Running Head: LEADING SCHOOLS WITHIN TIME
LEADING SCHOOLS AND PROMOTING LEARNING WITHIN TIME:
CONSIDERATIONS FOR EDUCATORS
ROY A. NORRIS
B.B.S., Canadian Bible College, 1989
B.Ed., Brandon University, 1994
A Capstone
Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies
of the University of Lethbridge
in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF EDUCATION
FACULTY OF EDUCATION
LETHBRIDGE, AB
JULY 2010
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LEADING SCHOOLS AND PROMOTING LEARNING WITHIN TIME:
CONSIDERATIONS FOR EDUCATORS
ROY A. NORRIS
Approved:
_____________________________________________________________________________
Supervisor: Dr. Nola Aitken, Ph.D.
Date
_____________________________________________________________________________
Assistant Dean of Graduate Studies and Research in Education:
Date
Dr. Richard Butt, Ph.D.
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Abstract
This paper draws together ideas about time from a variety of disciplines to provide educational
leaders with a practical and theoretical grounding to inform their personal orientations to time.
Personal and cultural orientations to time may be in concord with or be opposed to the time
demands placed upon educational leaders. Heterochronic and polychronic approaches to time are
explained as they provide educational leaders with robust strategies to anchor their own
understandings and uses of time against the multiplicity of events that occur within schools. A
closer focus on the Alberta school act and the principal quality practice guidelines shows that
time is not always clearly defined, thus increasing the need for educational leaders to develop the
ability to interpret orientations to time that are written or expressed in the lived experiences of
people.
Keywords: time, time management, educational leadership, philosophy, heterochrony,
polychrony, pedagogy, ethical leadership, mortality, flow, praxis
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Acknowledgements
Thanks to Laurie Norris for our continuing conversations about the ineffable nature of
time, which echo as the oral and heterochronic sotto voce murmured throughout this written
abstraction of voice. Thanks to Dianne, Heather, and Julia, my closest fellow time-travelers. The
three of you have always supported this solitary sojourn of mine by opening space and time for
me to complete not only this paper, but also this entire degree. Jackie and Garth Wolfe, your
intercessory prayer has had an incalculable, but I believe significant, impact on this work. Viva la
Academia: George Bedard, Art Aitken, Wes Neumeier, Amy von Heyking, Cam Symons, and
Jon Young stand out as shining examples of lightning-quick cogitation bound within supremely
decent and generous minds; your guidance, direction, and high expectations helped me to go
further than I would have gone on my own. To my capstone advisor, Nola Aitken, your eye for
detail sees infinitely more than the occasional misplaced modifier in my drafts. I threw you a
couple of curves in the form of a casket and an urn; thanks for supporting my attempts in word
and deed to bring some sense of closure to this process. To my brothers and sisters on the bus
with me in the ’08 leadership cohort: the long and short of it is that we all remain on this journey,
separately and together, and it is good. Thanks for inspiring me to work my hardest and to
produce my best.
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Leading Schools and Promoting Learning within Time: Considerations for Educators
What is Time? The Physics and Philosophy of Time
All people in all cultures are subject to time. Time defines human existence: people think,
act, and live within time. Theologians, philosophers, artists, and scientists work within time to
try and describe time—to define it, to find its limits, and to measure it out—but their conclusions
remain incomplete, and highly contradictory. The ineffable nature of time is aptly summarized
by Augustine (397): “What, then, is time? If no one ask [sic] of me, I know; if I wish to explain
to him who asks, I know not” (Bk. 11, Ch. 14). The mysteries of time, its essence, its origins, are
still baffling in this current age. The crux of these problems is that defining time requires that
there be something against which to measure time, but there is no correlative available.
Time stands alone.
Although precise and complete definitions of time are mercurial, great physicists, writers,
and thinkers have developed accurate and helpful descriptions of time. Newton described time as
a “flow” (Falk, 2008, p. 127) while Einstein, in his theories of general and special relativity,
postulates that time itself is changeable—time (and space as well) is relative to the absolute,
which is the speed of light, or c. On May 29, 1919 Einstein’s theories were tested by measuring
the deflection of light from a distant star as it came into close alignment with the Sun during a
total eclipse (Falk, 2008, p. 173). General relativity held that the light of the star ought to be
deflected, and it was, thus proving general relativity. Einstein, at the age of 40, immediately
became, and arguably remains, the world’s most famous scientist.
Unfortunately, general and special relativity provide hardly any practical application for
understanding the experiential temporality of the human condition. People never move fast
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enough (compared to c) for relativity to become a concern, so Newton’s “flow” is a more
pragmatic descriptor for conducting science that is social.
In Flow: The psychology of optimal experience (1990), Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
examines sets of activities that bring pleasure to subjects. Pleasurable activities vary greatly, but
they all provide subjects with reasonable rigour, a sense of purpose, reward embedded in the
process of the task, and a sense of accomplishment upon attaining a goal. Csikszentmihalyi
(1990) further asserts that “flow” is the essential antecedent that leads to activities that people
perceive as pleasurable.
Eva Hoffman’s (2009) summation of flow is “…a sense that time is moving at the right,
unforced pace” (p. 184). The flow of time is a subjective experience, and recognizing one’s place
within the flow of time is a precursor to happiness. The perception of time’s flow from the
future, to the present, and into the past is subjective, individual, and is ultimately an illusion. In
the words of Einstein, as he wrote to the grieving family of his recently deceased friend Michele
Besso: “…the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent
illusion” (as quoted in Calaprice, 2005, p. 73). Even for Einstein himself the physics of relativity
was cold comfort when experiencing time’s subjective flow, no matter how illusory it is.
Einstein’s physics trump Newton’s, but Newton’s perceptions of time as “flow” serve as a
pragmatic and workable model of time, particularly time as it is experienced by people.
In her book Time, Eva Hoffman (2009) closely examines the subjective perceptions of
time that help to define and to order the psychological interiority of the human mind. The mind
can expand, shape, mould, recall, reframe, and anticipate time. This interiority gives people the
capacity to reason, and helps them to make sense of their experiences. Past, present, and future
are forms of time that seem completely undeniable, and somehow more “real” than “unreal.”
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Individuals and groups can share in their experiences of past, present, and future time,
and deeply set social constructs about time form within cultures, as do languages, cultural mores,
and cultural beliefs. Perceptions and conceptions of time are deeply embedded in the human
psyche, so perceptions and beliefs about time must then also be scrutinized by those in the field
of education (see Appendix A). It is not enough to assume that subjective perceptions of time are
commonly shared within schools, or that these perceptions help to foster, to promote, or to
enhance student learning. Students, parents, teachers, and school administrators operate within
their own personal perceptions of time, within the range of their shared cultural beliefs about
time, and within formalized school systems that stipulate limits of allowable time required for
learning.
Too much is assumed by educational leaders who go about their work without deeply
considering the temporal nature of education, while at the same time also blindly ignoring their
own mortality. The question then arises: How best can an educational leader live within and lead
within time? As this theoretical paper unwinds itself through the time invested in reading it, the
answers to this question will prove to be more discursive than directive in nature. Even so, there
is little time for indulgence in the overly theoretical, the postmodern, and the metaphysical
considerations that are opened by the question. Responsible praxis (Hodgkinson, 1983) demands
that strong theory be linked to stolid practicality (Bedard & Aitken, 2004). Dewey’s pragmatism
wins the day over Derridra’s semanticism in the context of this paper.
This paper serves to provide thoughtful and responsible theory for an informed practice
of educational leadership that is bound within time. At a rate of 300 words per minute (Carver,
990) the rest of this paper will take about 30 minutes to read. Considering how long it took to
write, 30 minutes ought to fly by as though no time has passed at all. Reader, set your stopwatch.
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Time, Leadership, and Learning
Learning and life expectancy. The World Bank (2008) sets Canadian life expectancy at
81 years and Alberta Education (2010) sets the school year at 190 to 200 instructional days per
year. Alberta further clarifies the time requirement by distinguishing the number of hours of
instruction per year for Kindergarten, Junior High, and High School students. Kindergarten
students attend school for about half of the time that high school students do.
A working model of the time invested in formal education per student K-12 is possible to
develop by comparing life expectancy to instructional school days. In this example, the
hypothetical graduating student has spent a total 2,380 days (12 years x 190 days + 100
kindergarten days) being educated in Alberta classrooms, assuming perfect attendance on the
part of the student. This same hypothetical graduate is expected to live either a bit more or less
than 81 years, which, including leap days every four years, is about 29,585 days. Simply put, the
student will only be involved in the Alberta Education system as a student for 2,380/29,585 days,
or 8% of his or her total life span. Arguably the 8% figure could be slightly more or less, and to
simplify the fraction to 2,500/30,000, or 8.3% is reasonable.
Although 8.3% seems like a very short time to invest in state sponsored education, this
same 8.3% occurs exclusively during the developing years of childhood, so the time is critical.
As morbid as it may be to consider the mortality of every bright and shining Kindergarten
student arriving at the threshold of schools across the Province, educational leaders should be
mindful that every day spent in class is one day closer to the grave for everyone: there is no time
to waste. The question arises; if time is so precious and there is none to waste, what then should
the children learn, and how ought they to learn it, and when?
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Time and pedagogy: What, how, and when should children learn? The unspoken and
so incredibly often assumed element that drives all of pedagogy is time. Knowing that time is the
ultimate limiting factor, educators have searched for the most efficient, most natural, most
engaging, most energizing, and most humane ways to share what they know with children.
Educators have also deeply considered how to determine how much of what is shared with
children is actually absorbed, interpreted, and adopted by students.
John Dewey was drawn into thinking about the field of education due in part to the
“waste” that he observed in the educational systems of America (Wirth, 1966). Much of the
waste that Dewey observed had to do with inefficiencies caused by duplication of content, gaps
in content, and in teaching methodology, which are not specifically linked to time. However,
Dewey (as quoted in Wirth) was clearly focused on time in relation to education:
The pupil must learn what has meaning, what enlarges his horizon instead of mere
trivialities. He must become acquainted with truths, instead of things that were regarded
as such fifty years ago or that are taken as interesting by the misunderstanding of a
partially educated teacher (p. 31). Original from Dewey, The school and society).
Dewey’s significant work in the early 1900s to express his philosophy of instrumentalism in a
new pedagogy was focused upon the needs, desires, and abilities of students, and all of this
against the backdrop of limiting waste, and therefore improving learning in the time allowed.
