The shifting emphasis among the past, present, and future provides a key thread for understanding the evolution of education. In the premodern era, education was shaped primarily by cyclical natural time, centered on the “past’ and governed by a logic of transmission. In the modern era, linear clock time became dominant, shifting the focus to the “future” and giving rise to a logic of preparation. In the postmodern era, education has turned toward experiential lived time, placing the “present’ at the center and embracing a logic of growth. These three conceptions of time have shaped three distinct forms of education, each dominant in a different historical period, yet now intersecting and colliding in the age of intelligence.

Historical evolution of temporal orientations in education

Before the Industrial Revolution, production and daily life followed the rhythms of nature. Time was embedded in the recurring cycles of nature and life, passing slowly and almost imperceptibly. No strict boundaries separated the past, present, and future: The “present” carried forward the “past,” while the “future” unfolded as a continuation of the “present.” Within this cyclical conception of time, the teachings of sages, the wisdom of earlier generations, and classical principles were regarded as enduring truths capable of transcending time and space. Education accordingly assumed the mission of “transmission,” passing accumulated experience and ideas from one generation to the next.

The invention and widespread adoption of the clock detached time from the rhythms of nature and the body. Everything was drawn into the forward march of time, and “looking ahead” came to be regarded as the rational course to follow. Within modernity’s narrative of unending development and progress, the “future” became a goal to be actively pursued. Education was consequently entrusted with an entirely new mission, shifting from “knowledge transmission” to “preparation for the future.” Learning in the present became preparation for employment in the future, while childhood itself came to be conceived as a preparatory stage for adult life.

Postmodern society has deconstructed modernity’s ideals of rationality and standardization, its progressive conception of history, and its grand narratives, while clock time has gradually given way to lived time. Lived time refers to the distinctly human experience of time: Moments of happiness may seem to pass in an instant, while periods of suffering can feel endless; in states of deep immersion, awareness of time may disappear altogether, and even a fleeting moment can take on a sense of eternity. This form of time is embedded in individual lived experience. It cannot be quantified or readily divided and is profoundly shaped by personal feelings, emotions, and experiential states.

From this perspective, the past, present, and future intertwine and permeate one another. The “future,” in the form of anticipation, planning, and intentionality, can be brought into the “present,” while the “past,” as memory and experience, can be reconstructed. Lived time is fundamentally an inner experience of the subject, and the “present,” as the reality of lived existence, thus acquires a form of ontological priority. Education, accordingly, should value the here and now and restore children’s present to them.

Reconfiguration in age of intelligence

In the age of intelligence, AI technology is reshaping the meaning of the past, present, and future, along with the linear causal relationships among them. The “past” has become a corpus to be processed and retrieved computationally, the “present” is increasingly suspended by technology, and the “future” can now be simulated and generated. As a result, forms of education centered on the past, future, and present are all confronting new forms of disruption and challenge.

The predicament facing education centered on the past stems from AI’s capacity for rapid generation and retrieval, which fragments the classics into discrete pieces of information, eroding their authority and intellectual depth. Students accustomed to a constant flow of information may also find it increasingly difficult to immerse themselves in classical texts. The concentration, contemplation, and unhurried pace required to engage deeply with classical knowledge stand in sharp contrast to the speed and fragmentation of algorithmic recommendations.

Education centered on the future has long assumed that students can be guided in preparing for adult life and future careers. Yet as intelligent algorithms have risen to prominence, the future itself has become increasingly uncertain. AI is transforming how people produce, live, and exist, while even their expectations and imagination of the future are increasingly shaped—and constrained—by algorithms. As a result, the very notion of preparing for the future has begun to lose its focus.

The crisis facing education centered on the present stems from experience becoming increasingly superficial, hollow, and formalized, losing both depth and meaning. Virtual worlds displace firsthand experience, short-form videos fragment attention, and algorithms encroach on individuals’ capacity to construct meaning from experience for themselves.

The weakening of education centered on the past, the loss of focus in education centered on the future, and the distortion of education centered on the present all point to the need to rebalance education’s temporal orientations. No single orientation should be allowed to compress or obscure the value of the others. Rather, each should find its appropriate place so as to preserve the authority of the classics, keep open the possibilities of the future, and safeguard the authenticity and depth of experience.

Zhang Guoling is an associate professor from the School of Educational Sciences at Lingnan Normal University.