In this lesson you are reflecting: not inventing new values, but testing whether the ones you ranked in Lesson 7 are fixed for life.

Most people in a room of seventeen-year-olds quietly assume their top value will still be their top value at forty. Today you will put that claim on the line, watch how one person's priorities moved through three life stages, then ground your own forward look in a real adult's history rather than a guess.

You will need your top value from your ranked Values document (Lesson 7) for the write later. If you do not have that ranking to hand, pick your current top value in one sentence now and note provisional — confirm from Values doc later. Do not stall the lesson waiting for a missing file.

Three terms you will use in the write-up. Read them once, then use them in your own sentences later rather than copying the definitions.

Value shift and priority change sit close together on purpose: a value shift is the move on the list; priority change is the same move named so you remember it is order that changed, not identity. In your write-up, name the shift and, if it helps, stress that the person stayed themselves.

Two short statements on the line. Stake a position, hear both sides, move again if an argument lands. Changing your mind after hearing someone else is the point.

About 8–10 minutes total (roughly 4–5 minutes per statement). This is the opener, not the main production of the lesson. The Values Future Look write comes next and gets the protected time.

• Statement 1: The values you hold at 17 are the ones you will hold at 40.
• Statement 2: If your top value changes, it means you were not being honest about yourself at 17.

This is the main production of the lesson: read one worked example, then write your Values Future Look in Strand 1.1.

Part 1: worked example (about 5 minutes)

Worked example (composite case): Maeve. Same person, three stages. Notice what stayed on her list and what moved. She is a teaching example, not someone you are expected to know.

Maeve at 17 (Leaving Cert year, small town in the midlands)
Maeve's top value is independence. She wants a university place far from home, a part-time job that is hers alone, and evenings that nobody at home schedules for her. Family still matters, but it sits lower: she turns down a local course her parents favour because it would keep her under their roof. Ambition is present too: she wants a degree that leads somewhere, not just any course.

Maeve at 25 (Dublin, first child six months old)
After college and two years in a marketing role, Maeve has a baby. Family rises to the top. She turns down a promotion that means three nights a week on the road. Independence has not disappeared; she still wants her own income and her own decisions. But the cost of ignoring family is now immediate, so the ranking flips. She asks for hybrid hours and takes a smaller project lead instead of the bigger title.

Maeve at 40 (same city, made redundant when her team is cut)
A restructuring ends Maeve's role. With a mortgage and a second child in secondary school, security climbs above ambition. She retrains into a steadier public-service role with less status than the private-sector path she once chased. Kindness and fairness stay on her list; they show up in how she manages the people who report to her. Independence is still there, but it now means "able to cover the bills if one income dips," not "free of other people's timetables."

What moved Maeve was not a personality transplant. College, a first child, and redundancy each changed what it cost to keep the old ranking.

Part 2: your Values Future Look (about 20 minutes, silent write)

Open a document called Values Future Look in your Strand 1.1 folder. Write under these five headings. Aim to finish in class; unfinished work goes home only if you were absent or genuinely ran out of time.

1. The adult I chose — first name or role only ("my coach", "an aunt", "a neighbour"). If you cannot use anyone from your own life without sharing something you do not want to share, use Maeve and say so in one line.
2. Their shift — one value that clearly moved for them, roughly when, and what happened in between that forced the reorder. One short paragraph. A value with no cause attached is not a shift you have evidenced.
3. My top value now — take it from your ranked Values document from Lesson 7. One sentence on why it sits at the top today. If that ranking is missing, spend two minutes naming your current top value from memory and write provisional — re-rank when Values sheet is restored beside it so this document still completes.
4. My guess at 25 — which value you think will be top then, in one plain sentence.
5. What would have to happen — one concrete life event or pressure that would make that change honest (not "I might mature"). If nothing would move today's top value, say what would have to stay true for that to hold. Check before you finish: is your guess at 25 a prediction with a cause underneath it, or a paragraph you would like to be true? Only the first counts as evidence here.

This is reflection on real history, not a prediction contest. A paragraph pinned to somebody's actual life beats a confident guess with nothing underneath it. Keep this document: it is useful source material later when ALT 1 asks you to show who you are becoming, not only who you are on paper today.

Talk these through with the person beside you, or sit with them quietly. Work from whatever you actually produced in the last two steps.

• From the line and Maeve (always available): Where did your marker finish on Statement 1, and what (if anything) moved it after you heard Maeve's three stages?
• From the headings you have filled so far: Which heading feels strongest as evidence, and which still needs a clearer cause?
• If your write is still thin: stay on Maeve only. Name one value that stayed on her list the whole way and one that moved only when the cost changed. Add any keepers to your Values Future Look after class.