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New York teachers stunned to learn some students can’t read time on old clocks after phone ban comes into play
(www.independent.co.uk)
this post was submitted on 02 Jan 2026
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30 yo and tbh not sure I really know how to read it right.
I never heard that one, but in my family if we weren't wearing a wristwatch and someone asked the time, we'd look at our wrist and say, "It's two hairs past the freckle." :) Those were the days.
The little (shorter) hand points to the hour, the big (longer) hand points to the minutes. That's pretty much it. And of course the hands move clockwise.
edit: I should also note that for reading the hour, the number the hour hand points to is the number of the hour, but for reading the minutes, each number counts as 5 minutes. There are usually dots between the numbers--each dot is 1 minute. So between the 12 and the 1 is 5 minutes, 1 to 2 is 5 more minutes, so the minute hand pointing to the 2 means 10 minutes after the hour.
Also, the hour hand isn't going to point directly to a number unless it's the top of the hour
I like thinking of the minutes in quarters and halves, "Its a quarter after 6pm" ≈ 1/4 * 60min is 15mins, so its 6:15pm. "Its 10 to seven" ≈ 60 - 10 is 50mins, so its 6:50. Idk unless its a timed activity I usually just round the clock to the higher number divisible by 5 "7:33" becomes "7:35"
Read to which number the short hand points to first. Then read the long hand by counting the number of black lines that run along the sides of the circle. Going from the number 12 to 1 has 5 black lines in between. 12 to 2 has 10 lines, 12 to 6 has 30 lines, 12 to 10 has 50 lines. Check the picture attached as an example.
As kid I knew how to read the clock, still I found it confusing and I needed to consciously put effort in it and I'd need to take some time concentrating.
At some point I decided to just ignore the minute hand, the hour hand alone is good enough for most uses and that helped.
Interestingly early clocks just had the hour hand, the minute hand was a later invention.
It takes me about one second to read the time on an analogue clock, and yes, some slight cognitive effort compared to a digital clock. The main thing is to get it into your head that every elapsed number from the top “12” position is five minutes. So, when the minute hand is pointed at the “2,” it means 10 minutes into the hour, 15 minutes when it’s pointed at the “3”, 30 minutes at the “6,” etc. once you’ve got that wired into your brain, reading the minutes becomes much easier, which is usually what slows people down in the beginning.
This is how I read the time too. I also tend to round up to the nearest number often if precision isn’t required. Like if it’s 5:27, I’ll simply read it as 5:30.
Yes, I read the clock the same now, 50 years later. As a kid that was quite hard for me.
I'm not doing it anymore now, but focusing on the hour hand was my stepping stone as a kid.
And then - someone else mentioned, what you need to learn is how to read the minutes, which count to 60 in 5 minute blocks.
Another post mentioned having an analog wrist watch helps, and I agree, that's how I got quick with reading the clock at a glance later.
The basic thing I wanted to say in the first place: For kids it is not so easy to lean this.
The hour hand is fucked up in some of those. With 5 lines in between numbers each one represents 12 minutes. But #4 clearly points to right around the 2nd line, rather than closer to the 3rd line. Numbers 10 through 12 are also wrong.
I get that it's mostly for kids to be able to read the minute hand, but how hard could it be to not fuck up what they'd see in the real world?
A lot easier version is just short hand = the hour, long hand * 5 = the minutes
And the we do 24 hour time and you need to add 12 to the long hand number.......Because dozenal rocks!