Headline: “Time got away from them!”
A recent report from New York City teachers reveals that a growing number of teenagers struggle to read ordinary wall clocks after the city’s statewide cellphone ban was implemented. Many students now see analog timers as a relic, having never needed them in a world dominated by smartphones.
“Miss, what time is it?” is a common refrain in several classrooms, says Madi Mornhinweg, a high‑school English teacher in Manhattan. “It’s a source of frustration because everyone wants to know how many minutes are left in class,” she explained to Gothamist. “It finally got to the point where I started saying, ‘Where’s the big hand and where’s the little hand?’”
In classrooms that still display only analog clocks, the skill seems to have faded. Tiana Millen, an assistant principal at Cardozo High School in Queens, notes that many students have “no idea how to read the clocks.” Some pupils admit that while they learned the basics in first grade, they simply forgot the practice because they never used it again—relying instead on the constant presence of their phones.
“I know how to read a clock,” says 14‑year‑old Cheyenne Francis of Midwood High School in Brooklyn. “The only time I guess I would struggle is if the time is wrong on the clock. Because sometimes they don’t set the proper time.”
The city‑wide smartphone ban went live on September 4 for the 2025‑26 school year, and teachers report that the move has reduced distractions, encouraged social interaction at lunch, and sped up hallway traffic. Paradoxically, the ban also seems to help students arrive in class on time, even when they can’t read the clock face.
Parents and educators have long argued that technology can erode useful skills, from penmanship to sustained attention. “At NYCPS (New York City Public Schools), we recognize how essential it is for our students to tell the time on both analog and digital clocks,” said Department of Education spokesperson Isla Gething to Gothamist. “As our young people are growing up in an increasingly digital world, no traditional time‑reading skills should be left behind.”
School officials continue to teach foundational terms—“o’clock,” “half‑past” and “quarter‑to”—in the early elementary grades, hoping to preserve the skillset for future generations.
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