I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise.

A few years ago I heard that some schools had stopped teaching cursive writing because—?

Because in the digital age there was no need to sign one’s name anymore?

I never got the logic. I later heard that some of those schools had begun to teach cursive once again.

With all the pressure on schools and teachers, and given that society doesn’t seem to want to pay them decent wages commensurate to the aggravation and danger they have to put up with, I hate to criticize them.

So this is not so much a criticism of teachers, as it is a comment on the digital times that we live in.

New York City has banned the use of smart phones by students, and while some of the effects have turned out to be beneficial, the ban has revealed a deficiency among some of the students.

They can’t tell the time on the traditional analog clocks. You know, the kind with numbers in a circle and a big and little hand. Although they are taught how to tell the time in grades one and two, they don’t get enough practice in the real world, so they forget.

I blame the parents. They shouldn’t be giving their kids phones at such early ages. In my day we didn’t even have smart phones and we got along just fine.

According to the Gothamist:

Overall, Millen said, the phone ban has been a major success at the school, and has helped kids focus in class and socialize at lunch. Foot traffic is moving more swiftly in hallways. Without eyes glued to their phones, more students are getting to class on time. The problem is they don’t know it, she said, “because they don’t know how to read the clocks.”

For years, parents and teachers have blamed technology for a range of lapsed skills — from legible handwriting to sustained attention to reading whole books — even as their proficiency with technology far outstrips their elders. Still, while educators have widely praised New York’s statewide smartphone ban that went into effect this fall, multiple teachers told Gothamist it has also laid bare an unexpected gap: How to tell time.

“The constant refrain is ‘Miss, what time is it?’ said Madi Mornhinweg, who teaches high school English in Manhattan. “It’s a source of frustration because everyone wants to know how many minutes are left in class. … It finally got to the point where I started saying ‘Where’s the big hand and where’s the little hand?’”

According to the education department, students learn how to read clocks in first and second grade. “At NYCPS, we recognize how essential it is for our students to tell the time on both analog and digital clocks,” education department spokesperson Isla Gething said. “As our young people are growing up in an increasingly digital world, no traditional time-reading skills should be left behind.” Officials said kids are taught to master terms including “o’clock,” “half-past” and “quarter-to” in early elementary years.

After dismissal outside Midwood High School in Brooklyn, many students said they do know how to read wall clocks — but they have classmates who can’t.

Read the whole article.