Pains me that the article calls them "old" clocks and not "analog" clocks.

Maybe someone should teach them...

One of the greatest dangers to a society is people assuming anything is innate or the next generation will magically know shit.

Nobody taught these kids how to read a clock. So they don't know how to read a clock.

This is a very minor thing, but it's an easier concept to grasp than the abstract concept of empathy we also stopped teaching kids.

Maybe it wasn't such a major skill after all 😄

Also, I'm old and remember waking up after partying hard and looking at an analog clock, not knowing whether it's AM or PM. Those clocks suck. 24h or nothing. Also radio-controlled clocks are a blessing ngl.

Yeah they probably can't read cursive either.

which new york teacher was stunned because i have questions

I learned to read an analog clock in elementary school. If schools aren't teaching it anymore idk why they're shocked that kids don't know how.

Bet they can't dial a rotary phone or hitch a horse to a wagon either.

They seem bad at computers a lot of the time too. I know right wingers like to make public schools lives hell by slashing budgets constantly but like damn.

I remember when I was in 5th grade, back in the early '80s, a kid didn't know how to tell time on a clock. The adults then blamed the popularity of digital wristwatches. On one hand it doesn't really matter, on the other it's a great introduction to visualizing alternate numbering systems.

"Old clocks"

This is not surprising at all. Even when taking about time relative to the analog clock, it gets difficult, a lady asked me for the time at Walmart, and she could not understand "half past six". When I clarified that's 6:30, she finally got it.

You're a teacher? Teach!

I taught my gen-z kid to read an analog clock because I knew no one else would. I know he learned it.

He's 27 now, and living back at home. Recently, we were in the kitchen and the cat was asking to be fed. He said, "I don't think it's time yet..." and then went to his room to check the time on his phone. The same analog clock he learned to read is on the wall in the kitchen, where it's been his entire life. Apparently, he didn't practice at all after I taught him and tested him on it, and now can't read it? I dunno, I didn't ask, I didn't want to make a whole thing out of it.

How is that even possible? The only clocks on display in my house are analog. Do people not have wall clocks? Do kids grow up never knowing what time it is? That's a standard household furnishing.

Then again, it does say some students, so I probably should assume it's a minority who never asked their parents what the fuck that thing on the wall was.