Dewey’s pedagogy was highly influential and tended to elevate the status of the learner
as a decision maker in the process of choosing method and content. The ideas of self-paced
learning and discovery learning developed in the pedagogical hothouse created in part by Dewey,
but others as well placed a strong focus on liberating students from the constraints of time and
schedule.
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Maria Montessori was a contemporary of Dewey’s who also recognized the importance
of time, relative to learning. Temporal order (Lillard, 2007) is of utmost importance in
Montessori’s pedagogy. In Montessori’s approach the sequencing of learning is purposefully
heterochronic—the “macro” level of the school day, and the “micro” level of the routines and
tasks that make up the patterns of activities in particular lessons are not regulated equally.
Furthermore, the micro level is not cocooned within the macro level, but operates parallel to it,
leading to multiple and co-existing timelines which distinguish the heterochronic nature of
Montessori’s approach to learning.
In traditional schools, the temporal order is tightly regulated at both the macro and micro
levels. Macro temporal order is regulated by a period structure, teacher imposed durations for
learning, and school wide expectations for unified scheduling of events such as recess and lunch
breaks. Micro temporal order is regulated by the activities that students undertake during specific
lessons. In Montessori schools there is far less regulation of the macro temporal order, which
leaves time for students to learn at their own pace and in their own ways, moving on to new
concepts once they are ready. Period structure, lunch breaks and recesses are loosely controlled,
and this is a direct response to the way that children learn and react within time. Time is
subservient to learning in the pedagogy advanced by Montessori, and this is mirrored in Dewey’s
work as well.
As pioneers and leaders in pedagogy, the ideas of Dewey and Montessori were
responding to the failings of the educational systems they witnessed during their time.
Revolutionary in their time, Dewey’s ideas in particular inspired significant change in American
schooling, and ultimately led to a backlash of positivist and behaviorist pedagogy, of which W. J.
Popham (Scott, 2008) and B. F. Skinner (Vargas, 2005) are most closely associated. Popham,
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too, is reacting in response to the conditions he sees during his time, and his honourable goal is
to improve efficiencies in education, as were the goals of Montessori and Dewey before him. As
radically different as Popham is from Dewey or Montessori, all three have the common goal of
providing the most efficient student learning experience possible, when gauged against the
scarcity of time.
Present day educational leaders take note: scarcity of time is the unifying and motivating
variable behind the philosophical differences forwarded by those who try to find a better or more
efficient way for students to learn. Pedagogies differ in how much or how little students ought to
control the scheduling of time and what kinds of activities ought to occur during the time, but
time is the single element in all pedagogies that is being parsed.
Applications to leading schools: Chrono-centrism and pedagogy. The Alberta
Principal Quality Practice Guideline (PQPG) (Alberta Education, 2009) states in Leadership
Dimension 4 e) that Principals are to be instructional leaders who ensure that appropriate
pedagogy is utilized, conditional upon the learning needs of the students. This requires Principals
to be familiar with a wide variety of pedagogies, and to be willing to adopt pedagogical practices
that are appropriate for the diversity of learners that they serve within schools. Since pedagogies
are not always mutually compatible, it is important for the Principal to be able to listen to
teachers in order to discern appropriate pedagogy.
It is to the advantage of the Principal to understand that all pedagogies are grounded in
the appropriate division and use of educational time. Since instruction is such a broadly
contested field (the what, how, and when of learning) it is freeing for educational leaders to
realize that no matter how widely differing philosophies may be regarding learning, that all
responsible pedagogies are unified in their attempts to divide and fill time.
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The practical extension of a chronocentric approach to leadership and pedagogy is that
leaders can ask significant questions of teachers about time and time usage that have everything
to do with learning. Questions about time and timing are always germane within the realm of
pedagogy. Principals who ask questions such as “How long does it take for students to learn
quadratic equations?” and “Are there other ways this could be taught in the time that you have
with the students?” are asking pedagogical questions using a chronocentric approach.
If student learning is the paramount objective in schools, then leaders must consider
effective pedagogy as a significant priority. PQPG Leadership Dimension 3 (Alberta Education,
2009) calls principals to sustain and foster a school culture that values learning: the assumption
is of course that the learning takes place within the context of time. The specific reference to
“life-long learning” (3a) explicitly refers to time (life-long, as in, from birth to death) and clearly
asserts the temporal nature of the educative process, and the formal leader’s obligation to
promote learning over the course of time during, and also well after the mandated 8.3% of life
that a student spends in Albertan schools. Life-long learning, taken literally, obliges the principal
to encourage all people within the school who are alive to continually engage in learning, no
matter their age. Old dogs are encouraged to learn new tricks. Staff of all stripes, all students,
and all leaders as well, are called to perpetual learning, so long as they all shall live.
Time, learning, and lengthening the school year. Beyond improving pedagogy as a
way to improve student learning, another more obvious way that time is linked to student
learning is echoed in popular and frequent calls to lengthen the school year, or to adjust school
schedules. Examples abound—most recently in the United States President Obama (2009, March
10) has called for a review and lengthening of the school year, while Albertan initiatives in
alternative programming (Alberta Learning, 2003) include variations of content, pedagogy,
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culture, and timing of instruction. Furthermore, the Alberta Teacher’s Association (1991)
identified year-round schooling as an emerging issue in the early 1990s and published a position
paper regarding the topic. While not opposed to the concept of year-round schooling, the ATA
position clearly states that the reason for year-round schooling ought to be to improve student
learning, and not primarily to manage limited resources in crowded schools.
The idea that significantly more time on task will lead to gains in learning is logically
compelling and finds an audience in the broader culture. In Outliers (2008) Malcolm Gladwell
argues that success in life is linked predominantly to opportunity and to practice, and not to
innate qualia broadly described as “talent” or “the right stuff.” Gladwell argues that a person who
practices 10,000 hours in a domain (such as computer science, rock music, writing, etc.) will
become proficient and have the greatest chance for recognizable success within the domain.
While it may be true that more practice is better than less practice, the call for sustained practice
leads to a discussion later in Outliers about year-round schooling. Gladwell highlights the
Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) Academy, a successful public alternative school program
in the Bronx. Elena Silva’s (2007) report On the clock: Rethinking the way schools use time also
points to the success of KIPP in limiting summer time learning loss. Extended time is valued as
key to the success of the school, and to the improved learning of the students, but is unlikely that
the success of the KIPP Academy could be widely replicated because KIPP also promotes a
uniformly rigorous academic program and strict student discipline (Silva, 2007). Furthermore,
summer learning loss is an issue, but not equally so for all students. Cooper, Nye, Charlton,
Lindsay, and Greathouse (1996) confirmed that students with higher socio-economic status fared
better over the summer because their parents were supplementing their education during the time
away from school, whereas students without this advantage fell behind. Application of year-
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round schooling or an increase in school days may hold the greatest hope for those in society
who have the least. Given this finding, year-round schooling appears to be a good idea for some,
but it is not a panacea for all.
Using more time to improve learning is as overly simplistic as spending more money to
improve learning. Neither the time nor the money teaches the children. In this sense, time is a
scarce resource, similar to money, and therefore using more time is only one part of the solution
to improve student learning, and to close the gap between those who achieve the least and the
most in schools. Levin and Naylor (2007) clearly identify time as a resource akin to money, and
view time’s allocation and reallocation in schools as a possible futurity when considering finite
resource management in schools. More time would be better, and so would more money, but
educational leaders must work with what they already have and not simply wish for more.
Practical solutions for best connecting time to learning have more to do with efficiently
using the time that is currently allotted for learning rather than betting on large scale reform of
the school year, which is a very unwieldy process that in no way benefits the students who are
currently enrolled in schools. Educational leaders intent on improving student learning will focus
the time they are allotted on improving pedagogy, and will recognize that all pedagogies are
developed to promote student learning within finite time constraints. Perhaps someday public
education will command more than the current 8.3% of life, but until that time educational
leaders can make gains by promoting learning through innovative pedagogy within the
approximately 2,500 days allotted to the task.
Time, Leadership, and Management
Time as a resource. If time is perceived as a resource (akin to money, or to physical
space) it becomes possible to move away from vaguely distant and intellectually knotty
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philosophies about what time is and turn to the task of managing the time that one has. Time
management literature abounds in part because it allows readers to limit their thinking about
what time really is and encourages people to accept that time is simply the here and now, and
that time ought be used efficiently to achieve the goals of the user.
The Alberta PQPG Leadership Dimension 6 (Alberta Education, 2009) calls upon
Principals to be effective managers of “physical” resources, which is a clear reference to space.
Implied as well is the reference to time resources, but the PQPG could be improved by explicitly
mentioning time as a resource that needs to be managed.
The dominant perception of time within the educational research community is that it is
a resource to be managed. The Education Improvement Commission of Ontario (1997) notes that
“Much of the relevant research regarding time focuses on it as an essential resource for both
students and teachers” (p. 13). Studies about time tend to focus on the ratio of time-on-task
compared to time allocated for learning. Levin and Naylor (2007) go further and describe time as
a definable resource akin to money, moving away from the time on task vs. time available
hypothesis.
Time management and educational leadership. Educational leaders in 2010 can take
comfort in knowing that although the frenetic pace of life is always billed as a uniquely
contemporary phenomenon, that in fact the desire to accomplish as much as possible, to do it
well, and to do it in as little time as needed is an ancient phenomenon. “Redeem the time…”
exhorts Paul to the Ephesians (5:16), Matthew Arnold’s (1927, p. 153) narrator envies the
Scholar-Gipsy, born “Before this strange disease of modern life/ with its sick hurry, its divided
aims [and]/Its head o’ertax’d…” and Socrates warned his contemporaries to beware the
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barrenness of a busy life long before either Matthew Arnold or the Apostle Paul emerged into the
timeline of human existence.
Generic time management advice is widely available in every form conceivable. A
Google search for “Time Management” returns more than 313,000,000 possible websites on or
about the topic. Books and DVDs on the subject abound. There is no shortage of advice on how
to manage time.
However, good advice is only effective when it is applied. Setting goals, tracking time
and avoiding procrastination are pieces of good advice that thousands of time-advisors reiterate.
Unfortunately, what most advice lacks is the ability to compel action—to compel change,
because change is difficult, and it is easier to persist in one’s current way of life.
