these days -- those who are immersed in technology -- are finding it more difficult to hold pens and pencils. "To be able to grip a pencil and move it, you need strong control of the fine muscles in your fingers. Children need lots of opportunity to develop those skills," she warned.

"It's easier to give a child an iPad than encouraging them to do muscle-building play such as building blocks, cutting and sticking, or pulling toys and ropes. Because of this, they're not developing the underlying foundation skills they need to grip and hold a pencil."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Schools Are Taking Down Analog Clocks In Exam Halls Because Kids Can't Read Them

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The digital world is taking over and everywhere you go, people are staring at their phones, laptops, televisions... the list could go on. From communicating with each other to checking time, it's all on a screen. And it's taking effect in the United Kingdom, especially in schools, starting with teachers removing analog clocks from exam rooms and replacing them with digital clocks.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Can your kids read an analog clock? You know, the round ones with hands. Like the Rocket Clock in Play School (as opposed to the digital watches that were soooo cool in Back to the Future).

Learning to tell the time on an analog clock is HARD and, pardon the pun, it is a skill that takes time to master.

Some people think that kids are increasingly unable to read analog clocks. I haven't been able to find hard evidence to support this claim but, from anecdotal evidence, it is certainly true that some kids are reach their teenage years without developing this skill, despite digital and analog time telling featuring equally on our school curriculums.

It is unsurprising - digital clocks are far more common, especially for "i-Gen" kids brought up with screens. Yet there are still enough analog clocks around - in people's homes, on town halls and on people's wrists - to make it an important skill to learn.

So how does a kid learn to read a clock with hands?

Sonja Walker is a teacher with 30 years' experience. She points out that the most important thing is to have regular exposure. "I suggest having analog clocks around your house, and buying your primary schooler an analog watch," she says.

She also suggests consciously using the lingo associated with time. "Use a timer when you are encouraging your kids to take turns, or say things like: 'We need to pick up Sarah from soccer at 5pm so let's look at the clock to see what time it is now.'"

Play School has the right idea by starting with hour and half-hour times, something that is echoed in the early years of our school curriculums. "After that, you need to know patterns of five," says Walker.

This is where analog clocks get super confusing. Roger Shackleton, who realised just how confusing when he tried to teach his daughter, sums it up beautifully: "When the minute hand points to one, we need to say five; when it points to five we need to say 25; when it points to seven we also need to say 25; when it points to 10 we do actually say 10."

Shackleton realised that there must be an easier way. He hand-crafted a clock that contained more information than regular analog clocks. "It was made of cardboard and had Mickey Mouse hands," he says.

He added numbers to correspond to the minutes and lengthened the minute hand so that it pointed right to the numbers. He then added the words PAST to one half, TO to the other, and a bit of colour coding for good measure.

"Now all the information needed was on the clock," he concludes.

From there, it becomes a simple three step process to tell the time. "All a child has to do is read the number the long hand is pointing to, say whether it is on the 'past' or 'to' side of the clock, then read the number that the short hand is pointing to," Shackleton says.

The idea was so successful that, after his daughters had totally mastered telling the time, Shackleton created a commercial version of his cardboard clock. I used one with my kids so totally agree with Shackleton when he says: "Telling the time had gone from being inexplicable, to three simple steps that can be learned in just a few minutes."

Of course, there is a bit more to it than that. There is learning the concepts of quarter past, quarter to, and knowing that half past four is the same things as four 30. Then there is working out how much time is left before something happens by subtracting using 60 as the base number rather than 100. And, for extra degrees of difficulty, there are roman numerals and the 24-hour clock to master.

But, once the fundamentals are in place, these more complex elements are easier.

Like all skills, learning to read a clock will come more naturally to some kids than others. Walker, who now runs a multidisciplinary service for kids facing challenges with their learning, says: "For some kids, the whole concept of time is hard, it is abstract and some kids will likely always have gaps in their skills."

