no more peeking onto parked car’s dashboards to read the analogue clock there.
Eventually, Lexus might stop including the analog clock as a luxury feature.
Comment on Don't fix the problem just change the parameters
Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de 1 day ago
First: Some UK teachers exchanged the analogue with digital clocks. This was only to reduce interruptions by some students (during a specific kind of UK exams), who had trouble determining the remaining time in the heat of the exam battle.
Secondly: The use of analogue clocks is taught at UK schools. What’s missing is the practice that former generations of pupils had. No more wristwatches, public clocks all but gone, and (what I am nostalgically missing from my youth) no more peeking onto parked car’s dashboards to read the analogue clock there. Times have changed, and this specific partially lost ability is not the schools’ fault. (Not to say that other things aren’t…)
Can we please bury that stupid old meme, as it has been based on some inaccurate buzz and largely giving a completely inaccurate impression of the topic from the start…
joyjoy@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
danc4498@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
Kids don’t know cursive either. Nobody needs it anymore.
Capricorn_Geriatric@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
I feel that learning cursive is important.
First you learn how to write ordinary letters. That trains your fine motor skills so you can write them reliably (try writing with your non-dominant yourself hand to see).
What cursive teaches you is how to write quickly. Of course, no one will write in pure, perfect cursive. Most people settle for a style somewhere in between. It teaches you the concept of “you can combine letters together to make you write faster” and “here are a bunch of ways to combine them” is a good thing. Especially if they end up going to college.
Giving them a few more weeks of practice in reading and writing is a great way to avoid them being partially illiterate.
MBech@feddit.dk 8 hours ago
Counter point: I can write a hell of a lot faster on a keyboard if I need to take note.
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
Being “taught” cursive in school was torture, anyway.
Paula_Tejando@lemmy.eco.br 5 hours ago
I was taught block lettering in technical drafting class, 8th grade. Cursive is a lettering specifically created to be easy to handwrite. It flows on paper, as opposed to the repetitive short strokes of block lettering.
SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
The easy they taught us cursive was the complete opposite of the intent of cursive. Rigidly proscribed characters with marks only for form, ignoring all function. It was agonizingly tedious and physically painful writing all of those nonsensical scrawls. I immediately switched back to my own chicken scratch after grade school because it was not only orders of magnitude faster, but at least didn’t make my hand painfully seize up into a claw.
Decades later, as my handwriting evolved, a number of my own script letters began to resemble those wretched cursive runes, because I had apparently blindly stumbled upon the actual correct method for writing to flow from nib to parchment, as opposed to whatever those torturous rituals scarred me with as a child.
Vinstaal0@feddit.nl 9 hours ago
Since smart watches are a thing some schools banned wristwatches during exams because they where not planning to look for the differences
someguy3@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
My wrist watches were always digital, public clocks in suburbia I’m just gonna say never existed, in cars wtf?
I can only see this as an education problem.
FelixCress@lemmy.world 1 day ago
This was only to reduce interruptions by some students (during a specific kind of UK exams), who had trouble determining the remaining time in the heat of the exam battle
I am not being funny but if someone is unable to read the time perhaps they shouldn’t be in the exam room in the first place.
It is like saying that all questions will be read out loud all the time and verbal answers recorded instead of written ones - because some students are illiterate.
papalonian@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Honestly if you can’t calculate things on an abacus you shouldn’t be in the exam room tbh. Sure, calculators have been invented and have ultimately replaced the abacus in nearly every facet of day to day life, but surely you know how to add beads together?
We’re letting kids use GPS to get to school now? What the street signs and constellations aren’t good enough for you?
FelixCress@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Let me rephrase it than - if someone is an idiot, they shouldn’t be in an exam room. If you are concerned about it, it may be because you fit the category.
Karl@literature.cafe 1 day ago
What makes people who didn’t learn to read analog clocks idiots? If you have a thing about analog clocks, just keep it to yourself.
it may be because you fit the category
Or maybe because it’s just stupid af to judge people’s intelligence based on an unrelated life skill.
Saganaki@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
You don’t know how to use an abacus? You must be an idiot.
papalonian@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Yikes.
Also, since you ran out of arguments and started correcting people’s spelling, *then.
lugal@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
Students with dyslexia do get special treatment. There is no reason to discriminate against people lacking an unrelated skill and it’s not funny to demand it so we at least agree on something
Capricorn_Geriatric@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
I agree.
That being said, there’s a difference between having a disability and just not having had enough practice.
Just having an analogue clock in all rooms and halls of a school is a way to give people the opportunity to get the practice.
In higher grades you can have an analogue clock in front and a digital “cheat” one in the back. If they’re not sure, they can glance at that. And if that cheat clock is only in every other room. Most will learn because it’s easier that way.
When reading the clock comes as a topic of the curriculum in 1st or 2nd grade, having the teacher ask a student to read the time periodically from the classroom clock for a few months will make sure everyone has had at least some opportunities to practice.
Of course, if someone does have a problem bordering on disability, accomodate them. But a quarter of a class having it is really either bad luck or just bad methodology.
lugal@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 hours ago
The post talks explicitly about teenagers in exam halls. Don’t know if “exam hall” is a term for regular class rooms but either way it talks about teenagers. True, younger kids should learn it. Even if without practice, you have a hard time as a teenager, you can revive the skill later. Source: I did.
FelixCress@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I am not referring to students with diagnosed disabilities - I am referring to the vast majority without.
lugal@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
… in the context that many students can’t read analog clocks and shouldn’t get help. Pretty sure there is no official diagnosis for this so no problem and they don’t deserve to know how much time they have left in a biology exam. Again, there is no reason to discriminate against people lacking unrelated skills, if diagnosed or undiagnosed.
Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it 22 hours ago
Ah, okay, I can’t take exams because my dyscalculia makes it difficult for me to read a clock (and it’s not worth my time to learn how to read them).
👍
FelixCress@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
No, you shouldn’t take exams if are an idiot - and if you do, don’t expect a special treatment because of your stupidity.
And no, as I said people with diagnosed disability are a different matter.
Hopefully that clarifies it for you.
GladiusB@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I used to troll my teachers with inane questions to help my friends prepare for exams or quizzes that we knew were coming. I can’t expect it’s changed much.
technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 hours ago
Support. First reasonable comment in here.
www.snopes.com/…/schools-removing-analog-clocks/