Randy Pausch’s contribution to time management. The lecture given by Randy
Pausch at the University of Virginia (November 27, 2007) is likely the most thought provoking,
moving, relevant, and popular time management resource currently available. Randy Pausch was
a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, who died on July 25th 2008 due to complications
from pancreatic cancer (Update Page).
Pausch is best known for his “Last Lecture” (September 18, 2007), but on March 25,
2008 Pausch wrote “People who know me know that the talk that I'm actually most proud of is
the talk I've given over the years on ‘Time Management’” (Update Page). The time management
resources that Pausch recommends in his 76 minute talk are listed in Figure 1. During the talk
itself, Pausch notes that “…time management is not a late-breaking field…” (November 27,
2007); the books he recommends are from the 1980s but are still relevant today. I highly
recommend that you, reader, watch the 76-minute talk that is available on YouTube, even if it
means that you must stop reading this paper in order to watch the video. Pausch’s story is
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compelling, and for him to earnestly speak on time management when he is so poignantly aware
of the very limited time he had left with his wife and three small children is deeply moving.
Anyone who can effectively apply the good advice about time management that Pausch offers
will certainly become more organized and develop a greater sense of control over the flow of
time that is common to the human experience.
3 Time Management Resources Recommended by Randy Pausch
Blanchard, K., & Johnson, S. (1981). The one minute manager. Berkley, CA:
Berkley Books.
Collins, C. (1987). Time management for teachers: Techniques and skills that
give you more time to teach. West Nyack, NY: Parker.
Covey, S. (1989). The seven habits of highly effective people. New York, NY:
Simon & Schuster.
Figure 1. Time management resources recommended by R. Pausch (November 27, 2007).
The antithesis to Pausch also exists: there are time management tools that are a complete
waste of time. The irony of spending time which one can not afford to lose in order to save time
that one can not hope to gain is the Catch 22 of time management literature. In preparing this
paper I have viewed, reviewed and read material that, at the end of the day, provided no new
insight, very little in the way of practical advice, and also left me with the sickening sense that no
amount of yoga or deep breathing would bring back the “wellness” that I had actually lost by
spending my time on what became a fruitless exercise.
Time expectations placed on principals and teachers. Principals are required to do
more than be excellent managers of their own time: they must also manage school time
effectively. Teachers often express concern over not having enough time to do the work of
teaching, and principals also find that time demands can be excessive. Collinson and Cook
(2000) closely investigated what teachers meant when they claimed to not have enough time, and
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discovered that the blanket phrase “I don’t have enough time” is used to describe a variety of
discrete kinds of time constraints.
Collinson and Cook (2000) discovered that teachers are looking for a variety of kinds of
time during the school day: designated time for professional development, designated time for
sharing with colleagues, individual discretionary time, shared discretionary time, uninterrupted
time, unpressured time, renewal time, and habitual time. Each form of time competes for priority
with the others and with scheduled class time as well. When teachers express that they do not
have enough time, Collinson and Cook (2000) point out that it is likely that school principals
may attempt to address the staff’s concerns without delving into what kind of time is being asked
for. Principals who provide one kind of time when really another kind is being requested may
actually undermine their own initiatives to change schools in positive ways.
The concerns raised by Collinson and Cook (2000) can not be addressed effectively by
only adjusting schedules for school days and semesters. Defining what kinds of time the staff is
looking for becomes an important part of managing school operations and resources, as
principals are called to do in Alberta’s (2009) PQPG Leadership Dimension 6.
The issue of principal workload. Teachers are not the only people in schools with heavy
workloads and who experience time scarcity. Geoff Southworth’s (2008) study of 34
headteachers in England examines their well being, work-life balance, and job satisfaction. It
also delves into the ways that headteachers are required to splinter their time across eight broad
task groups every day, and several times within each day. Figure 2 shows the proportion of
headteacher time for each of the eight task groups.
Southworth (2008, p. 160) also discovered that on average, headteachers in primary and
secondary schools were working between 50 and 54 hours a week, yet for the most part they also
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expressed that they were satisfied in their work. Southworth’s study helps to show that job
satisfaction is connected to time, but that headteachers are actually happier when they are busier
and less satisfied with their work when they are less busy. This is an important finding for those
who are considering working as formal leaders in schools. The work hours are long, and the taskload continually changes.
Headteacher Time
Strategic Leadership,
7%
Various Tasks
unspecified time, 14%
Management, 15%
Personal Issues, 4%
Continuous PD, 9%
Internal Stakeholders,
9%
Administration, 24%
External
Stakeholders, 17%
Figure 2. Proportion of Headteacher time by task group (Southworth, 2008, p. 160)
[Fair Use]. Note: due to rounding, the figures add to 99, not 100.
Connection to internship. My own experience with the continually shifting task-load
and long hours associated with working as a formal leader in a high school came in my
Internship II course. I was offered and accepted a brief eight week term position as a viceprincipal in my current school, which serves 1,150 students in grades 9 to 12. My lived
experience bears out what Southworth (2008) discovered in his research on headteachers in
England. I enjoyed the challenge of the position very much, every day was different, and there
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was no predicting exactly what would occur during the course of a day. The unpredictability of
the position was the greatest surprise for me, given my experience as a mid-career classroom
teacher used to the predictability of a period structure reinforced by units of content, school bells,
and class changes.
I learned that formal leaders in schools are almost always involved in poly-tasking,
hetero-tasking, or parallel-tasking. The term “multi-tasking” suggests more of a unilinear and
serial orientation to time, and does not adequately address the ever-present sense of heterochrony
in the work life of school leaders.
School leaders and heterochrony. Heterochrony becomes a wider school management
issue as well, because the time flow of a school is set by many people—there is no one drum to
march to, but several competing drums in the form of schedules, deadlines, and due dates.
Another layer of time flow is added by the nature, significance, and duration of incidents that
need to be addressed daily. This layer is the one that principals usually refer to as “putting out
fires”— the emergency response role, which leaders must try to reserve for genuine emergencies,
and not for the seemingly urgent demands of loud students, parents, or teachers.
Collectively, the individual chronologies create a dominant flow of time for the school,
but they never come into unison clearly enough to eliminate heterochrony. As a term viceprincipal I learned that the various and several schedules in the school made for a variety of time
flows that I had to keep organized in my mind all at once, and this effort developed my sense of
parallel-tasking.
With so many time flows to track and organize, the school principal needs time
management skills like that of the driver heavy horses in an eight horse hitch. (Creek Side
Belgians) Each horse has a mind of its own, is yoked to a partner, and is guided by two reins.
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The driver is holding 16 reins in total, and also provides the team with audible directions. If even
one horse gets the wrong message, the team wanders at best, or at worst, the confusion leads to
catastrophe. The driver must drive each horse separately, and the team of eight simultaneously,
which is a form of parallel-tasking similar to what I experienced working as a vice-principal
during Internship II. Leading a school is different from driving an eight horse hitch, but both are
heterochronic leadership activities that require the leader to be fully engaged “in the moment,”
and to lead using a combination of knowledge, experience, and intuition. In many cases, learning
what not to do, or what to put off, becomes critical for leaders.
The possible positive role of procrastination. While most social psychology research
negatively characterizes procrastination, Chu and Choi (2005, as cited in Choi & Moran, 2009)
propose a contrarian view that some forms of procrastination are positive. This theory is highly
applicable in the arena of educational leadership because the forms of active procrastination that
Choi and Moran (2009) explore are best applied in heterochronic settings like schools.
The four defining characteristics of active procrastination (Choi & Moran, 2009) are a
preference for time pressure, intentional decision to procrastinate, ability to meet deadlines
through accurate minimum-time estimations, and experiential outcome satisfaction. Chu and
Choi (2005, as cited in Choi & Moran, 2009) point out that active procrastination is positively
correlated to a person’s perceived sense of time control and to the purposeful use of time, but is
negatively associated to time structures, such as forms of time measurement (i.e., hours, days)
and deadlines.
Another way to understand this is that active procrastinators are more closely aligned to
conceptions of “event” time as opposed to “clock” or “calendar” time (Hoffman, 2009, pp. 133135). Choi and Moran’s (2009) paper links active procrastination to a heterochronic orientation
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to time; educational leaders work in heterochronic environments, so learning how to apply Choi
and Moran’s (2009) ideas about active procrastination may aid in reducing perceived time-stress,
without resorting to time management tools like “to do” lists. Most time management tools are
aligned with unilinear and metrical time orientations such as “clock” and “calendar” time. The
development of practical time management tools that start from a heterochronic orientation to
time are all but impossible to find; heterochronic time management is a field that is currently
under researched.
Since procrastination carries a stigma in western culture, further research into forms of
active procrastination in educational leadership using Choi and Moran’s (2009) 16-item measure
for active procrastination could also help leaders to validate their current orientation to “event”
time, or to learn how to exert more control over their “clock” and “calendar” time.
As a final practical example of the difference in approach, a person who is oriented to
“clock” time eats lunch because it is 12 o’clock, whereas a person oriented to “event” time eats
lunch because she is hungry. When “clock” time and “event” time are in conflict, active
procrastinators exert control over their time by favouring an “event” time approach until the
demands of “clock” time simply can not be ignored. Dieticians know that it is better to eat when
one is hungry than according to the clock, and so do infants. Applying this powerful and simple
idea to various aspects of educational leadership may help new principals to be effective leaders
who can manage the heterochronic maelstrom of schools.
Time, Leadership, and Governance
The Alberta School Act and time. There are 78 instances of the word “time” in the
Alberta School Act (November, 2009). The Act uses the word “time” to establish, indicate,
specify, or signal many different conditions, limitations, and entitlements. Furthermore, three
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identifiable forms of time are assumed by the act: “event time,” which is the time wherein an
event occurs, “clock time,” which divides time into seconds, minutes and hours and “calendar
time,” which divides time into days, months, and years (Falk, 2008, pp. 95-96), (Hoffman, 2009,
pp. 122-123). For the sake of brevity I will highlight and examine only the nine most significant
semantic meanings of “time” in the Act, followed by a discrete section to address the specific
time provisions enacted in Section 272.
“Time” used to establish duration. The word “time” is used to help explain that an
exceptional condition will have a clear beginning, middle and end. For example, although
students are required to attend school, the board may excuse a student from attending for a
“prescribed period of time” (13, 5, e, ii). Ironically, Section 56 of the Act establishes the duration
of the school year and Section 13 establishes compulsory attendance for students, but neither
section employs the word “time”. In these sections time references are implied by references to
calendar time: that is, “days,” “weeks,” “months,” and “years.”