Like all skills, reading an analog clock will be developed more quickly and fully when they are learned both at school and at home.

If you need some add some humour into the equation, hit YouTube for these hilarious takes on the topic.

An analog clock-reading Vox Pop by Jimmy Kimmel:

An oldie-but-a-goodie - veteran comic Dave Allen routine on the challenges of teaching your child how to tell the time:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Do kids really need to know how to read an analog clock?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Can your kids read an analog clock? You know, the round ones with hands. Like the Rocket Clock in Play School (as opposed to the digital watches that were soooo cool in Back to the Future). Learning to tell the time on an analog clock is HARD and, pardon the pun, it is a skill that takes time to master.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
I immediately thought of four folks: my younger son, junior son, senior daughter and grown step-daughter. The youngest is in third grade in Hawkins County, the middle two in Kingsport City Schools and the oldest graduated from Hawkins. That's four folks, and the result of surveying them, actually just interaction over time, has shown 75 percent more or less can't tell analog time, on a round-face clock, which was the point of the email. I remember once time telling my older son in late elementary school it was a quarter till or quarter after a certain hour. He asked if that was 3:25 or 25 minutes till 3.

These digital natives read time as 3:15 p.m. or 3:45 p.m., not a quarter till or quarter after anything. But analog clocks and before that sundials have been around almost as long as civilization. The youngest is learning and nearly complete in understanding analog time; the other three, not so much at all. They use their cell phones for time except for the youngest. He borrows his mom's phone or asks somebody. I asked him recently, and he said he prefers digital clocks because they are easier for him to understand.

Before I go any further, I need to point out that a watch retailer put out the release to promote its program with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America "to educate children across the U.S. on how to tell time" and creation of "a self-learning watch." So the watch seller has some self-interest in mind: Create life-long time tellers, and you create a market for your product. I also need to point out the survey got nowhere near Tennessee or Virginia.

"A recent survey conducted by ... online watch retailer, DiscountWatchStore.com has revealed that 75% of children across the U.S. are unable to tell time on an analog clock. In a mission to raise awareness of this issue, the watch retailer teamed up with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America to put on 'Time Telling Workshops' throughout the country, and has now designed the 'Easy Time Teller' - a custom self-learning watch to better facilitate the learning process." So it's a watch to teach children how to read a watch.

In Tennessee, Robin McLellan, supervisor of elementary education for Sullivan County schools, said time is taught in grades 1, 2 and 3 and involves both analog and digital time, in contrast to a period in which standards did not specify analog. In first grade, she said students are to learn how to tell and write time in the nearest half-hour intervals, in second grade, students go down to every five minutes and use a.m. and p.m;. and in third grade they go down to the minute and learn how to measure intervals in time by adding and subtracting and how to solve word problems.

"Your begin in first building foundations and then add more skills," McLellan said. For the time three of the four I referred to earlier were in school, analog time was not a big deal. For me, it was practically the only deal. My first "digital" alarm clock circa mid-1970s flipped over a new number or numbers every minute. It is (yes, I still have it) like a Rolodex, not to be confused with a Rolex watch. If you don't understand any of this, never mind. You probably don't know "Time is on My Side" by the Rolling Stones, "Time in a Bottle" by Jim Croce or "One for My Baby (And One More for the Road)" sung by Frank Sinatra, either. (The latter starts out: "It's quarter to three. There's no one in the place, except you and me."

According to the news release, the analog time telling survey consisted of 15 questions and was split into three levels of varying difficulty. It was distributed to 2,100 children between the ages of 6-12 in New York, Florida, Connecticut, Washington, Nevada, Utah and Texas. Children unable to obtain an 80 percent mark in levels 1 and 2 or a 70 percent mark in level 3 were judged not to be able to tell time to an adequate level. Only 263 children out of the entire survey achieved full marks on the test, with 527 children achieving scores of a sufficient level. Based on the sample, findings and criteria stated it was revealed that 25 percent of children were able to tell time.

