This brilliant video shows us how people are divided by their cultural perspective of time - Are you past, present or future orientated and why this matters. Our view of time is what separates us. It is THE most significant cultural divide.
Having shown us the context, Zimbardo shows us why boys are doing so badly at school. They have been rewired to be in the immediate present and to have control over what they do. By 21 the typical boy has spent 10,000 hours interacting alone with his computer.
School is all analog and sequential. It is all about the future - when you know this it will be great when you are 30! School is all about it being in control not you. School is all passive. The rewards are all off in the distant and abstract future.
This is the heart of the problem that boys today face. Working harder to drill stuff into boys is not going to work.
School demands a cultural revolution that starts with this new context. We can't go back - we have to find ways of making learning more engaging.
