• Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de
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    3 days ago

    First: Some UK teachers exchanged the analogue with digital clocks. This was only to reduce interruptions by some students (during a specific kind of UK exams), who had trouble determining the remaining time in the heat of the exam battle.

    Secondly: The use of analogue clocks is taught at UK schools. What’s missing is the practice that former generations of pupils had. No more wristwatches, public clocks all but gone, and (what I am nostalgically missing from my youth) no more peeking onto parked car’s dashboards to read the analogue clock there. Times have changed, and this specific partially lost ability is not the schools’ fault. (Not to say that other things aren’t…)

    Can we please bury that stupid old meme, as it has been based on some inaccurate buzz and largely giving a completely inaccurate impression of the topic from the start…

    • unalivejoy@lemmy.zip
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      3 days ago

      no more peeking onto parked car’s dashboards to read the analogue clock there.

      Eventually, Lexus might stop including the analog clock as a luxury feature.

    • Vinstaal0@feddit.nl
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      2 days ago

      Since smart watches are a thing some schools banned wristwatches during exams because they where not planning to look for the differences

      • Capricorn_Geriatric@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        I feel that learning cursive is important.

        First you learn how to write ordinary letters. That trains your fine motor skills so you can write them reliably (try writing with your non-dominant yourself hand to see).

        What cursive teaches you is how to write quickly. Of course, no one will write in pure, perfect cursive. Most people settle for a style somewhere in between. It teaches you the concept of “you can combine letters together to make you write faster” and “here are a bunch of ways to combine them”. It’s a good thing, Especially if they end up going to college.

        Giving them a few more weeks of practice in reading and writing is a great way to avoid them being partially illiterate.

        • MBech@feddit.dk
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          2 days ago

          Counter point: I can write a hell of a lot faster on a keyboard if I need to take notes.

        • Paula_Tejando@lemmy.eco.br
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          2 days ago

          I was taught block lettering in technical drafting class, 8th grade. Cursive is a lettering specifically created to be easy to handwrite. It flows on paper, as opposed to the repetitive short strokes of block lettering.

          • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            The way they taught us cursive was the complete opposite of the intent of cursive. Rigidly proscribed characters with marks only for form, ignoring all function. It was agonizingly tedious and physically painful writing all of those nonsensical scrawls. I immediately switched back to my own chicken scratch after grade school because it was not only orders of magnitude faster, but at least didn’t make my hand painfully seize up into a claw.

            Decades later, as my handwriting evolved, a number of my own script letters began to resemble those wretched cursive runes, because I had apparently blindly stumbled upon the actual correct method for writing to flow from nib to parchment, as opposed to whatever those torturous rituals scarred me with as a child.

            • Übercomplicated@lemmy.ml
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              1 day ago

              The problem you describe is very real, and not just in the US or the UK, but in most of Europe as well. A big part of writing is how to actually write, not just the letters et al.

              I mean the literal way you move you arm, the angle you write at, how you hold you pen, etc.

              I didn’t learn any of that, and as an intensely dyslexic and left-handed individual, writing was extremely painful to me. That is, until 10th grade where I taught myself calligraphy.

              It turns out that, when learning calligraphy, you do learn how to write properly.

              After that, my handwriting in school (and for the rest of my life) became much better: I didn’t have hand-pain anymore, I didn’t smudge the ink, and, of course, my handwriting was very orderly and neat. Teachers even started commenting on it!

              Most notably for me though: writing became fun. For me, as a dyslexic, this literally felt revolutionary.

              Anyway, that is what I think they should teach in schools.

    • GladiusB@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      I used to troll my teachers with inane questions to help my friends prepare for exams or quizzes that we knew were coming. I can’t expect it’s changed much.

    • someguy3@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      My wrist watches were always digital, public clocks in suburbia I’m just gonna say never existed, in cars wtf?

      I can only see this as an education problem.

    • FelixCress@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      This was only to reduce interruptions by some students (during a specific kind of UK exams), who had trouble determining the remaining time in the heat of the exam battle

      I am not being funny but if someone is unable to read the time perhaps they shouldn’t be in the exam room in the first place.