“Time” used to limit duration. The Act limits duration by employing the word
“reasonable” or the phrase “reasonable amount” when connected to “time.” This construction
leaves the limits of duration open to interpretation. Regulations and case law aid to establish the
bounds of “a reasonable amount” of time: the specifics of each case make varying amounts of
time “reasonable,” which is why the Act employs a limiting phrase that may still be widely
applied and interpreted. For example, an elector of a district or division may inspect pertinent
documents “at any reasonable time” (75, 1), while students over 16 and parents can appeal
decisions that affect the student’s education “within a reasonable time” (123, 2). Each situation
will vary, so the Act limits duration by connecting the word “reasonable” with the word “time.”
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“Time” indicating occasional occurrence. The phrase “from time to time” appears in the
Act as a way of indicating that states of being or actions can occasionally arise. For example, a
school board can not delegate the authority that it is given “from time to time” to requisition a
municipality (60, 2, c), and the attendance board may adjourn “from time to time” (127, 1, j).
The phrase “from time to time” is a common construction, and it is also a cliché. The advantage
of using a cliché in written law is that the phrase carries a generally understood meaning that is
clear enough for direction yet also allows room for interpretation. The phrase indicates that the
Act recognizes “event time” as a construct that Albertans understand. Experiencing a condition
or event that happens from time to time is normal, and acceptable. I use this phrase myself from
time to time.
“Time” indicating a specific minute and hour of clock time. While the Act more often
uses “time” generally, sometimes the word implies the exact hour and minute for scheduling a
meeting. Section 66 provides a good example of this usage: “…the resolution of the board
establishing the regular meetings of the board shall state the date, time, and place of the regular
meeting” (66, 2). The demarcation between “date” and “time” indicates a greater degree of
specificity than the Act usually requires when the word “time” is used alone. This shows that the
Act recognizes “clock” time as well as “calendar” time and assumes that Albertans also operate
within these constructs.
“Time” indicating a specific number of days of calendar time. The Act sometimes
stipulates minimum durations of time. For example, it may stipulate a minimum number of days
that must elapse between notification and a hearing or an appeal. The intention of requiring
minimum durations is usually to ensure time for due process, and more informally, to provide a
cooling off period between parties in conflict. Section 104, regarding teacher transfers, requires
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that the board-requested time for a hearing with the teacher be set on a date “that is not earlier
than 14 days after the teacher receives notice of the transfer unless the teacher agrees in writing
to an earlier date” (104, 4). This use of “time” is a far more specific than the “reasonable amount
of time” usages found in other sections of the Act, such as Section 75 (1) and Section 123 (2).
Being specific about time in law helps parties in conflict to know the rules of engagement, but it
can also artificially slow down resolution, which is why the final portion of Section 104 (4)
provides a way for parties to speed up the process if they agree in writing to do so.
“Time” indicating simultaneity, immediacy, and completion. The Act also uses “time”
to indicate the immediacy of a cause and effect situation. For example, if a teacher’s certificate
of qualification is suspended or cancelled by the Minister, or if the certificate expires, the effect
is that the employment contract between the board and the teacher is automatically terminated.
No time elapses between a teacher losing certification and the cancellation of an employment
contract. The Act specifies the simultaneous nature of these two separate events (Section 106, 1,
a, b). By addressing simultaneity, the Act also reflects the notion that more than one thing can
happen at one time, echoing polychronic (Bluedorn, Kaufman, & Lane, 1992) and heterochronic
(Hoffman, 2009) understandings of time. Polychrony and heterochrony are more subtle aspects
of human perceptions of time, and yet they are clearly identified within the Act on a close read.
“Time” signaling initiation. The start of board activities shows yet another way that
“time” is used in the Act. For example, the chair and vice-chair of a board are to be elected at the
initial organizing meeting, but after that meeting at any time the board may go through the
election process again (65, 1). In this instance, “time” is used to indicate the initiation of a
process, similar to the waving of a green flag to start a race. The same stipulation provides for
continuance of the board’s ability to elect a chair and vice-chair at any time after the start.
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Extending the racing analogy, the board may continue to choose a chair and vice-chair at any
time after the initial meeting, and does not have to wait for another green flag to do so.
“Time” signaling interdiction. “Time” is also used to indicate that at any time after a
particular event, that a person or school shall not continue in the previous course of action. This
semantic meaning of “time” is similar to the “cause and effect” example cited earlier, but is
unique because it expressly disallows an individual or group from persisting in a former course
of action. For example, a person can be compelled by the court at the Minister’s request to stop
running or attempting to run a private school while the school’s registration has been suspended
or is otherwise not registered (28, 5, a, b). Continuing with the race analogy, this form of “time”
is a red flag that requires one to stop, to not continue, and results in disqualification from the race
altogether.
“Time” signaling authority that is not bound by time. The authority of the Minister to
act “at any time” indicates that the power of the office is not bound by time, or by the agendas or
timeframes of others with competing interests (22, 9). The “at any time” phrase is also extended
in some instances to the powers devolved to boards (18, 2), to the superintendent of a division
(104, 1), and to the attendance board (128, 2). The “at any time” provision clarifies the agency,
the power, and reinforces the mandate of the party to which it is applied.
Section 272: Laws do not serve time, laws serve people. People tend to think of time as
a natural law: time is inescapable, it accepts no argument, it plays no favourites and it is
uniformly (i.e., justly) applied to all people. This conception competes for authority with all
written law codes, including the Alberta School Act. To address the perceived supremacy of time
over the law, or the power of time within the law as it is stated, the School Act includes Section
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272, which clarifies that laws serve people, and that the natural law of time is subordinate to
Albertan law.
Section 272 allows for any imposed deadline or timeframe stipulated within the Act to be
modified or adjusted as need be to ensure that due process is carried out, and that the concerns of
people are placed above arbitrary time references within the Act. This section reaffirms that the
power that creates, administers, and upholds the law is not the power of time, but the power of
the people of Alberta, as expressed in the Act. Time matters, but it takes the back seat to people.
How the Act and time impact leadership. Alberta’s (2009) PQPG Learning Dimension
1 calls school leaders to foster effective relationships on the basis of appropriate ethics. The Act
is the clearest distillation of the appropriate ethics that Albertans collectively hold regarding
education, so principals ought to recognize the important but subservient role that time plays
within the Act, and ensure that the rights and entitlements of people are not subsumed by
concerns about time constraints. The Act (Section 272) clarifies that people matter more than
time, and any principal who acts based upon this principle is leading in harmony with the Act.
The connections to Alberta’s (2009) PQPG Leadership Dimension 6 are far more
obvious, since the requirement to uphold the Act is explicitly mentioned. Less obvious is the
third PQPG connection to Leadership Dimension 7. Law informs policy, and policy guides
practice. Practice is the level at which community support and community needs are most
poignantly expressed, so leaders with a firm grasp of the Act have the best chance of leading in
ways that draw their communities forward through the ever-present flow of time.
Time, Leadership, and 21st Century Learning
The emergence of information technology. Information technology has become very
powerful and relatively cost effective for schools over the past 20 years. Furthermore, changes
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and advances in technology continue to occur at a dizzying rate. Advances in technology have
been paralleled by innovations in pedagogy, and these innovations once again call for teachers to
re-configure the ways that they think about using their teaching time. School leaders often find
themselves caught in the middle between parents and students expecting relevancy in education
(and relevancy is often code for integration of technology), while teachers struggle to keep pace
with changes precipitated by advances in technology.
Potential benefits to adopting new modes of learning in the 21st century. Dan Pink’s
(2005) A whole new mind, examines the sea change that is afoot concerning global creativity and
information sharing that we are currently experiencing during the dawn of the age of connection.
Pink (2005) writes extensively about symphonic thinking: a collective and asynchronous form of
thought.
A historic example of symphonic thinking is also one of the most famous examples
spontaneous invention. Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell both visited the patent office on
February 14, 1876, to register the invention of the telephone (American Experience: Elisha Gray,
2009). Symphonic thinking calls people to think together, and to recognize outcomes of the
shared processes as shared creations. Gray and Bell both claimed to have invented the telephone
alone, and accused the other of attempting to steal the idea. Bell beat Gray to the patent office by
a few hours, and after a protracted legal battle, Bell was awarded the patent.
Gray and Bell could have saved years of time spent in court battles if they could have
recognized the telephone as a co-creation; an idea that developed spontaneously in each of their
minds but that neither of them would have come to as quickly without the other. Who knows
what they failed to achieve together due to their efforts to defeat one another in court.
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Symphonic thinking, creativity, and collaboration are some of the more significant new learning
emphases made more possible in technology-rich 21st century learning environments.
Limiting factors to technological implementation. Unfortunately, the implementation
of new pedagogies that depend on sophisticated technology have been slow to penetrate school
systems (Papert, 1993). The purposeful integration of information technology at every grade
level, and across subject areas, has the potential to create the most revolutionary changes to
educational time use since students were introduced to chalk and slate.
However, there are challenges to the wide spread adoption of information technology.
Some of the challenges are philosophical—concerns are raised about the efficacy of the new
pedagogies that rely on computers. Other challenges are practical: finite money, space, and time
limit the pace of change. Finally, traditional forms of schooling are valued by society, even if
they are outmoded. Resistance to change comes from the broader culture itself, and from the
micro-culture of school divisions, and even individual school cultures (Fullan, Cuttress, & Kilter,
2009).
The problem for teachers is knowing how to teach effectively once they get past the
learning curve of the technology itself. Learning how to operate software and becoming
comfortable operating within virtual, on-line environments such as Twitter, Facebook, e-Chalk,
or Second-Life is only the first step. Once teachers are comfortable operating in the on-line
world, they must then figure out how to effectively teach within it. All of these activities take
time, and teachers are already very busy people. Time scarcity works against implementing
technology and the new pedagogies as well.
School leaders also struggle to find ways to implement pedagogical changes that harness
information technologies. Finding time for significant training for staff is an immediate concern,
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and “innovation overload” is always a possibility as teachers try to keep up with the pace of
technological changes. Five- and 10-year plans are required for technological changes to occur,
but such plans are difficult to sustain at the school level due to the short tenure of many school
leaders. This challenge is one that needs to be addressed by superintendents, trustees, and their
masters in governments.
