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  • 2018-05-08 (xsd:date)
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  • Are Schools Removing Analog Clocks Because Students Can't Read Them? (en)
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  • In late April 2018 rumors about schools' removing analog clocks because students couldn't read them began to pop up all across the Internet: Not unexpectedly, readers combined truncated headlines and conversations with what they already believed to be true: that students in 2018 are bereft of the most basic life skills, including knowing how to read the time from a standard clock face. Richmond, Virginia, television station WWBT was among several regional news affiliates repeating a somewhat inaccurate version of the story: In that report at least one frequently-overlooked detail was present: that the information pertained to schools in the United Kingdom, not the United States. Like nearly all local versions of this story, WWBT referenced an April 2018 article from The Telegraph but omitted some key details present in the original report. According to the story's most notable early appearance, the topic of analog clocks in schools came up only in the context of a specific type of examination. A representative of an educators' association explained that for exams which were not unlike the United States' Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), teachers had grown weary of disruptions from students unsure about how much time remained in the testing session. Although the report began by saying that schools were removing analogue clocks from examination halls because teenagers are unable to tell the time, it explained that teachers (not students) ushered in the change due in part to disruptions: Trobe did say that some students struggled to interpret time from standard clocks, but the observation was made entirely in the context of students' trying to estimate the time remaining (not necessarily trying to tell time in general) during high-stakes standardized examinations (not during ordinary classroom exams, tests, or quizzes). But social media users quickly abbreviated the claim made by one educator to suggest that multiple schools were filling dumpsters with analog clocks because modern students found them unreadable, while the more specific story was misrepresented in both local news reports and social media conversations. (en)
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