Friday, September 26, 2008

It's 5 o'clock somewhere!

So here is an issue that really troubles me...a large portion of today's youth cannot tell time. When someone wants to use a computer here at the library they have to sign-in on our time log. This process consist of writing your name and the current time of day.
Simple enough...right?
Well, there is an alarmingly high number of teens of come through here that can't tell what time it is by looking at an analog clock. We have a clock hanging right behind the circ desk so all you have to do is look straight up and there it is. It's funny a lot of patrons know the clock is there, yet every time they sign they say "what time is it" my reaction to this is always the same I point to the clock and say "there is a clock right there" unless of course I can see some reason to just go ahead and tell them the time. The other thing that happens is, they write their name and then look at the clock (usually for a long period of time) and then say "What time is it?". To which my reply is the same, at that they usually just guess the time or they just don't write a time and walk off. What really takes the cake though, is today a lady who is at least in her mid-thirties came in and said "I wanna play computer" so I hand her the sign-in sheet, she writes her name and some random numbers and says " you can just make up a time I didn't know what to put" I say there is a clock right there (slightly stressing the RIGHT THERE part) and she says " I know, but I didn't know what to put". I almost wanted to laugh out loud, I mean seriously this woman is a mother of 3 children, she drives a vehicle on the open road, but she can't tell time.
It disturbs me!
I'm veering off course here, the point is there are entirely too many of today's youth that cannot tell time.
When I have children I will make a point to make sure they develop skills like that very early on.

8 comments:

Johnice said...

Remember that kid that put 25:00? I might be tempted to say that it was military time...but yea, I hightly doubt that.

Sylvia K said...

It's really scary and if the parents are like that what kind of voters are they?? I have admit that these days the down right stupidity of a lot people scare me because they're easy to lead wherever a slick talker wants to take them and what does that say to their children? I know, I do rant, sorry.

patsy said...

I have 2 granddaughter who went to school at berryville. they are 26 and 24 . one week end when they were about 9 and 11 they spent the week end with me. they couldn't tell time because everyone had these clocks that shows numbers , like 2:20 they had to ask me what time it was several times and I told them you need to learn to tell time.

their replay was I can't grand ma it is to hard. I sat them down and showed them the way to tell time and after about 30 minutes they could tell time.
no one had bothered to explain how it worked.
I also taught them to tie their shoe laces when they were younger.

Galla Creek said...

I am Patsy's sister. she is proof anyone who wants to can learn to use a computer. She retired at 67...could nto type and she calls the computer a 'machine'. But she is awesome and I love her blog and also love her.

Melissa H. said...

Even if the parents don't take the time to teach them things like this you would think school would be their to bridge the gap between them and this kind of knowledge. Apparently public school has become a place where the kids are just pushed through.

Sister--Helen said...

Sister Pat said we must come over and look at your blog...we always do what Patsy tells us to do....Pat's remark about tieing shoe laces...I have 3 children, all of them grown now...I remember I taught my 2 older girls how to tie shoe laces but by the time Bill came along I was just too tired...I bought him velcro shoes all of the time...I thought oh well, by the time he is 15 he can teach himself how to tie them if he wants too...I'm not sure when it happened but he can tie them today....

patsy said...

I have 3 living sister and one dead. Fleta Aday is my sister and your patron.

LeLe said...

This really disturbs me! I read this out loud to my husband and he said it's pathetic that people don't know how to tell time on an analog clock. I agree...I know that we can't expect the schools to teach kids everything, but I thought they would at least teach them how to tell time in kindergarten along with their ABC's!