"Through educational workshops, the nationwide initiative has reached thousands of children across the U.S., seeking to highlight a significant problem with today's youth growing up in the digital age, and allowing the youngsters the opportunity to learn a fundamental component of early childhood and development. The survey assessed over 2,000 children between 6-12 years old in seven states across the U.S., with only 1 in 8 children scoring full marks on the test and only 1 in 10 children even owning a watch," the release said.

However, the premise is important, much more important than selling watches.

"It is alarming how many children only know what a digital clock reads, and despite an era of digital technology, there will undoubtedly come a time when today's youth will need to read the time on an analog clock. It is a basic skill every individual should posses," said DiscountWatchStore.com owner Zai Zhu. (Notice how he got "alarming" in there in a news release about time pieces.) "We've been going up and down the country holding workshops with children in partnership with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America to help educate our children. It is these workshops that inspired the idea for a specially-designed watch for children to learn how to tell time."

The educational watch has a color-coded design, with hour blocks and specifically catered hour and minute hands that correspond with the appropriate information, allowing children to learn to read time on a round dial on their own. The campaign recently had a Kickstarter campaign in an effort to raise funds and reach as many children throughout the U.S. as possible.

"The ability to tell time on a regular watch is not something being taught to our children. It is important that they learn this lost skill," said Steve Davidson, chief operating officer at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada. "At our clubs, we are using the ability to tell time also in our daily math tutoring program."

Today's lesson: I'm not trying to sell watches or with the Boys & Girls Clubs, but I couldn't agree more with the importance of learning about analog time.

Bonus question: What time is quarter till 3 in a song Frank Sinatra sang?

Rick Wagner is an education writer for the Kingsport Times-News and can be reached at [email protected] or (423) 392-1381.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Behind the Blackboard: Telling time on an analog clock should not be lost to new generations

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Digital natives read time as 3:15 p.m. or 3:45 p.m., not a quarter 'til or quarter after anything. But analog clocks and before that sundials have been around almost as long as civilization. The youngest is learning but not yet complete in understanding analog time; the other three, not so much at all.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Anyone paying attention to changes in schools over the years will notice how evolving technology has altered the ways students learn. For example, iPads have replaced textbooks, digital whiteboards have replaced chalkboards, even the classroom itself has been replaced to a degree, with students able to take classes remotely over the internet. The question begs to be asked. Are analog clocks the next to go?

A Vanishing Skill?

Across the Atlantic, some British schools have taken note of that development, replacing analog clocks with the digital variety, according to the Washington Post, which notes that the same time-telling handicap applies to many American students, too. That's what an Oklahoma City survey concluded, finding that just one in five students ages 6-12 could read an analog clock.

An Unnecessary Stressor?

A Foundational Skill?

Those who want to hold on to the analog tradition say that learning to read the format is part of a basic level of education. In support of that argument, the Common Core curriculum that guides what is taught in American schools still includes analog time-telling as a standard lesson.

Use it or Lose it?

The argument for learning to read analog clocks might also be compared to the value of knowing long division or memorizing phone numbers. After all, the old saying persists today: "Use it or lose it."

Physical exercise could be seen as another valid analogy. Daily life doesn't require that we expend as much physical energy as it used to, but no one's arguing against the value of a good sweat once in a while. Perhaps, then, we need to intentionally engage in certain mental exercises - making computations that we don't actually need to do - for overall cognitive health.

Of course, at American Time, we value the skill of reading analog clocks and believe it will continue to be a necessary and important skill to know in the future. However, we do understand that digital clocks are simply better suited for some purposes. We're interested to see which direction this argument leads us here in the U.S.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Is Teaching Students to Read Analog Clocks Still Relevant in Schools?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Anyone paying attention to changes in schools over the years will notice how evolving technology has altered the ways students learn. For example, iPads have replaced textbooks, digital whiteboards have replaced chalkboards, even the classroom itself has been replaced to a degree, with students able to take classes remotely over the internet.