1070
Don't fix the problem just change the parameters (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/lemmyshitpost@lemmy.world
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[–] 7 points 1 year ago (16 children)

I fail to see why problem an analogue clocks are a solution for.

Like cursive they are obsolete.

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  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    They still exist and will continue to exist in many contexts indefinitely, such as men's fashion and clock towers, so there it's not like they'll ever be "obsolete" per se. They are also extremely easy to learn, and are a good way to teach concepts like spatial reasoning and gears to kids. I think schools should teach about them for those reasons.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    My thoughts exactly. This just screams "old men afraid of change, thinking everything was better back in the day". The world is changing, things become obsolete because they're replaced by newer, better stuff all the time.

    I'm sure people were complaining that kids were getting stupider when they stopped using abascuses, fucking cursive (I specifically remember people being upset about this one), dictionaries in book form, fountain pens, handwritten exams.

    It's time for a lot of people to realise that they themselves have become the complaining old farts they always hated as kids.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    I know a Gen X guy who "hates" digital clocks because "they don't have hands to tell me what time it is."

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    That might actually be a perfect example of mental gymnastics. What a strange justification of just liking something.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    I mean, not really. He knows analog clocks well enough that the hand position just inherently means something to him. Afternoon, and the little hand is almost halfway? Work day done! Just by position.

    Somewhat analagous: I know how far a meter and a kilometer are, in principle, but when I consider distances I more intuitively understand them in feet and miles. It's what I'm used to.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

    My daughter got analog clocks before she could read when she was about three years old. IMHO it's a teaching skill issue. Take a normal wall clock, remove all hands except the hour hand, split the day into segments (brushing teeth, lunch, Kindergarten, etc.) and draw (did that in Gimp) some nice symbols and colors. Done. Explain stuff every time she asks "when" using that wall clock. Let that sink in for a year. Now add the minute hand back in.

    Analog clocks are not really "obsolete" if you ask me. Hands on a circle aren't used enough. We have "clocks" (this time inverted - the circle spins and the hand/indicator is fixed) out of cardboards for a week to learn the days of the week, including "activity" symbols for kindergarten, "weekend", "music lesson", etc. a wheel for "day of the month", and one for month of the year also showing seasons.

    The total amount of time that was invested in building those was about three or four hours but the value is huge when you have something to point to when she asks anything about time no matter it's about when we go to sleep, birthdays, holidays, etc.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    birthdays? so you have a clock with 365 (+¼) minutes?

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    Analog clocks imitate sun dials and of you have amazing eye sight/precision you would only need the hour hand. If the hand is exactly on 3, it's 3 o'clock. If the hand is exactly in the middle between 3 and 4 it's half past 3. If the hand is 4° after 5 it's 04:08. But because our eye sight doesn't have super resolution we just add another hand that makes a full circle when the hour hand moves an hour. And same with seconds. Second hand makes a full circle for 1 minute.

    Back to birthdays - you can do that on the other direction as well but I wouldn't call it a clock, it's a circular calendar. Think about a disk (like a wall clock with only one hand) and seven equal segments. The days of the week, every morning we move the hand to the next day. Another disk with 31 segments (day of the month) and another separate disk with 12 segments. We typically move that one on the first of the month to the next step.

    Now of we discuss events I can point to a segment and even though she is a young kid she immediately gets the scale of things because of something happens in a few hours (let's say she is meeting a friend) I show it to her on the normal analog clock with focus on the hour hand. But if she ask about Christmas I point on the "month" dial and she knows that it takes a very long time for that hand to move.

    Typical analog clocks have all the hands on the same disk (for convenience and because it's compact). Our "child-clock" started originally as an normal analog clock with only the hour hand and is now a normal analog clock with hour and minute hand and three more separate disks for day of the week, day of the month and month of the year.

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  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Maybe you can't see the gap in your education...?

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    I doubt they are unable to read an analog clock. Most adults are.

    I am not able to read cursive though.

    Like I can guess enough of it, but I just don't encounter it enough to remember it.

    Like imagine if you hadn't tied a tie in 50 years. Would you still remember how?

    Its not a useful skill, and anyone who wants to learn can do so in a few minutes of searching.

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