      It is like saying that all questions will be read out loud all the time and verbal answers recorded instead of written ones - because some students are illiterate.

      • papalonian@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        Honestly if you can’t calculate things on an abacus you shouldn’t be in the exam room tbh. Sure, calculators have been invented and have ultimately replaced the abacus in nearly every facet of day to day life, but surely you know how to add beads together?

        We’re letting kids use GPS to get to school now? What the street signs and constellations aren’t good enough for you?

        • FelixCress@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          Let me rephrase it than - if someone is an idiot, they shouldn’t be in the exam room. If you are concerned about it, it may be because you fit the category.

          • Karl@literature.cafe
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            3 days ago

            What makes people who didn’t learn to read analog clocks idiots? If you have a thing about analog clocks, just keep it to yourself.

            it may be because you fit the category

            Or maybe because it’s just stupid af to judge people’s intelligence based on an unrelated life skill.

            • FelixCress@lemmy.world
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              3 days ago

              What makes people who didn’t learn to read analog clocks idiots?

              Wrong question. The correct would be: what make people who are too lazy or too stupid to learn the clock idiots - but that would be a rhetorical one.

              it’s just stupid af to judge people’s intelligence based on an unrelated life skill.

              Intelligence is an ability to obtain knowledge and skills. If someone lacks both, it is a strong indication of them not having enough intelligence to obtain them.

              • Karl@literature.cafe
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                3 days ago

                who are too lazy or too stupid

                They do know how to read the clock (digital ones :) ) Again, it doesn’t make them idiots or lazy for not learning something they don’t really need to learn

                Intelligence is an ability to obtain knowledge and skills. If someone lacks both, it is a strong indication of them not having enough intelligence to obtain them.

                What makes you think they don’t have the ability to learn how to read analog clocks just because they don’t? You might not know how ride a horse, but that doesn’t mean you can’t learn how to. Are you an idiot for not learning how to?

                • FelixCress@lemmy.world
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                  3 days ago

                  They do know how to read the clock

                  They also know how to use calculator, they just don’t knot 2 times 2 is four without it. Neither have place during an exam.

                  What makes you think they don’t have the ability to learn how to read analog clocks

                  Because if they did, they would have done during lessons to learn it, sweetie 🙄

                  • Karl@literature.cafe
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                    3 days ago

                    Because if they did, they would have done during lessons to learn it, sweetie

                    Thanks for calling me a sweetie. Love u too. Forgetting is a thing. Unlike previous generations they are not as much exposed to analog ones. Therefore they don’t need to. Digital clocks are used in electronic devices etc.

                    They also know how to use calculator, they just don’t knot 2 times 2 is four without it. Neither have place during an exam

                    Except basic math is necessary since the brain is faster with smaller calculations and analog clock really isn’t that much necessary anymore. They can be replaced.

          • papalonian@lemmy.world
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            3 days ago

            Yikes.

            Also, since you ran out of arguments and started correcting people’s spelling, *then.

            • FelixCress@lemmy.world
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              3 days ago

              “yikes” what?

              Passing exams is not an entitlement, it is an achievement. If someone is an idiot unable to understand the clock, they shouldn’t be in the exam room in the first place - and they certainly shouldn’t expect someone will start explaining clock to them when they are supposed to write an exam.

              • DesolateMood@lemmy.zip
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                2 days ago

                Why are you so adamant that reading an analog clock is required to pass an exam that doesn’t feature any material related to reading analog clocks?

                  • Karl@literature.cafe
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                    3 days ago

                    Not the one widely used, but they do know how to use the clock. And they’re not really that much more used than digital clocks. Therefore, it doesn’t matter

      • Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it
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        2 days ago

        Ah, okay, I can’t take exams because my dyscalculia makes it difficult for me to read a clock (and it’s not worth my time).

        👍

        • FelixCress@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          No, you shouldn’t pass exams if you are an idiot - and if you do take them, don’t expect a special treatment because of your stupidity.

          And no, as I said people with diagnosed disability are a different matter.

          Hopefully that clarifies it for you.