<p>Reading an analog clock is not just a “skill.” It is a concept. Analog portrays the movement of time. Digital takes an isolated picture of a disembodied moment.</p>
<p>I think the difference is huge, and not just an equivalent to “barrel-making.” :/</p>
<p>Ahh, I now have a Christmas present fr that one person who said it was too hard to look at two hands!</p>
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<p>I agree with you, garland.</p>
<p>Can a digital clock be as much fun as these analog ones? ;)</p>
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<p>Or could you amuse your friends with a digital clock like you could with this one?</p>
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<p>So if someone asks me if I know what time it is, I might respond half past 10, a quarter to or after 11, twenty to or after 8. Do people who can’t read analog clocks know what time it is from my answer or do they only understand if I say 10:30, 10:45, 11:15, 7:40, 8:20? I know what time a quarter to or twenty to is without mentally converting to digital but does the digital generation need to convert while subtracting an hour?</p>
<p>Yes, annoying, they do. </p>
<p>The only one I can’t figure out is “quarter of 11”. I only hear people say that in different parts of the country and for the life of me, I have no idea what it means.</p>
<p>ETA: Nevermind, google helped me in my quest.</p>
<p>Agree also Garland.</p>
<p>I think the analog clock still helpful for learning geometry and trigonometry, navigation…</p>
<p>If young children were not taught analogous time and only exposed to digital time, I believe they would not understand those phrases, annoyingdad. I can see them understanding phrases such as “twenty past eight” or “fifteen 'til two”, but not “half past three” or “quarter 'til seven”.</p>
<p>Great point, coolweather! </p>
<p>A past math teacher had the unit circle as his clock. I know one student who didn’t know how to read analog time had quite an interesting experience when he needed to write the time on his pass book when he needed to leave the room. ;)</p>
<p>I can read an analog clock, but sometimes it’s a challenge for me due to my dyscalculia. I’ve gotten better at it but I remember when I was 18 or 19 I was trying to read a particularly weird clock at the humane society I was volunteering at and the hand was between numbers and I couldn’t tell which it was closer to for sure (I probably would have guessed correctly but was afraid to make a mistake), so I asked a lady and she made it a point to treat me like a moron before she told me the time. I don’t know where people get the idea that it’s just so much fun to treat people like they’re idiots.</p>
<p>I think in school, I unconsciously developed the habit of only looking at the minute hand-- I knew when the minute hand was on X, Y class would be over. I didnt notice I was doing it. Then in high school we only had digital clocks. Eventually I got over it and now I can read both with about the same level of ease, though my vision is poor so sometimes it is harder to see an analog clock.</p>
<p>That said, despite the fact that I’ve always had trouble with analog clocks and avoided using them, I’ve never had a problem understanding half past or quarter to. I know logically how many minutes are in an hour and can do the math much more naturally than I know what a “quarter” looks like visually, though I know that just as well. My brain just isn’t wired to work that way and it takes an extra moment to compute.</p>
<p>Something I have found interesting about a lot of my math issues is that they are improving by leaps and bounds now that I am out of school and learning “in the field” so to speak instead of in a classroom. I had trouble with analog clocks until I was 20 years old, then I just didn’t anymore. My “number sense” is ten times better than it was five years ago after not really improving much between ages 10 and 20. I wonder how many people are like me and will catch up to the rest of the adult world once they get there. I don’t imagine there will be a bunch of intellectually stunted 40 year olds who cant function running around in 20 years.</p>
<p>ETA: I’ve never met anybody else who has trouble with clocks. I don’t believe this is a widespread issue.</p>
<p>My H’s high school students can’t. He has an analog clock in his classroom, and if they need to sign out, he won’t let them pull out their phones to get the time. They end up coaching each other how to read the clock, and by the end of the year, they all can.</p>
<p>I have definitely noticed that if I say half past, or quarter to, a lot of my students don’t know what I mean.</p>
<p>yes, I think it helps with all sorts of spatial thinking.</p>
<p>Never thought much about this. We have only two clocks in our house, and they are both analogues. So the kids definitely know how to read them. I wear analogue watches, DH uses his phone.</p>
<p>My kid has an analog clock in her bathroom and reads it no problem.</p>
<p>Analog clock reading was half of my math problems in the middle school. I miss doing them. In problems I had to do, a hand was often missing. The hour hand is 3 degrees passed 1. what time is it?</p>
<p>Niquii, my analog clock challenged D IS a physics major, and doing just fine.</p>
<p>Seriously, Iglooo, middle school clock math? Aforementioned D had algebra I and geometry in middle school.</p>
<p>5th grade math, isn’t that middle school? Believe me, those problems are not simple.</p>
<p>mamabear, it’s called sarcasm. Congrats on your D for being able to not read an analog clock and know physics, though. </p>
<p>Igloo, I know the problems you’re talking about. I’m happy I don’t have to deal with them anymore. :p</p>
<p>Third grade teacher here who is teaching time on analog clocks and cursive. Cursive is taught here in third grade, and the fourth and fifth grade teachers have the kids do written work in cursive, so it is not promptly forgotten. The kids love it. It makes them feel like “big kids” to get to learn something the 1st and 2nd graders aren’t. Surprisingly, kids who tend to rush when printing will take their time and carefully form their cursive letters. Cursive may be slower than printing at first, but at this age, it is still much faster than typing.</p>
<p>As to analog clocks, many of my students don’t have them at home, so I am spending more time on it than in years past. I find it helpful when talking about fractions later on in the year. The kids can “see” what a quarter hour means, or 1/10 or 1/6 etc. Many of them had heard the phrase “quarter past” or “quarter to”, and when I drew an analog clock on the board and shaded 15 minutes, they could all see what that phrase meant. Many did not know it beforehand. </p>
<p>Telling time can be done quickly on a digital clock, but to teach the concept of elapsed time, I find using analog clocks the kids can manipulate are the best tools, and it only works if they can tell time on them first.</p>
<p>I doubt this is an issue with many people. The iPhone for example has by default a clock on its main page. That clock show the correct time, including a second hand. Apple had to pay, as I remember, the Swiss national railroad for its use of the clock up to iOS 7. That version, the new one, has numerals instead of the familiar thick black lines as indicators.</p>
<p>The analog clocks are still very expensive especially for this Christmas. :)</p>
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<p>I will not buy any of the above ones but I will buy an hourglass if I can find one.</p>
<p>I think we should also teach how to tell time via a sundial and hourglass. People should also learn how to determine months and seasons via observance of the sky.</p>
<p>Whoops! No need for that anymore now that we have calendars and clocks?</p>
<p>It probably isn’t that important for people to be able to read a rotational clock anymore since digital forms are ubiquitous but it’s also not exactly a difficult thing to learn and something that could be done at home without spending class time doing it. You’d think that simply placing a traditional rotational clock on the wall of the classroom (and with cell phones turned off) would be more than enough for the students to learn it themselves as they can’t wait for the minutes to ‘tick away’ and the time to ‘wind down’ to class over time!</p>
<p>@coolweather We have an hourglass in my house. We also have this weird rotational clock thing that has these “wing” or “lobe” things that spin around with the time. (I need to find a link…). I always remember being mesmerized by them as a child.</p>
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<p>GladGradDad…but analog clocks are still needed.</p>
<p>Sundials are still used…hourglass are still used…</p>