Implications for leaders regarding time philosophy and time management. Advances
in technology and new pedagogies that are crafted to maximize learning via the use of computers
will continue to challenge all school leaders to change the status quo in their schools. The
rainbow model advanced by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (Trilling & Fadel, 2009) and
Papert’s (1991) constructionism both require educational leaders to think about time as a far
more dynamic, plastic, and supple medium to support learning. Old ideas of an instructor who is
a master of content delivery filling the minds of students like so many empty kool-aid cups are
outmoded, and belong in the last century. New realities call for new teaching modalities, and 21st
century learning will include more emphasis on collaboration and creativity, and less on dictation
and rote learning.
The Emerge initiative in Alberta. Alberta’s 1 to 1 laptop learning initiative is called
Emerge (Alberta Education, 2010). Conceived and funded as a three year program to promote
technology-rich discovery learning environments, Emerge comes to an end in August of 2010.
The Emerge year two (Alberta Education, 2010) report contains highlights and challenges that
schools faced as they tried to envision what 21st century learning is, how it is accomplished, and
what role the teacher ought to have when every student has a computer and the internet at his or
her fingertips. Experiences with the Emerge program have been mixed, but the strong sense that
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wide spread 1 to 1 computer environments are inevitable in schools is driving many jurisdictions
to get involved in this change process before they find themselves playing catch-up.
A nascent 1 to 1 initiative in Winnipeg. I have been offered and accepted the
opportunity to co-lead a group of teachers at my school; we have the mandate from our principal
and from influential members of administration in the division head office to investigate the
potential for 1 to 1 laptop learning in our large suburban high school. We are the vanguard—no
other high school in Manitoba has attempted large-scale 1 to 1 laptop learning. In May of 2010
our team had the opportunity to visit Poston Butte High School (PBHS) in San Tan Valley,
Arizona, which will have an enrollment of approximately 1,100 grade 9-11 students in
September, 2010 (PBHS home page). Every student at PBHS uses a computer in every class,
with obvious exceptions for physical education, music, and visual arts courses. PBHS is a
showcase school—the one year old school building is purpose built and wired for connectivity,
the staff is comprised of teachers who all volunteered to work at the new school because they
actively use technology and believe in the pedagogies that best fit the new tools. The school
district and the constituency strongly support the new school with funding, and they have great
confidence in the principal, Dr. B. Pappalardo, to lead the school.
It was inspiring to see a brand-new school where students are learning in brand-new
ways. In my interviews with students, the astonishing realization I made was that the students
sensed nothing out of the ordinary about carrying a computer to every class, and learning in the
ways they were. 1 to 1 laptop learning had become their new “normal.”
My school building is old, the staff is entrenched in pedagogy from the machine age, and
community perception and support for a significant 1 to 1 initiative is still unknown. If a person
had a chance to build a new school and to think ahead, he or she would likely build a school like
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PBHS. The significant challenge in jurisdictions throughout the world will be to take old schools
and old teachers and old thinking and to make them new again. Perhaps only time itself will
make this kind of change possible in my own school, and in thousands that are just like it. In the
meantime, our team of teacher-leaders will heed the exhortation of John Dewey (1949) in his
90th year: the order of the day is do not fear: “forward—march!”
Time, Leadership and Culture
The ways that people interact with each other in technology-rich cultures is in a state of
continual change; it is a cultural earthquake that can not be denied, even by those most adverse to
technology. Innovations in the field of information technology are continually creating, and
almost as immediately destroying, cultural norms. More than ever before the internet is shaping
and defining culture, similar to the ways culture shifted in response to the rise of the automobile.
Cultural influence and the internet. Tim Berners-Lee (Where the web was born, 2008)
and his colleagues at CERN could hardly have imagined what was about to occur when he
invented the internet in 1989. Berners-Lee envisioned the internet as a way for scientists to share
information stored in computers with users at other computers. Berners-Lee wrote the initial
computer code, and wrote the proposal for his supervisors at CERN. Then, without any
ceremony, any fanfare, or any race to the patent office, the internet simply came into existence.
Academic and commercial use gained momentum, and by the mid 1990s home use of the
internet was also becoming commonplace. Although the time from the mid-1990s until the mid2000s posted incredible growth in internet use, the past six years have radically changed the way
people access the internet. The internet has been reinvented with the advent of web-enabled
devices that are more portable and the development of web-based application software that
compliments the new hardware.
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The internet of 2004 seems like a quaint and quiet library compared to the social
gathering place it has become since then. In 2010, Twitter is 4 years old (Kirkpatrick, 2009),
YouTube is 5 years old (Internet Archive, 2010) and Facebook seems ancient at 6 years old
(Zuckerberg, 2010). What on earth will the next 5 years hold? Can educational leaders rope
themselves to the helm and steer cultural change in a direction that promotes decency, social
health, and the common good? Cultural crisis provides cultural opportunity as well, and strong
leaders are required to learn as much as they can about the current state of their civic and school
cultures, and to stand as beacons of informed direction and hope.
Cultural influence and educational leaders. The information age provides information,
but more than ever before leaders are being called upon to make sense of information, and to
demonstrate the practical and ethical application of information to living life within time. This
praxis of information, ethics, and earnest promotion of the common good is a complete definition
of “wisdom” for 21st century cultures. Leadership models based in ethics (Starratt, 2005) and
virtues (Sergiovanni, 2007) are increasingly important. Alberta’s PQPG (2009) Leadership
Dimension 7 calls principals to understand and respond to the broader societal context of
schools. This is a difficult task in a culture that is undergoing a technological revolution, but
educational leaders must rise to the challenge.
Schools will continue to have a significant cultural role, even while other cultural
institutions, such as organized religions, national governments and their bureaus, and the
business class continue to lose the influence they once had to shape society and culture. School is
still the most important place outside of the home where adults spend time with children. What
we teach the children will in turn become their norms, and create their cultures. Educational
leaders need to be aware that, more than ever before, society expects educators to teach not only
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what one should know, but also how one ought to live. Ethics, virtues, and wisdom are critical in
this time because educational leaders now, and into the future, are also cultural leaders.
Culture in the present and into the future. Music is an important part of culture, and
popular music (see Appendix B) boasts a myriad of songs about the difficulties of living
meaningfully within a fast-paced technological society (Ellul, 1967). This brave new world may
not provide the dystopic horrors imagined by Huxley (1932) as he looked upon his own time but
schools will persist in their role as cultural greenhouses and cultural battlefields all rolled into
one.
School leaders will adapt as cultures change, but unlike other significant cultural shifts,
the wide-spread integration of information technology may sound the death knell for many
traditional forms of schooling. Already the rapid growth of on-line post-secondary schooling
serves as a harbinger for what is to come for the teachers of children and adolescents. Adaptation
to new cultural norms that entrench divided attention (Hoffman, 2009), expect collaboration,
promote creativity, and integrate technology (Pink, 2005) are required if widespread public
schooling is to remain the goal of the broader society.
The alternative is anathema for traditional educational leaders; widespread and uniform
support for public schooling falls out of fashion, schools are increasingly regarded as irrelevant,
and cast aside as a duplication of services that young people find on their own anyways.
Abandoned over time, public systems of education are shed like skins of snakes; in their wake
each person seeks information and tutelage in order to achieve criterion referenced standards that
reflect outcomes in a variety of content areas, leading to a government credential called a
graduation diploma. Whether this possible future is a version of heaven or hell depends mostly
upon one’s vocation. No matter what occurs in the next twenty years, principals can expect their
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role to continue to change—perhaps the role itself will undergo a complete metamorphosis:
changing into something completely new and different from anything imaginable in 2010.
Leadership Lives in the Present and Provides Hope for the Future
The question remains: How best can an educational leader live within and lead within
time? Hippocrates (400 B.C.E.) summed up the challenges of life within time in the first five
lines of his work Aphorisms. A translation by Francis Adams in 1849 gives the typical English
rendering: “Life is short, and art long; the crisis fleeting; experience perilous, and decision
difficult” (Hippocrates, 400 B.C.E.).
Hippocrates was writing for doctors of medicine 2,400 years ago, but his words are
universally applicable, and sum up the state of affairs for educational leaders in the 21st century.
Life is short, there is too much to do, making good judgments in crisis is tricky and critical,
getting experience is a dangerous journey, and continually making decisions in the face of all of
this is very difficult, but that is life. My paraphrase extends the translation somewhat, but keeps
to the spirit of the original. This section of Hippocrates is also well known in a Latin translation
as the “ars longa, vita brevis.” This old saying still makes perfect sense, and it will continue to
make sense so long as human beings have to live within the bounds of time.
Thoughts about living outside of time belong more in the domains of the theologian and
the science fiction writer, so they get no more ink than this one sentence as a reverent reference
to those entirely separate worlds of human thought. Educational leaders have the advantage of
thinking very big thoughts about time, or simply burrowing down into the metaphoric pile of
work that a school represents, and never give time a thought beyond perhaps schedules, pay
periods, and bells. For those who can make time to read a bit more about time, read on. Our time
(and space) in this narrative are almost through, but there is time yet for three final thoughts.
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Ray Kurzweil wants to beat time. He thinks he can do it, and he has the backing of
Google and NASA, which would be more impressive if the goal was less ambitious (Vance,
2010). If Kurzweil (2005) is wrong, then human life continues to be “birth, copulation, and
death”: the blunt and pitiless summation of life spawned by T. S. Eliot (1926). However, if
Kurzweil is right, then he is predicting an exponential growth in biological and computer
sciences that will, before 2050, make it possible for humanity to begin leaving biologically
mediated life behind, and to begin to live as electronically mediated life forms. If people can
somehow become the machine, then “birth, copulation, and death” (Eliot, 1926) will be rendered
meaningless. The “Singularity” (Kurzweil, 2005) is a radical and optimistic vision of the future
based on faith in human ingenuity, good will, and hard science. I wonder what educational
leadership will be like if Kurzweil is right.
Kurzweil’s gambit is simple; if time itself can not be changed, then perhaps leaving
behind biological human life can actually make life last much longer. The question is whether or
not human life with out “birth, copulation, and death” (Eliot, 1926) can still be defined as human
at all.
