Kids Can’t Read Clocks – IOTW Report

Kids Can’t Read Clocks

Only one in 10 children aged six to 12 in Oklahoma City own a watch today — and four out of five of them don’t know how to read it, according to new research.

25 Comments on Kids Can’t Read Clocks

  1. When researchers say “4 out of 5 kids” can’t do this, this, or that, I believe it is almost always the same 4 kids. The fifth kid can usually do all the things listed. A few of the young adults I worked with were great, but most of the others could be used as evidence in suing the school district for wasting my school taxes.

  2. My wife couldn’t read an analog clock when I met her 20 years ago. After 15 years of marriage it takes her about 10 seconds of counting under breath and some moving fingers and finally figures it out.. what she’s counting I’ve no clue. She also has a masters degree. humph.

  3. We used to say: “A hair passed a freckle Eastern Elbow Time”

    Considering the agenda-driven garbage that passes for “education” these days this really comes as no big surprise. We taught our kids the basics of how to tell time before they started going to pre-school.
    This should be something kids should learn at home from parents working with their children, something that is severely lacking today.

  4. If they don’t teach them their numbers then they’re doubly screwed. Because if you don’t know your numbers, how can you tell time on a digital clock, let alone an analog clock. And if you really want to confuse show them a sundial, that’d really throw them a loop. Now they have an excuse for being late to school, they can tell the teacher they didn’t know what time it is.

  5. My kids have only seen regular landline phones at grandma’s house. We’ve exclusively had cell phones since before either of them were born. I think they know how to use them though. And I think they know how to read analog clocks too. I’ll ask later today I’m curious.

  6. I was shocked to learn from my nieces they no longer teach cursive in school. I don’t know if it’s imperative for one to be able to write/read cursive, except in instances that require, oh say, signatures for legal purposes like DL, SS, Voter ID.

  7. Side step. Did you know that Landline to Landline phone calls are the only telephonic communication method that is covered by the wiretap laws that we all think we know. These laws ONLY apply to ‘copper’ lines.

    If you think your Cable Company home phone line is a landline, you are mistaken. Your phone call is going over the ‘internet’ and has no more legal protections than this web page. The copper laws do not apply.

  8. It’s worse than you think. My son told me a few years ago, that somewhere between 25 to 50% of kids in his HIGH SCHOOL can’t read an analog clock. Not just retards, but normal kids. They couldn’t read or write cursive either. Just to fuck with ’em, my son bought an analog watch and whenever someone would ask what time it was, he’d just show him his watch. He’d do the same thing in his car, which had an analog clock in the center of the dash. He’d also write all his notes in cursive, just to irritate others. (I’m so proud of him.)

    Here’s how I taught my son how to tell time when he was about six years old, since I knew that the school system would surely fail at it, like they do everything else:

    Week one: Get a kitchen wall clock that’s easy to manually set the time, or make a homemade “mock clock” out of cardboard and movable hands attached to the center with a brad. Teach the “o’clocks” and nothing else. Big hand on the 12 and little hand on whatever number. Show them that, and nothing more. This and every other step, only takes about five minutes each.

    Week two: Teach them the “thirties”. 1:30, 2:30, 3;30, etc.

    Week three: Teach ’em the “15 afters”.

    Week four: Teach ’em the “15 til’s”.

    If that’s all a kid ever learns about reading an analog clock, it would be enough to get him/her by, and it only takes about a twenty minute total investment of his/her and your time. Usually,by the time he/she learns this much, he/she has enough pride and self motivation to figure the rest out on his/her own.

  9. Alright, you geezers! I know funnin’ on the youngins is fun, an’ all. But, seriously. How many of you can tell if your horse is properly shod? Just by lookin’. Even with robots, how much does it cost to make a mechanical clockwork? Now add some hands. How much does it cost to make the single chip required in a digital clock? Add a display. How much extra does it cost to add the ability to fetch the time from a radio time signal, the internet, or a swarm of satellites, with a device you’ve already got, that receives radio music, or connects to the internet, or uses that swarm of satellites to figure out where you are, and put it on the display that device already has? It’s not that the new way is better. It’s just cheaper. Your kids can still learn to ride a horse, and examine its shoes. But expecting everybody else to go to the expense of buying their children ponies, just so yours don’t seem odd, is a bit, well, odd.

  10. What difference, after all this time, does it make?
    Who gives a fuck?
    The gov’t tells us to change our clocks twice a year, and like a herd of fucking lemmings, we change our clocks! Thus, time (or what time the clock reads) is really meaningless, and is only relevant as a command from the gov’t.
    Back when I worked, we started at mid-night (12) and when guys came in late, I docked em. My boss came to me after a bunch of crying and whining, and said “Give em 15 minutes grace.” Well, what the fuck? Do we start at 12 or at 12:15? Do I let the guys who came in at 11:45 go home at 7:45? Do I keep the lazy maggots who came in at 12:15 till 8:15? Gonna pay me OT to watch em or hand em over to the day shift?
    See – we don’t need no stinking clocks – just saunter in when you feel like it and run out when nobody’s looking. Who needs to read a clock?

    izlamo delenda est …

  11. Teaching Time.
    Tomorrow at Comey o’clock.
    Nope, No ‘wiretap’ {subclause legal copper definition 1}.
    Where did the information come from?
    Someone leaked it.
    How can they leak information that didn’t happen?
    Other taps they don’t call ‘wiretap’ {subclause legal definition 2}.
    They legally lie by using definition x for y as necessary.
    They have 50 ways to… {subclause legal definition 3}

  12. On a military base that housed all four services they announced the time over a loudspeaker system. The hourly announcement would go like this: “Attention on base. This is the hourly time announcement. For all Army personnel, the time is 1600 hours. For all Navy personnel, the time is 8 bells. For all Air Force personnel, the time is 4:00 PM. And for all you Marines, the big hand is on the 12…”

    (NOTE: A Marine told me that one, so all you ex-USMC folks can blame him, not me.)

    🙂

  13. I learned how to tell time when six 1/2, it took me a couple of days, but I really wanted to learn. My younger two siblings were the same, and I assume my older four also were. I feel like kids now aren’t being given a fair chance to learn and grow, it’s horrible. I feel for those kids, I really do. :[

  14. True story: When I was a kid, my parents were trying to teach me how to tell time, but I was having problems with it. My dad was particularly frustrated, and after asking me what time it was for the umpteenth time and getting no good answer, he left the room. Well, I didn’t know how to tell time, but I had watched my parents dial the local time service and I knew the number. So I called the time number, got the time, and went in the other room and told my dad what time it was. He got all excited, praised me for my new ability, and it wasn’t until later that he found out what I had done. He was disappointed, of course, but he still had to give me points for creativity.

    Moral of the story: Kids will do whatever it takes to do what their parents ask of them, whether it is the right thing to do or not. Parents should keep this in mind when dealing with their children.

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