I really think it simply depends on whether you're used to analog or digital. I actually learned to tell time by someone telling me that one side of the clock i

I really think it simply depends on whether you're used to analog or digital. I actually learned to tell time by someone telling me that one side of the clock if the "past" side and the other is the "to" side (a little hand-wavey around 30-40 past). This made sense to me. What was important was the closest hour, and how many minutes (or fractions) past or to it was. I taught my kids similarly. Starting with the hours, and then "half past" and then "quarter to" and "quarter past." Only after all that was second-nature did I even explain to them the idea of 60 minutes.