Baby Blues by Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott for April 22, 2024

Parenting fail

I helped out in a 5th grade class where the kids would ask me what time it was. Even though the clock on the wall was in plain view, they didn’t know how to read an analog clock.

momofalex7, good teaching opportunity.

When asked what time it is, if I say “quarter after four”,they have no idea!

My kids have both been taught to read an analog clock. They do it in school too.

Wanda, have you learnt them to read?

She’s young. It’ll be easy to teach her. And now seems like a good time.

I know digital clocks are a thing but it’s important to know the basics of an analog clock.

Astounding, actually….

Look at the hands on the clock: what time does that represent? The small hand just got to 4, but the big hand is at 13 minutes before the hour.

But the best thing is, they’re both reading BOOKS with no phone or other device which would easily give them the digital time.

While my daughters can read an analog clock, they have a little trouble with my wording. If I say “2:45” they get it; if I say “quarter to three” they’re lost.

Analog clocks are hard to read

24 hour displays, analog or digital, always cause a pause for me. I’m leaning towards one of those single hand clocks that only show the hour. Close enough for me. A far cry from the endless split second back-timing in my broadcasting days.

It looks like 13 minutes before 4 o’clock, to me.

4:47

Does their kitchen not have a microwave or oven with a digital time readout????

Are you telling me there isn’t a cell phone within arm’s reach?

Zoe, Right arm fully extended pointing to the mid point of 9 and 10 position and her left arm pulled in pointing toward the four position.

I refrained from saying Tic, tic , tic which was my first thought.

Do any of you old folks remember Grandfather Clock on Captain Kangaroo? He was always pretty helpful.

Our kids had no trouble telling time with an analogue clock. They had trouble with the teacher(s) and other student(s) understanding the time, but then our kids were raised on military time.

It’s 4:4something

What it is? Correct answer: out of hand(!), because the hour has passed four, which is wrong, if the time is 3:48.

I find it strange it the hand had that position if it was 4:48?

I made my kids learn that before they could get digital.

Can Zoe do ANYthing besides tattling and manipulation?

one of my kids skipped 2nd grade, which apparently is where you learn that. Consequently she could not read an analog clock. I think it was like 4th grade before we discovered the problem, like Zoe.

My son when he was 16 could not read my analog watches but he was very interested in wearing a mid 1980s Movado so when he turned 18 I gave it to him for his birthday. He is in his mid 30s now and hardly ever wears a watch but he keeps an analog dress watch when the need arises. The one I gave him after so many years could not be fixed – the electronics for the watch were just too old and cost prohibitive.

Yes, it is pathetic, that this generation cannot figure out an analog clock.

I still remember not being able to read a dial clock. I would have to report to my mother, “The little hand is on the four, and the big hand is on the… well, it’s between the nine and the ten.” I don’t remember when I actually learned it. The incentive was for not missing my favorite TV shows.

The little hand points to the hours until it gets to the next hour, the big hand points to the minutes but you have to multiply by 5. Now you know how to use an analog clock display children.

About a decade ago I was substitute teaching and had to spend a ninety minute block signing middle school kids in and out of the bathroom. I got tired of being asked what time it was so I took off my watch and put it next to the clipboard that held the sign-in sheet. When they asked I just tapped the watch. Of course most of them couldn’t read it but few were willing to admit it. One kid, however, did say “I don’t know what that says, tell me what time it is!” Something about his commanding tone rubbed me the wrong way, so I looked him right in the eye and said “Quarter of.”

I was tutoring part time for two and a half years at a tutoring business my friend owned. We had analog clocks. None of the kids could read them!!! We had two “teaching clocks” in the classroom, so I vowed to teach (when it was appropriate) It took the better part of the hour they were there (like 40 full teaching minutes to get the hang of it) I would just explain over and over the minutes- and the concepts of “five after”, “half past”, “quarter after” “quarter to”. First, of course was “60 minutes in the hour and the numbers on the clock are in five minute intervals….” All new to them!!!!

The dumbing down…parental malfeasance.

It is time to teach her how to read a “regular” clock!!!

There’s an old joke about a joint military exercise with civilian observers. The commanding officer said, "Please synchronize your watches. Civilians, the correct time is 8pm. Soldiers and airmen, it is 2000 hours. Sailors, it is 8 bells. Marines, the big hand is on the twelve, the little one on the eight.”

The hands are drawn wrong … if it was 12 minutes to 4, the hour hand should be above the 4.

If it’s 12 minutes to 5, the hour hand should be closer to the 5.

Putting Roman numerals on the clock would just add to the confusion.

Speaking as a retired high school teacher on the first day of the school Year I would explain how to understand an analog wall clock. Not sure if the students retained that information. Such clock are less and less common.

That sounds about right.

That is so funny because I just saw a t-shirt online that went like this: No, I don’t know how to use snapchat or tiktok, but I can write in cursive, do math without a calculator and tell time on a clock with hands.

…..and those who can’t read the analog clocks, laugh at us trying to figure out how to work a “smart” phone.

It’s 5 O’clock somewhere.

I can read analog, but it takes me a minute, and I’d rather just look at a digital display. A couple years ago, I asked my 60-something coworker what time it was, and she said, “Seriously?” because my brain had long ago opted to ignore the vintage analog clock hanging right behind me.

Don’t they teach that in school anymore?

She probably can’t read cursive either. . . .