Time

This thing all things devours;

Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;

Gnaws iron, bites steel;

Grinds hard stones to meal;

Slays king, ruins town,

And beats mountain down.

You may recognize the riddle above. It is one in a series of riddles
asked between Bilbo and Gollum in one of my favorite books, The Hobbit.
In this case, the answer to the riddle is, “time.” I find that time itself is
one of life’s biggest riddles. Many would argue that it is our most precious
resource since it can never be recaptured. How we view time has a huge
impact on our attitudes, relationships, and daily interactions. Philip
Zimbardo, a psychologist and thought-influencer, has done some great
work around this topic. How our students and staff view the world, and their
orientation to the future, impacts how they engage with us. Take a look at
this video for a deeper dig into the idea of time orientation:

The Secret Power of Time

One could argue that finding a way to grow our students from
present-oriented hedonists, to future-oriented people, is the key to their
success... and ours!

What specific actions do you take to help our learners orient to the future?