Should You Be Able to Read Analog Clocks?

After months of waiting, it’s finally here: your birthday! You excitedly tear open a present.

Wait. It’s not the Nintendo Switch you’ve been begging for. It’s a watch. And not a smartwatch. It’s an analog watch, with moving hands and . . . a weird ticking noise?

Uh-oh. Maybe your parents didn’t know: You can’t tell time on a watch like this!

Don’t worry—you’re not alone. One small study even found that as many as 75 percent of 6- to 12-year-olds can’t read old-timey clocks.

The question is, does it matter?

You’ve been waiting for months. Now it’s here at last: your birthday! You tear open a gift.

Wait. It’s not the Nintendo Switch you wanted. It’s a watch. And not a smartwatch. It’s an analog watch. It has moving hands and . . . a weird ticking noise?

Uh-oh. Maybe your parents didn’t know. You can’t tell time on a watch like this!

Don’t worry. You’re not alone. One small study found that as many as 75 percent of kids ages 6 to 12 can’t read clocks
with hands.

The question is, does it matter?

Unlike digital clocks, analog clocks don’t spell out the time. They have hands that point at numbers from 1 to 12. You “read” the time by looking at the position of the hands.

Analog clocks have been around since the 1200s. Back then, you couldn’t find them in people’s homes or on their wrists. They were on towers or other buildings, marking time by sounding a bell. (The word clock comes from the Latin word for bell, clocca.)

It wasn’t until the 1800s that clocks became more common. First, there were pocket watches, which fit inside pockets. Then women began wearing them as bracelets. This was fancy and convenient. Soon, the trend caught on.

If you ask your grandparents, they’ll most likely tell you that their home had a clock in their kitchen or living room. And strapped around their wrists? A watch ticking away at time.

Analog clocks are different from digital clocks. They don’t spell out the time. They have hands that point at numbers from 1 to 12. You “read” the time by looking at the hands.

Analog clocks have been around since the 1200s. Back then, they were on towers or other buildings. They let people know the time by ringing a bell.

It wasn’t until the 1800s that clocks became more common. First, there were watches that fit inside pockets. Then women began wearing them as bracelets. This was fancy and useful. It soon became a trend.

If you ask your grandparents, they’ll likely tell you that they had a clock in their home. And around their wrists? A watch going tick-tick-tick.

The first digital clocks appeared in the 1950s. But the technology that’s threatening to wipe out analog clocks didn’t become popular until the 1990s: cell phones!

Today, almost every American adult owns one. And a study found that almost 60 percent of 16- to 34-year-olds rely on their phone to know what time it is.

Some say that learning how to read an analog clock is a waste of, well, time. Students already have a lot to learn in school. Long division, reading nonfiction, opinion writing. Why teach a skill that won’t help you do well on tests or in college?

Besides, most kids can’t use old devices like typewriters and rotary phones. (No idea what those are? That’s because they’re no longer needed!) The analog clock is just the latest piece of tech that’s being replaced by something else.

But some argue that knowing how to tell time is important. For younger kids, it’s a helpful way to apply math skills, like fractions, that they’re just learning.

And what if your phone’s battery dies? Many places, like schools and train stations, still use analog clocks.

Plus, phones are distracting. You might check your phone for the time and get sucked in by a million texts and TikTok notifications. Twenty minutes later, what time is it again?

Maybe old-timey clocks will one day disappear. But not yet. Only time will tell.

The first digital clocks came out in the 1950s. But analog clocks were not in danger of disappearing until the 1990s. That’s when a new technology became popular: cell phones!

Today, almost every American adult owns one. And a study found that almost 60 percent of 16- to 34-year-olds use their phone to check the time.

Some say that learning how to read an analog clock is a waste of, well, time. Students already have a lot to learn in school. Why teach a skill that won’t help you do well on tests?

Besides, most kids can’t use old devices like typewriters and phones with dials. (Don’t know what those are? That’s because they’re no longer needed!) The analog clock is just the latest tool that’s being replaced by something else.

But some say knowing how to tell time is important. It’s a helpful way for younger kids to practice math skills, like fractions.

And what if your phone’s battery dies? Many places, like schools, still use analog clocks.

Plus, phones are distracting. You might check your phone for the time. Then you get sucked in by texts and TikTok notifications. Twenty minutes later, what time is it again?

Maybe analog clocks will one day disappear. But not yet. Only time will tell.