Eva Hoffman has some concerns. Eva Hoffman (2009) questions the bounds of human
capacity to deal with the continued splintering of time into ever smaller fractions with no regard
for the innate temporal rhythms and cycles of human life. Circadian rhythm regulates waking
and sleeping, menstrual rhythm regulates reproduction, respiratory rhythm regulates the air that
fills us, and our hearts beat a rhythm that is ever-present so long as we are alive. We may lose
our humanity completely if we lose our sense of these event-based biological rhythms. At the
least, the new rhythms of the information age compete with and may be harmful to the rhythms
of time that mediate our physical and psychological good health.
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The rapidity of change and the nanosecond heartbeat of the technologies that drive the
information culture are also creating survivability challenges; people are expected to be able to
work at the pace of computers, and are out-paced by machines in a greater number of disciplines
every day. Furthermore, the expectation to divide one’s focus between many streams of
information may be reaching the threshold of human adaptability.
Hoffman (2009) artfully draws parallels between attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD) and the frenetic pace of life for those born into the information age. While there are
genetic predispositions that underlie ADHD, the diagnosis and symptoms of the disorder all have
to do with a loss of the ability to concentrate one’s mental efforts for any length of time. As
Symons (2008) points out in The exceptional teachers’ casebook, it is not that children with
ADHD fail to pay attention, but that they do pay attention to everything going on inside and
outside of them, and lack the ability to focus their concentration on one task at a time. Hoffman
(2009) postulates that the continued division of attention between television, computer,
telephone, radio, and other stimuli, along with the subdivision of each one of these sources due
to channel choice and user controlled content further divides attention into ever smaller
fragments.
Hoffman (2009) argues that living in the information age conditions children to favour
splintered attention as a survival mechanism adapted to their native environment. Parents who
model incessant channel changing while at the same time web-surfing, talking on the phone, and
helping the four year old to draw a flower can expect that children will learn these behaviors as
well, and will then adapt them for their own purposes.
Multitasking is heralded as an innovation by proponents of the information age; critics
need only point to traffic accidents linked to cell-phone use to rebut the prophets of the new
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order. When the human limits of attention division are reached, human beings suffer physically
and psychologically. This is a technological problem that impacts culture, and educational
leaders must find relevant ways to serve as limiting agents, or buffers, when they perceive that
people will suffer due to cultural changes brought on by technology.
Episode 4: A new hope. Starting a story somewhere in the middle is an excellent way to
avoid having to fret too much about the beginning or the ending. It also helps to emphasize that
the important part of the story is the part that is happening right now, in the present. George
Lucas (1977) was on to something when he set Star Wars in the middle of a much longer story
arc. We are all in the middle of a much longer story arc, and, we too ought to try and live with a
new hope- completely aware of the evils that surround us, the challenges that arise, and the
struggle of simply living in a way that purposefully tries to make the world a better place for
those who fill it when we all “exit…stage left” (Rush, 1981).
Educational leaders live within and work within time, as do all people. The difference is
that principals are cultural leaders entrusted with children: our children, who are the most
beautiful, most precious, and most worthy of all our time and efforts. The smartest and most
virtuous adults in the world can learn much about how people ought to approach time by
watching children. If we can learn to approach time with the tangibly profound excitement for
the present moment that children have, then we will have learned much about time from our
fellow, little, time-travelers. May we journey together in gladness, and as Paul earnestly exhorted
the church in Philippi, “Only let us live up to what we have already attained” (Phil. 3:16). Amen.
May we use our time to make things better for those who will, in time, inherit our triumphs, and
our frailties, and the grand sum of everything that we leave behind.
39
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44
Appendix A
Time Posts—12 Reflective Meditations about Time for Educational Leaders
From July 12-23, 2010 I posted daily meditations on “time” to the 6006 Capstone
Blackboard site for the 2008 M. Ed. (Leadership) Cohort. Since there is no persistent web link to
Blackboard sites, the 12 posts are included here in their entirety. Each post is divided into a brief
section of theory, followed by suggestions for practice. The intention of the meditations is to
encourage educational leaders to develop praxis in a way that includes a deliberate and
thoughtful orientation to “time.” Writing is a way to crystallize experience, and one of the best
ways yet discovered to make permanent that which otherwise remains tantalizingly ephemeral.
45
Time Post: Day Eleven (July 12, 2010)
Hi Cohort,
My capstone paper and presentation are all about how educational leaders live within and use
time. Time is a really big topic, and I have enjoyed my time learning all about it. I’m looking
forward to sharing my learning with you eleven days from now.
I’ll be leaving a note like this every day until my presentation on the 22nd. My goal is to provide
you with two things- something you could think about (an idea about time) and something you
could do (a tip or trick or technique to work within time). I expect that our hour together on the
22nd will be a richer experience for you if you follow along with the daily “Time Post”.
Something you could think about
As a leader, how can you prepare people before an important meeting? Nobody has time to
have another “meeting about a meeting”. Think about the Olympics for a moment. The Summer
Olympics will be in London in 2012 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016. There is strong speculation that
the 2020 Summer Games could be in Africa, and the IOC has been interested in having an
African Olympiad for some time already. What role has the success of the World Cup in South
Africa played in preparing the way for the Olympics? We all know the common sense that “one
thing leads to another”- how could you use time to start that kind of positive chain reaction that
leads to change and success in your context?
Something you could do
As a leader, try preparing people by providing them with information that is optional to
consider, and provide that information in an electronic form well in advance of the meeting so
that people can access it when they want to, on their own schedule. (So, yes, I’m trying to take
my own advice by hopefully preparing you for our meeting on the 22nd by writing these “Time
Posts”).
Now I'll get back to that other paper I'm writing...where does the time go???
Roy
46
Time Post: Day Ten (July 13, 2010)
The Queen, Time, and Winnipeg
Something you could think about
`When the Queen and Prince Philip visited Winnipeg on July 3rd careful planning
assured that their time was used in very symbolic ways. The Royals landed at Winnipeg's new
airport- they were the first (a reference to primacy in time) to use the new airport. While at the
airport the Queen signed a letter to the youth of Manitoba, which was then placed in a "time
capsule" to be opened in 2060. These actions symbolize hope for the future and respect for the
past.
A "time capsule" is really an odd thing if you stop and think about it. A "capsule" of any sort
is a reference to space, not time. We all know that a package that remains unopened for a long
period of time somehow acts like a "bubble" of past-time when opened in the present, and we
struggle with a name for all of that, so we call it a "time capsule". After all, a "space capsule" is a
very different thing altogether.
The symbolic use of time continued as the Queen unveiled the very old cornerstone for the
very new Canadian Museum for Human Rights. The stone itself is (obviously) very old, and it
was quarried in Runnymede, where the Magna Carta was signed in the year 1215. Time symbols
abound here, as past accomplishments in human rights are amplified into the present, along with
a hope for the future.
So the question is, how could you use time symbolically to strengthen the culture of your school?
Something you could do
Try finding or making some artifacts that are symbolic of important times for you or your
school. Family photograph albums are a thing of the past in an age of digital photography, but
they have given rise to a more refined sort of "book"- the newly defined "scrapbook". A photo
album or scrapbook is an artifact- something tangible and real that, over time, gets older and
older, just like the rock from Runnymede. Artifacts are automatically symbols of times past, and
they remind us (hopefully) of the good that we'd like to sustain and amplify into the future. My
scrap books are just books of scraps, and an old Hush Puppies shoe box full of photos, but it
works for me and my clan.
What kinds of personal artifacts do you have? How do they help you to orient yourself to time?
Are there artifacts (read "baggage") that you should just throw out?
I can see by the clock on the wall, that it's time to go, so long, farewell...
Roy
47
Time Post: Day Nine (July 14, 2010)
Time’s Arrow
Something you could think about
Time sure seems to have direction—time seems to “flow” from the future, into the present,
and then continues on into the past. Or you could imagine yourself carried along in that flow, on
some sort of a boat, flowing along with the river of time. Either way, the directionality of time
gives us our sense of “before,” "during,” and “after.” What is the strongest objective
reinforcement of that idea of “flow”? The second law of thermodynamics is worth looking at.
Arthur Eddington (1882-1944) first used the phrase “the arrow of time” in 1927, in part
describing the second law of thermodynamics, which states that the amount of disorder in a
closed system can never decrease. In other words, order always breaks down over time. The
concept of diffusion is an easy way to understand this.
Pour a gallon of blue dye into a pool. The dye will always be there, but it will spread out
until it is evenly distributed in the water. The dye has no will, but it moves nonetheless. Since it
moves, is there any chance of it all coming back together? Nope. The second law of
thermodynamics says no way- the high order situation (the concentration of dye when you
poured it into the pool) will always be followed by the low order situation of diffusion.
However, the question arises, how do high order situations ever occur at all if chaos
always follows order? Fortunately for us, life has a tendency to try and make order from chaos.
The dye you poured in the pool was made at a factory full of living people extracting blue
pigments from all sorts of sources, making order from chaos. You made chaos by pouring the
dye in the pool. Anything alive (worms, plants, trees, wombats, people) has a shot at making
order from chaos.
So the question is, how can you reduce the amount of entropy (read: “growing chaos”) in your
school and in your life?
Something you could do
First, take a moment to pat yourself on the back—you are already making order from chaos.
You clean the house, shovel snow, read books, write capstone papers, and all of these activities
are ordering activities that take previously dispersed and randomized material or information and
order them. Have you noticed any change in your own thinking as your capstone has progressed?
Anyways, I have. I think this change in thinking comes from imposing ever higher levels of
order on the material we have studied for the past couple of years. I do think that we really are
consolidating our learning. So, to fight against entropy today, show up at the “Muffin
Morning” on the 14th! I’ve posted this “Time Post” at least 140 minutes ahead of tomorrow, in
hopes of reminding you about muffins, coffee, and conversation. I don’t think any of you will
mind that I broke my own rule.
Time keeps flowing like a river,
Roy
48
Time Post: Day Eight (July 15, 2010)
Calendar Time, Clock Time, and Event Time
Something you could think about
Calendars are helpful tools- the calendar we use (that identifies today as July 15th) was
established by Pope Gregory on February 24, 1582, and that is why it is called the Gregorian
Calendar. It took quite a while for the calendar to be adopted as universally as it is today. Britain
didn’t adopt it until 1751, the State of Russia adopted it in 1918, and China officially started
using the calendar in 1949. A quick Google search shows that there are many other calendars,
but the Gregorian calendar is the one used most universally on the planet.
