My Understatement of the Year Award goes to... Andrea Galinski, product development manager at Chelsea & Scott, the company that owns Leaps and Bounds, which sells the Time Tracker.
But wait, sayeth thou: what is the Time Tracker?
It's this year's hot toy, except it brings a kind of grim pleasure to parents and none that I can see to kids.
But what is it, already?
OK, then. It's a device to help children improve their performances on standardized tests.
Recommended ages: 4 and up.
Yikee.
From Constance L. Hays's article in Monday's New York Times:
- Shaped like a colorful peppermill, with a digital readout panel, lights that suggest a traffic intersection and an electronic male voice that booms "Begin" and "Time's Up," the Time Tracker... has turned into a surprise hit of the holiday season.
Siren sounds indicate when a certain period has gone by, and the lights switch from green to yellow to red to demonstrate how close the child is to the end of the allotted time.
The manufacturer, Learning Resources, said the company has had to reorder the product multiple times to meet the demand.
It's become their top-selling toy, with thousands sold.
Joseph J. Pedulla, director of the Center for the Study of Testing, Education and Educational Policy at the Peter and Carolyn Lynch School of Education, at Boston College, wondered, "Whatever happened to the egg timer?"
Clarisse Cowdery, senior buyer for the Young Explorers catalog, which sells the device, pointed out that there were other uses than test prep.
She noted it could be used for piano practice or for setting limits on TV watching.
"You could even use it as a timeout clock," she said.
Is this a nightmare?
Then why am I not waking up?
The Time Tracker is $34.95 here.
Article comments
1 - Tom Mollerus
I don't share your concern over this product. I'm considering buying one of these for my child, but for a different use than standardized test practice. You see, young children have a different (arguably non-existent) sense of time from adults. They get distracted easily. So a product like this timer helps a young child to learn how to tell time, not only with an alarm at the end of the alloted span, but with lights during the countdown. I think it would be better to use this to help a child learn to get dressed in 5 minutes in the morning instead of 30. The alternative, too often, is a fight with a parent who is trying to get everyone ready for the day on time.