An Illusion of Present
By
Dr. Ryan Donlan
Assistant
Professor
Department
of Educational Leadership
Bayh
College of Education
Indiana
State University
&
Dr.
Steve Gruenert
Professor
and Department Chairperson
Department
of Educational Leadership
Bayh
College of Education
Indiana
State University
Recently in considering notions of
past, present, and future, we discussed an undergraduate Philosophy course of
Dr. L. Nathan Oaklander at the University of Michigan-Flint, where students
discussed whether time traveled from the past, through the present, and toward
the future, or conversely, whether the past, present, and future were simply a
series of “after this/before this” relationships.
Deep stuff and an awesome professor!
This came to our mind as we were
traveling while spending a day in northern Indiana with a great group of
educators discussing our book, Minds
Unleashed.
Let us share a bit of unleashing
with you today.
As we reflected on the ride home, we
talked of the notion of “the present.” We’re
not really sure the present really exists, …if we really try to point at it on
a continuum between the past and future.
If it does, it is a very short thing, indeed.
Something fleeting.
Something very much temporary.
We often hear, “Be in the present”
with others. “Savor the present, because
we won’t know what the future will bring.”
We’re not sure this is possible.
The present is actually just a split
second, even if that.
It’s our foot hitting the sand.
Yet, as soon as the footprint is
visible, the present is now the past.
On a calm day in schools, one
present moves to another, to another, to another, without too much urgency or
even an awareness of what was happening at each point we were in the present.
The immediate past is really all we
perceive. And in schools, all we profess is the future (being prepared).
On a harried day, the present is
more like our shoe hitting the plank of a suspension bridge as we are running
across a canyon, with each plank falling immediately behind us, into the chasm
of consequence, as soon as “present” clicks into “past.”
Second-by-second.
No do-overs.
What you just read in now in the past.
So, when we hear that we should savor the present, isn’t it
more true that we should actually savor what’s immediately in our past (our
child’s smile that just resonated with us; the friendly pat on the back of a
colleague that felt good, or the opportunity to say something kind to a parent
that made a difference), before it gets too far in the past, or before
something in the future skews that memory, or the reality of its impact?
What may be more important to us as school leaders is THE
NOW, which might differ in a definitional sense from the present.
“Now” might include something more than that instant of
present; it is our active involvement regarding what’s happening, what just
came into our mind, and even what might greet us in the next few moments, based
on our intuition and that sixth sense that cause school leaders to imagine
what’s around that next corner, before we turn it.
To be in the NOW requires a deep respect for what has come
before, as well as what we remember and don’t remember about it. We are humbled that we only have so much
capability to deal with NOW, as our existential cup can only hold so much when
we are asked to hold so much of everyone else’s.
The NOW is very slim, though admittedly not as slim as “Present.”
While slim, however, it is dense, both forgiving and
unforgiving.
We envision NOW sort of like a statistical confidence
interval around one’s particular score in life at that moment (that score existing
as a “Present,” sort of like a student’s standardized test sore, at it is only
a flash of what took place at that moment, and nothing more). In fact, that interval will extend into the
past and/or present – it has to since the construct “now” is an illusion and
does not really exist.
Yet, the visual is that, indeed . . . confidence interval.
A certain degree of “give,” “flex-potential,” or “play”
around a particular moment in time, where we are still savoring the immediate
past and interacting with it, as well as going second, footstep-by-footstep,
and interacting with what is around the next corner, through both science of
leadership and intuition, as that is our immediate future.
It is a dynamic space in which management exists, and at
times, leadership as well. It is where
“maybe so” and “might be” happens.
Why is all of this important in schools, even if potentially
ridiculous to comprehend?
That moment in the hallway where we have something on our
mind that is troubling us, and we look left to see a student who catches the
grimace on our face . . . will that student think it was directed at him? What should we do to mop up that impression
that is already in the past of that student’s school experience?
Can NOW still retrieve it and offer a re-do?
We have immediate past, present, and the quickly discernable
future within our grasp. What is the
hook? Let’s examine with an example,
regarding that grimace:
“I wonder if my
principal likes me. He didn’t look like
it.”
That moment when in conflict, we either choose to take the
first step toward amends, or choose to take another direction before reaching out
with an olive branch . . . what second of “present,” or better said, WHAT EXISTS
IN THE SPACE OF NOW, will make an indelible imprint in someone else’s immediate
past, as she thinks about you that evening.
“And to think that
once upon a time, I respected her!”
The NOW when a student hands us something completely
unacceptable for an assignment, and we choose to make that first mark in
ink. NOW’s interval of our teachership,
and the resulting volition involved, will not soon be erased with another’s
memory of school, and how one felt when assignments were returned.
Best use of NOW???
“I’m really glad that
Mr. Joseph didn’t go off on me for handing that in, like it was! That really sucked, and he had my back, even
when I didn’t have my own.”
If we were honest with ourselves, heading through life is
really a matter of looking through the windshield and the rear-view mirror
while paying attention to the dashboard as well. All three comprise the NOW, but we are
traveling very quickly.
Not paying attention to NOW can result in an accident.
While in the interval, as in driving a car, our
second-by-second movements, actions, and reactions (the present) are more a
product of our training than any conscious decision that we have time to make
in heavy traffic.
What has our K-12 educator driver’s training prepared us to do in heavy traffic? When we’re IN THE NOW?
Will we leave behind us clear lanes and memories of joyful
sightseeing, or rather skid marks and a few collisions that make others fearful
of getting behind the wheel themselves.
We’ll create memories, either way.
That’s NOW’s job description, even if the present doesn’t
accord us any real opportunity to take action, other than the one that is now a
blink behind us.
The present is misunderstood.
We think we’re in it more often than we are.
We think we can control it.
Past is where most present is conceived, without our
understanding that once something moves into its space, we’re no longer able to
get it under control, unless we have a firm grasp on the NOW and a willing
invitation from the minds and hearts of those who own it in memory, to give us
NOW’s chance, at that point.
________________________________________________________
Ryan Donlan and Steve Gruenert are
becoming more aware of the power of the NOW, and our obligation in K-12
education to pay attention to it. With
continual pressure to think about how the present will affect the future, they
think it may be time to bring what is under-rated, or even undiscovered (NOW’s
confidence interval) and give it some visibility. Please feel free to contact
them at ryan.donlan@indstate.edu or
steve.gruenert@indstate.edu if you would like to ponder with them sometime.
