Remember that slight buzzing sound of those old, industrial clocks on the wall when you were growing up. I sure do, because all I did was stare at them all day waiting to get out of class.
Well, it looks like future generations of students in the United Kingdom will never get the pleasure of staring at those analog clocks because those relics are being removed from classrooms because kids can’t read them.
You read that right. School kids in the U.K. can’t read the clocks and are getting majorly stressed out because they don’t know how much time they have left during exams.
Of course, this is a sign of the times, right? With almost everything in our lives leaning towards the digital spectrum, it’s not too hard to believe that kids wouldn’t know how to tell time these days.
Malcolm Trobe, the deputy general secretary at the Association of School and College Leaders, says,
“You don’t want them to put their hand up to ask how much time is left.
Schools will inevitably be doing their best to make young children feel as relaxed as the can be.
There is actually a big advantage in using digital clocks in exam rooms because it is much less easy to mistake a time on a digital clock when you are working against time.”
And this is not the only alarming trend among school kids in regard to technological advances.
A pediatric occupational therapist in England named Sally Payne said that young kids are having difficulties holding pens because they are so used to iPads and other digital devices.
Payne said,
“It’s easier to give a child an iPad than encouraging them to do muscle-building play such as building blocks, cutting and sticking, or pulling toys and ropes.
Because of this, they’re not developing the underlying foundation skills they need to grip and hold a pencil.”
Very strange times we live in!
What do you think about this trend with clocks? Concerning or just a sign of the times?
Let us know in the comments!