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Frustrations of a Homeschooling Dad
Here is something I wrote for our local homeschooler’s support group newsletter about 20 years ago. It may be too dated but I think it expresses the frustration a Dad can have when he tries too hard to be relevant in the Home School Environment.
It’s Time
Dad: I think it’s about time you learned to tell time.
Daughter: I know what time it is, it’s 10:14, now it’s 10:15.
Dad: But you looked at the microwave, didn’t you?
Daughter: Sure, that’s where the time is in here, right?
Dad: Yeah, but you need to be able to read an analog clock too.
Daughter: Why? There are digital clocks everywhere you look.
Dad: Sure, but I just think you need to have this life skill.
Daughter: I don’t think that’s such a skill, what kind of jobs require that?
Dad: Well, I just don’t want you to be digitally dependent all your life, OK?
Daughter: [frown]
Dad: OK. Now see there are 12 big numbers around the clock face going clockwise.
Daughter: Why is it called clockwise? Are clocks supposed to be smart?
Dad: That’s just what it is called, OK? Now the marks between the numbers are for the minutes and the numbers are for the hours. And the little hand is the hour hand and the second hand is the minute hand. The third hand is the second hand.
Daughter: Huh? The second hand is the third hand?
Dad: No, the second hand, the longer hand is the minute hand. The third hand is the second hand.
Daughter: Rigghht.
Dad: So right now, the hour hand is between the 2 and 3 and the minute hand is on the 4 so it’s two twenty o’clock in the afternoon.
Daughter: Why do they say o’clock anyway?
Dad: I don’t know why, they just do, OK?
Daughter: Well, it doesn’t make any sense to me. And any way the microwave is easier to read.
Dad: Have you finished your spelling lesson yet? It’s getting late.
Daughter: See you looked at the microwave too when you wanted to know what time it really is.
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Analog dials (clocks, speedometers) are more useful because the information can be gleaned even when you are not looking directly at the devices. If your eyes are on the road, you don’t have to look down at the speedometer if you know that straight up is 55mph. For a digital clock, eyes have to move and interpret the on- or off- quality of seven bars of LEDs, times four, to determine the time.
Just my 7th-grade opinion.
Analog clocks are so much more informative than their digital equivalents. You can see, proportionally, how far through the day (or night) you are by the position of the hour hand, and how far through the hour you are by the position of the minute hand. Concepts such as one quarter, one half, three quarters, are easy to grasp. That’s why they’re great teaching tools. Even ancient analog “clocks” such as hourglasses or water clocks show you the proportion of time that has passed, and the proportion of time remaining.
My own (layman’s) opinion, is that they are far more useful in developing a sense of perspective about the passage of time than are digital timepieces, and that we’ve lost a great deal by our reliance on the unattractive and relentless uptick of the brightly-lit electronic numbers.
Same thing with dates. It’s very handy to see the date in the status bar of every computer, phone, or tablet that you sit in front of, but, how close to Christmas are you, actually? Easy to tell on a hanging calendar. Let’s see.
Good Lord (so to speak). Less than nine weeks to go. Argh. Perhaps I don’t need all those lovely photos of hummingbirds brightening my kitchen wall, after all.
Just to be a smart ass, Its “8 of the clock,” a throw back to an era where clocks were a novelty and referring to your method of time keeping actually mattered ;)
You have just managed to convince me to purchase hour glasses and analog clocks.
On our new car, Mrs R and I were surprised to find that it is better to look at the digital readout of speed setting when we have that option selected. It’s front and center and in big numbers. The dial is off to the side, with small numbers, and is a bit cluttered.
My daughters and their children were able to tell time from clocks by the time they were able to read, about 4 years old or before. I made the clock face and placed in an embroidery hoop with the clock fixings, and hung on their bedroom walls. The clocks were passed down to their children. Never occurred to me my great grandchildren might not be able to tell time.
A little history never hurt anyone.
Yes, I knew that but it was a humor piece.
Yes, this story never happened at our house either, no way Mrs. OS would have let that detail slide. It’s just a light hearted humor piece, not history or serious instruction.
Has anyone ever seen an elegant digital clock or watch? Has anyone ever seen a digital clock as an aesthetic décor item (other than in a hospital)?
I’m also with @johnpeabody that quickly getting the information I need from a clock or a speedometer (or tachometer) is easier in analog form than in digital. Rarely is it important whether it’s 9:55 or 9:56 – what’s important is that it’s approaching 10:00. Rarely is it important whether I’m driving 54 mph or 56 mph – what’s important is that I’m driving very close to 55 mph.