We can thank John Harrison (1693-1776) for the advent of reliable clocks with a dial face
that we recognize. Harrison was out to win a prize- the challenge was to make an accurate clock
so that sailors could know the accurate time in their home port compared to wherever they were
at the moment. Knowing the accurate time in two places is all you need to figure out your current
longitude; neat how knowing when you are can help you to figure out where you are!
Event time is self defining- it is the amount of time an event takes to occur. We say “in
the blink of an eye” to mean a very brief moment. Some events take longer, like pouring motor
oil in the winter. My favorite example of event time is any baseball game- the game starts with
the umpire’s call “Play ball” and ends at the top of the ninth inning, or the bottom, or goes to
extra innings if need be. The event is the most important thing- you don’t use a clock or a
calendar in a baseball game.
Something you could do
My source for most of the information above is Dan Falk’s (2008) book In Search of
Time. If you have an interest in the day-to-day mysteries of time then you should read this bookit is far easier to understand than Hawkings (1988) A Brief History of Time. Falk’s book also has
a no-nonsense approach that gives a nod to philosophy without getting mired in it.
Which kind of time is the one that you understand the best- calendar, clock, or event
time? We use all three, but which one is the most familiar and comfortable for you? Figuring out
your orientation to time will help you to determine more about your leadership style, and will
help you to work with people who value time in different ways than you do.
Now I’ve got to go- I’m in a hurry to get things done!
Roy
49
Time Post: Day Seven (July 16, 2010)
Urgency, Restraint, and Opportunity
Something you could think about
When people sense urgency it often leads to action, and urgency is simply the perception
that an opportunity may be lost—that the time will pass when the opportunity is available.
Salespeople know this, which is why the couch you’d like to buy is on sale for today only, and it
is always the last one like it in the store.
Restraint is the other half of the equation; purposefully resisting an opportunity, taking it
slow, and using time to think and investigate further—like the wise buyer who leaves the store
saying “I’ll think it over” only to find that suddenly the couch is still available next week, or that
magically it costs $50.00 less than it did a minute ago.
Urgency and restraint create a tug-of-war with every kind of opportunity, but the
opportunity for romance is especially well chronicled by our most famous English poets. Robert
Herrick (1591-1674) wrote “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” that gives us the often
quoted “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may/Old Time is still a-flying,” Richard Lovelace (16181658) penned “To His Coy Mistress” on the same theme and Shakespeare’s (1564-1616) Sonnet
73 also urges one to act on the opportunity for love. Billy Joel’s (1977) hit song “Only the Good
Die Young” is a more contemporary example, if the Dead Poet’s Society just doesn’t do it for
you.
Something you could do
Stay alert when you start to sense urgency; try to figure out more about the opportunity at
hand, and try to determine what the full cost of taking the opportunity would be. Urgency always
tries to limit the time you have to think, but you need to think. On the flip side, restraint can also
be a problem. The final stanza of the Herrick poem mentioned above points out that you could
end up waiting forever if all you ever do is practice restraint.
As educational leaders, try creating a legitimate sense of urgency for initiatives that you’d
like to advance, but reinforce restraint when you sense that an opportunity might not be right for
your school. Leaders deal with this all of the time- hiring practice is a good example- finding the
right staff for a school is a process filled with urgency and restraint. Here’s a hint- any decision
that is followed by some sort of “honeymoon period” likely came about in a tug-of-war between
urgency and restraint. Just don’t end up buying a couch that you really don’t want.
It’s now or never,
Roy
50
Time Post: Day Six (July 17, 2010)
Speed, Distance, and Time
Something you could think about
A traveler in Lethbridge stops at Tim Horton’s and asks a question: “Thanks for the coffee—
hey—how far is it to Calgary?” The answer comes—“About 2 ½, maybe 3 hours.” Western
Canadians measure distances using time units, and we do this more frequently than other parts of
the world. Ask any “How far…” question, and the answer you’ll get is usually a time reference.
How far to the Movie Mill? About 8 minutes, if traffic is light. How far to Pincher Creek? An
hour and a bit. How far to Winnipeg? You can do it in a day, but it’s a long day. Minutes, hours,
and days are not distances at all. We make assumptions about speed distance and time, and our
perceptions of these three are not very reliable either.
Math & physics teachers remind us that speed equals distance divided by time, or S=D/T. The
weird thing is that our perceptions of “fast” and “slow” completely ignore this. 60 km/h feels
very “fast” in a go-cart 5 cm off of the ground. 800 km/h is just like standing still- so very
“slow” that I can sip my coffee and have lunch as I fly from Vancouver to Tokyo. By the way, a
30 minute lunch break in a plane going 800 km/h spreads your lunch out over 400 km. Every bite
of your salad took you another 210 metres…using distance units to describe time seems odd, but
we do this the other way around all of the time.
Time can move “fast” or “slow” as well. Three hours of exam supervision takes forever,
because time seems slow down. I’ll look at the clock every 2 minutes during that exam. Three
hours with friends on a Friday night goes by fast—too fast. I like the Latin for this: Tempus
Fugit, or, “Time Flies.” It certainly does.
Something you could do
Remember that “fast” and “slow” references are always subjective. My “slow” isn’t always
the same as your “slow.” Anyone who has ever tried to get a kid ready for school in the morning
knows this intuitively. We use clock time to help synchronize activities, and to set a standard to
monitor our own feelings of “fast” and “slow.” Sometimes the clock seems fast, sometimes slow,
but we orient ourselves to clock time to cooperate with one another.
In your schools, how do you reinforce clock time? Bells? Policies designed to “correct”
lateness to class? Is there any way you can reinforce or value the way staff and students uniquely
perceive “fast” and “slow”? Outcomes based education moves in this direction, but we have far
to go. Finally, if this ditty of mine took you 90 seconds to read, then you traveled about 2,700 km
while reading this. This old planet moves at about 30km/second as we all orbit towards your next
birthday. 2,700km……now, does that seem like a “short” or “long” distance to you?
Have fun driving on the highway of life,
Just don’t go too fast!
Roy
51
Time Post: Day Five (July 18, 2010)
Times with Names
Something you could think about
Numbers are fun, but I like names more. Ask most people if they’d like to be thought of
as a name or a number, and almost everybody would rather be named than numbered. Time gets
classified by name and number as well, and the two classifications suggest very different
assumptions about how we view time.
The days of the week are all named: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday, and Saturday. You can look up the origins of all those names if you want. My favourite is
Friday—Freyja’s Day—after the beautiful Norse goddess of love and war. Freyja and Aphrodite
are similar, so Friday might have been named Aphroday just as easily (although it sounds really
silly when you say it).
Our months are named, and in some cultures years are also named. For example, this year
is Geng Yin, or the year of the Tiger in China. Named years on the Chinese calendar follow a
cycle; our named months follow a cycle, and so do the named days of the week. Time that is
named is thought of as cyclical time—Friday was here before, and it will roll around again.
Numbering time makes it seem linear—the 18th of the month happens only once, even
though the month has four Sundays. The year “1987” happened once, and will not cycle back,
yet the named seasons (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter) will cycle again just like they did in
1987. It is no wonder that timelines in class rooms fill up with numbers. Numbering time seem
like a very long line. Naming time makes it seem more familiar; we know a time like we know a
person, because that time has been here before, like a season, or the “weekend,” which is another
time with a name.
Something you could do
Schools have named times as well—Spirit Week, Homecoming, Winter Break, Grad
Photos, Spring Concert, and the list goes on. All of these suggest the cyclical nature of time in a
school. As a leader, are there other times that you could name in an effort to improve the culture
of your school? We instituted “Pink Shirt Day” last year, and it was well received by staff &
students as an effort to combat bullying. Are there some named times that ought to be forgotten?
“Senior Skip Day” happens every May for us, and not everyone in leadership is Ok with it. We
didn’t name the time, but the name suggests a cycle, and cycles can be tough to break.
Try to enjoy your weekend amid the preparation for the week that is before us.
S-a-t-u-r-d-a-y night was fun, but this is Sunday morning, coming down.
Roy
52
Time Post: Day Four (July 19, 2010)
Go with the Flow
Something you could think about
Road rage is always a little scary to watch—some person who is usually sane and rational
just loses it and starts swearing, honking, braking or swerving irrationally. Who knows what
brought it on—could have been anything. Usually though it is a culmination of several minor
stressors that finally boil over into one rather energetic display. Poorly handling the “give and
take” of driving can be like poorly handling the “give and take” that we experience with time as
well. Learning to go with the flow is important when you are traveling down the road, or through
time.
Here’s a tough name to say: Milhaly Csikzentmihalyi. (CHICK- sent- me- HAY- lee is
pretty close). I’ll call him “Zen” for short, since it’s in the middle of his name. “Zen” is famous
for writing about flow; learning how to go with the flow- letting things happen, making things
happen, and getting the timing right so you can be more happy more often and reduce stress even
when you lead a really full life. Read Flow: the Psychology of Optimal Experience to get a better
idea of what “Zen” is all about. “Zen” is a bit Zen , but he’s a serious psychologist too.
For me, part of flow means looking at the very literal “best before” dates that are posted
on my bread and milk. I find that those little reminders help me to orient myself to the near
future. I shared this with a colleague, and she was shocked, since she thought she was the only
person on the planet that calibrated her approach to time by the “best before” date on the milk. I
wonder how common this really is—do any of you care to admit that you do this? Finding flow
can be pretty idiosyncratic, but we have time flow strategies in common as well.
Something you could do
Try to figure out your own approaches to finding flow, so that little stressors don’t add up
and turn into some form of “time rage.” What are your personal “best before” times? Are you
“best before” lunch? Are you “best before” first report cards in October? Are you “best before”
winter, because you suffer from seasonal affective disorder? Knowing your best times helps you
to achieve flow, because by default, you’ll also discover those times when you might be a bit
stale or sour. In the “give and take” of time we don’t always get to place the important events at
our best times, but the more we can do this, the better a chance there is that we can go with the
flow. Finding an even flow matters, since it very literally helps us to preserve our sanity.
