Thursday, December 6, 2012

Blog Assignment #6

Randy Pausch's Last Lecture

What can I say about Randy Pausch? What an amazing person. I will admit that at several points during this video, I teared up. When Randy Pausch gave this inspirational lecture, he was dying of liver cancer. He had just learned that he only had a few more months to live. As the video begins, Pausch stresses that he is "not in denial," but that he simply realizes that there are things that are much more important. He also encourages his audience not to pity him and follows this command with a few push ups and a lot of humor.

In this lecture, Randy Pausch discusses three points:
1.Childhood Dreams
2.Enabling the dreams of others
3.Lessons learned.

Pausch grew up in the 1960's, which he describes as "an easy time to dream." Pausch lists a few of his childhood dreams which include, playing in the NFL, authoring an article in the World Book Encyclopedia, and being a Disney Imagineer. While Pausch did not accomplish all of his childhood dreams, he learned from all of his attempts. He explains, "experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted." I think this statement is profound. He is absolutely right. When we don't get what we wanted, we are upset and disheartened, but we learn and we grow. He describes his repeated encounters with brick walls throughout his life. These brick walls, he explains, seem impossible to defeat at the time, but they help you realize how bad you really want something. They also separate the people who are willing to work harder to achieve the goal, and the people who aren't.

In his second point, Pausch discusses enabling others to achieve their dreams. I thought this point was wonderful because, as educators, we are in the business of helping people make their dreams come true. Teachers help their students gain the skills they need to become exactly what they want to be. I think this is one of the things that attracts me to a career in education. Pausch mentions watching his students get excited about something and have fun while they are learning, sometimes without them even realizing that they are learning. This is exactly why I want to teach. That gratification is worth all of it.

Tigger or Eeyore?
The majority of this lecture was focused on lessons learned. Pausch discusses his many wonderful life experiences as well as his failures, but it is things he learned from all of it that struck me the most. In addition to learning to help others, he also learned about what is important. Things like, letting your children paint on the walls of their bedrooms, and always having fun. Pausch says, "I don't know how not to have fun!" Even in the final months of his life, he knew how to laugh and find joy in everything. He explains how valuable it is to hold on to your child-like wonder. I find this to be incredibly true. It is healthy to be silly. Silliness will be a must in my classroom. Pausch explains the value of earnestness, honesty, willingness to apologize when you are wrong, and gratitude for the things you have. He encourages everyone to listen to feedback instead of being defensive about it, and never complain. Instead, work harder.
I thoroughly enjoyed the full hour of this video. There is so much truth in Randy Pausch's lecture. I think this video is a must for every student and I plan to watch more of Pausch's lectures in the future.

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