I appreciate that in cars, design can alter the general state of affairs (see @thereticulator comment #4). My current primary car has a digital-only speedometer that to me is less-than-ideal, but at least it has really big numbers. But I do find the constant changing of the numbers distracting, and I still have to think about the numbers as opposed to quickly understanding the relative position of a needle.
Some of the people I most admire at work are those who are good at taking mountains of data and making it understandable. What do they use? Analog charts, graphs and dashboards.
Good point. My boss used to bug me with inane questions about interpreting data in a spreadsheet that came out weekly. A while back I had the spreadsheet data made into graphs, and he now only rarely needs to ask me to interpret the data.
Humans are analog. We have evolved to accept analog inputs from the environment and hence are better adapted to them. Apprehending digital information is learned.
An analog display for a changing quantity is more informative because it is easier to discern rates of change than in a digital gauge. If the dial on a pressure gauge in a tank is moving rapidly it’s easier to spot that change than to note two digital readings, mentally subtract them, and divide by the time elapsed. When seconds count, this could mean the difference between a disaster and a close call.
Each year at my “free” physical exam courtesy of Medicare and my all-caring government, I am presented with a circle and instructed to mark in the hands so it will read ten minutes to one, or something. I being a fossil have no problem, but it won’t be too far off in the future when that will be as difficult a task for Americans as writing in hieroglyphics.
Great story. Please write one explaining the touch-screen audio system in my wife’s car.
We have one of those digital clocks that syncs itself with the official time so that’s what we check when setting any timepiece. But for aesthetics I like a mantle clock I bought Mrs. OS for about our 5th anniversary (we’ll have our 50th next Aug). It has a wind up mechanism, what’s known as a true escapement clock, driven by a pendulum. But it also uses one D cell battery which automatically winds the spring when it needs winding. That battery lasts about 7-8 years. Anyway, several years ago I noticed that Mrs. OS was adjusting the screw on the pendulum several times a day; that’s how you regulate the speed at which the hands move. I finally said, “Why don’t you leave that thing alone?” She, clearly frustrated, said, “It isn’t right!” I said that no it isn’t as accurate as your quartz timepiece you are trying to match it to and it never can be. It’s 500 year old technology, there’s no way it can ever be that accurate. And if you get it adjusted and the temperature and/or humidity changes a little, it will be off again. She wanted it taken down but I managed to persuade her that I could set it to run a little slow and just push the hands forward every few days so that the chimes would sound at least near the hour. Whew, I would have hated to see that irreplaceable clock go, I’ve never seen another like it that winds itself.
Would love to but they are not explicable being a Riddle wrapped in a Mystery inside a enigma.
This reminds me of a Windows 95 textbook I perused at a college my son was visiting back when. The opening paragraph explained that, “This book will not teach you everything there is to know about Windows 95. We don’t know everything about Windows 95. No one knows everything about Windows 95. The people who developed Windows 95 don’t even know everything about Windows 95.”
I suspect your wife’s audio system tough screen may be somewhat like that, just be sure the driver doesn’t try to figure it out while the car is in motion.
I hope you’ve at least figured out how to turn it on ;>)
Similar to Win95 in that it has a bunch of stuff that the user doesn’t want or need. Different in that the stuff you want is buried knee-deep in menus.
I’m thinking you have a better sense of humor than I.
According to my microwave, it’s always “0” o’clock.
I tired long ago of resetting it every time I blew out the power in this silly New York tenement I live in.
At least the cable box resets itself.
That’s because my brain is wired sideways.
I tried to tell my husband this is why I prefer analog clocks. He thinks it’s silly. But I think people are just different.
So it’s more like Win10; take everything useful and move it somewhere that makes it hard to find, then using constant updates, reset the users preferences to what MS thinks he should want for the purpose of directing his attention to ‘opportunities’ to buy useless stuff he doesn’t even want to know about let alone buy. Is that about right? In case you can’t tell, I despise Windows, I use Linux but my wife has a Win10 machine only because her genealogy program requires it. I have to constantly baby sit her machine to keep it functioning. On my computer stuff just works. Seems better to me but then I’m kind of simple minded.
Maybe not quite as bad as Win10, which is exactly the beast you described. I’m still clinging to Win7, which does a pretty good job of staying out of the way.