Anyways, have fun finding your own even flow,
Roy
53
Time Post: Day Three (July 20, 2010)
Proper Crastination
Something you could think about
The latin word crastinus means “belonging to tomorrow,” and is the root of our word
procrastination. We always think about procrastination as putting off something that ought to be
done now, but crastinus also hints that whatever we’re putting off simply doesn’t belong to
today—the worries we have about today belong to tomorrow. The time pressure we feel when
we say we’re procrastinating is really just a form of worry. We are worried that the work will not
get done in time because we are not working on it right now.
Learning how to 1) put things off but 2) still do your best work and 3) meet your
deadlines without excuses is the goal of active procrastinators. Notice that “worry” isn’t part of
that? You may be concerned that I am promoting procrastination here, and I am, sort of.
There are serious researchers who think active forms of procrastination are positive
characteristics of leadership. Time pressure aids with task completion, and those who have an
“event” based orientation to time may choose to procrastinate and still achieve excellent results
on time. Scheduling extra time to complete a task (or even just worrying about it) is just time
wasted. Working for a week on something that really takes an hour is like going all the way to
Banff to buy milk. You could do it, but what a waste of time. Active procrastinators have an
intuitive sense of time estimation—they know how much time a job will take, and they almost
always guess right.
Something you could do
If you procrastinate, first try to figure out if you are just avoiding an unpleasant task. If
that is it, then your procrastination isn’t very helpful. If, however, you are putting off something
because it is not due yet, you know how long it’ll take, and you’ve had success in the past, then
your procrastination is a calculated risk that may be an ingrained part of your way of living.
Some people say they work best when they are under pressure. Maybe they only work when
they’re under pressure! Read the attached article by Chou and Moran about active
procrastination if you want to know more.
Finally, worrying about time does not slow it down or speed it up, but it does wear you
out. If you are going to procrastinate, do so with your eyes wide open, and maybe you’ll get
really good at knowing which things really belong to tomorrow, and not today.
Mañana, mañana, mañana,
Roy
54
Time Post: Day Two (July 21, 2010)
Music Has Charms to Soothe the Savage Breast
Something you could think about
William Congreve wrote the ditty I used as a title, (which is often misquoted)
Shakespeare penned “If music be the food of love, play on” while the “music of the spheres” is
an ancient idea about whatever it is that holds together and guides the movements of all the stars
and planets. Music is powerful, and it may be the most beautiful expression of time that people
have ever created.
.
In fact, music is probably the very best metaphor we have for understanding time. Music
is completely dependent on divisions and manipulations of time—time signatures, beats, and
measures. Even tones (or the appropriately anagrammatic “notes”) are time-dependent
oscillations measured in hertz. The “A” you tune to rings at 440 oscillations per second, or 440
Hz. Middle “C” on a piano is about 261.6 Hz. Tone is determined by how quickly or slowly a
string or a reed even a column of air (for the flute folks reading along) moves. Add notes
together in a string, and you create a melody. Add them over top of one another, and you have
harmony. Do both, and you have polyphony, and polyphony is what most of us call music.
Something you could do
Already I have hinted at many songs that “talk” about music in the words, but that isn’t
what I mean here. Music without any words is the best analogy that humans have for
understanding time, in all of its wonderful complexities. Find time to read Eva Hoffman’s short
book entitled Time. She’s a wonderful writer, and although she covers many themes, her writing
about how music helps us to understand and situate ourselves within time is spot on. In keeping
with the theme, today’s musical “quiz” is a wee bit tougher—don’t all speak at once now:
[Fair use]
Roy
55
Time Post: Day One (July 22, 2010)
Memento Mori
Something you could think about
The only time we every display skeletons in our culture is at Halloween—a time for kids
when we all get to dress up, shell out candy, and celebrate all that is scary. Since November first
is “All Saint’s Day” in the church calendar, its logical that “the Evening of all Hallows” is just
the night before. We have managed to confine and reduce the skeleton symbol in our culture to
being a juvenile image connected to fun. The only other place we ever see a skeleton is maybe as
a model in a high school science lab, and once again, the symbolism is stripped completely.
We’ve done a good job at disconnecting skeletons from death. Memento Mori.
In Lucerne, Switzerland, the Chapel Bridge is a covered walking bridge crossing the
Reuss River. Along your walk you’ll see 122 paintings that illustrate Swiss life, and Swiss death.
Skeletons figure prominently—some the paintings commemorate the Black Plague, and skeleton
images represent death. No cutesy Halloween here. People of all ages are in the grip of illness at
varying stages, and the skeleton is ever present, busy collecting the dead, and patiently waiting
for the living. It makes for a rather somber and reflective walk across the river. Memento Mori.
While on your tour of Lucerne, take the short trip to the Löwendenkmal (Lion
Monument). Look at the dying lion, his wounds are visible, and see the anguish on his face. He
lays in a carved out recess in the rock, across the water, at a safe distance form the tourists that
come to marvel. He is there as a constant reminder of the slaughter of Swiss soldiers, far away
from home and fighting in the French Revolution. About 760 died in a very short time, and about
350 survived; the numbers are carved below the lion, along with the names of the dead. Mark
Twain wrote about the carving in 1880, and Twain figured that the Lion was the saddest and
most somber monument in all of Europe. Memento Mori.
Something you could do
Come to my presentation today ready to “begin with the end in mind.” We’ll start by
trying to consider death, and then things will (hopefully) get cheerier as we move along. Some of
you have already candidly shared about death and loss this week, and I thank you for your
openness. For today, all of us should (for a short while), consider our own mortality. Leaders
who can accept their mortality and move ahead with the business of living in a bold and fearless
way are the best leaders out there. John Dewey was just that sort of person, and we can learn a
thing or three from Dewey. Sorry to give you such a “downer” task. Don’t dwell too long, but in
a quiet moment on your own, don’t deny it either- we are all mortal. Memento Mori.
Don’t Fear the Reaper,
Roy
56
Time Post: Day Zero (July 23, 2010)
The Sun Also Rises
Something you could think about
There are bad times, and there are good times. 1992 was a really bad time for Queen
Elizabeth II—three of her children’s marriages unraveled, and then in November Windsor Castle
caught fire. In a speech shortly after the Windsor Castle fire, the Queen used a bit of latin to
describe the year. 1992 was “annus horibilis,” or a horrible year.
The flip side to annus horibilis is annus mirabilis. The quick translation is “miracle
year.” One of those years that everything seems to go right; opportunities arise, and somehow
things just turn to gold right in front of you. When John Dryden coined the phrase in the 1660s
he was actually using it to remind people to look for the bright side of life, and to find the good
times even in the midst of the bad. The bad times and the good times are defined in part by
events out of our control, but we, along with John Dryden, can always be looking for annus
mirabilis.
But approaching time with an irrational Pollyanna form of optimism seems too simplistic.
It lacks balance, and somehow disrespects the fact that bad stuff happens. Too somber an
approach forgets the goodness of life. Reb Saunders, the Hasidic Tzaddik in Potok’s The Chosen
is always humourless, because he takes on the responsibility of carrying the sufferings of
everyone he leads. He lives under the weight of the world, and struggles with the crushing grief
that only a Jewish Rabbi in the waning years of the 1940s could experience.
Something you could do
The strong positive or negative impacts of events can make it difficult to remember that
we choose our “glass half empty/half full” perspective. Once you make up your mind though,
raise your glass and empty the cup. Time to move on, and an empty cup offers you the choice to
fill it again or to get up and go. Either way, action follows on the heels of reflection.
Events will be what they are. In 2008 there was a wedding at Windsor Castle- Peter and
Autumn Phillips tied the knot. Autumn is expecting a baby this December, and the Queen will
become a Great-Grandma. The Queen is on record saying that she’s delighted to become a GreatGrandmother. Windsor Castle. Same place, different time, and a shot at annus mirabilis.
Life, love, and a love for life all seem to come around. The wheel turns, and being a
leader means finding a positive and realistic orientation to time. John Dewey lived to be 92 years
old. At the fete for his 90th Birthday he addressed his highly distinguished audience, and chose to
keep his speech about the present, and about the future. Choosing to be positive, compassionate,
and courageous matters. Stand up, keep your eyes wide open, and, in Dewey’s words,
“Forward, March!”
Gaudeamus igitur!
Roy
57
Appendix B: Songs About Time, to Wile Away the Time
Time is frequently used as a theme in popular music, and the following list represents
songs about time that the M.Ed. (Leadership ’08) cohort identified and discussed as we shared
our ideas about time online and face to face during the capstone course.
Alabama. (2008, February 18). I’m in a hurry [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube
.com/watch?v=6slibTD9MF0
Alan Parsons Project. (2008, September 15). Time [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.you
tube.com/watch?v=IZteVdxtky4&feature=fvst
Anthrax. (2009, October 6). Got the time [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=be7iNHw8QoQ&feature=avmsc2
Chesney, K. (2009, November 23). Don’t blink [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=4f0p5KqdU9U
Coldplay. (2006, July 8). Clocks [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=XbI1FpLd4Vk
Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young. (2010, June 3). Teach your children [Video file]. Retrieved from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ_MOIIdWrw
Enya. (2009, June 20). Only time [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch
?v=8EJFSfNuBp4
Five for Fighting. (2008, February 7). 100 years [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.you
tube.com/watch?v=NxbRuHY7vD8
Green Day. (2009, January 31). Good riddance [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube
.com/watch?v=1PK2R0IwCiY
58
Hootie & the Blowfish. (2009, November 28). Time [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.you
tube.com/watch?v=puVBrm3tVgU
Jacks, T. (2008, January 21). Seasons in the sun [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.you
tube.com/watch?v=cd_Fdly3rX8
Kristofferson, K. (2009, February 7). Sunday morning coming down [Video file]. Retrieved from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDCZCCQVbRs
Nalick, A. (2007, February 7). Breathe [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=jPz3YaIJkjQ
Owl City. (2009, December 15). Fireflies [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=psuRGfAaju4&feature=avmsc2
Presley, E. (2009, August 16). It’s now or never [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.you
tube.com/watch?v=QWDyIdWuTgw
Switchfoot. (2007, July 29). 24 [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=OLagfciU_PU
Styx. (2009, December 24). Too much time on my hands [Video file]. Retrieved from http://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0YZTYci5yo&feature=avmsc2
The Byrds. (2009, August 11). Turn, turn, turn [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=V6jxxagVEO4
The Weakerthans. (2006, November 5). Time’s arrow [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=UtLooTyDI_8
Trooper. (2008, April 15). Here for a good time [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.you
tube.com/watch?v=3qFIaI1M5kU