Blog Assignment 6

Randy Pausch: Last Lecture

Randy Pausch seems to be a good hearted man and is extremely inspirational. I am glad Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture video was in this week’s blog post. The timing could not have been better; considering, it is midterm and this is about the time I begin to get tired and weary in school. Pausch stated, “inspiration and the permission to dream is huge… we must not lose sight of this". He is addressing students, adults, and his own children telling them to never give up on their own childhood dreams, no matter how far fetched they may be. The “Last Lecture” was broken down into three parts: his own childhood dreams, helping others, and lessons learned.
In the first section, Pausch described his childhood dreams. His dreams consisted of being in zero gravity, playing in the NFL, authoring an article in the World Book encyclopedia, being Captain Kirk, winning stuffed animals, and being a Disney Imagineer. Pausch achieved in all of these goals, except playing in the NFL and being Captain Kirk; although, he did meet Captain Kirk. He never let the negativity of any one around him hinder his ability to succeed. When describing his football career, he states, “most of what we learn, we learn indirectly ‘head fake’”. A “head fake” is a situation, where, an individual thinks they are doing a task, like playing a sport, but in all reality, they are learning more important qualities for their future. I can relate with Pausch and his sports stories. I played volleyball throughout high school. At the time, I did not realize what playing a team sport would teach me, but now I appreciate the lessons learned. I learned self-confidence, how to work in a group, self-discipline, and strength to keep pushing, even when I wanted to quit. One of the reasons why I am the person I am today is because of playing a team sport. Pausch also stated, “when you’re screwing up and nobody’s saying anything to you anymore, that means they gave up”. This is another great point. Educators and parents must push their students and children to achieve their goals. Without critique and feedback, a child will not reach their full potential in life. I think this statement made me realize how big of an impact teachers have on student’s lives. We must help students accomplish their goals and never give up on them. Although criticism might be harsh and sometimes hard to handle, students need to feel like someone cares, and through this attention, they will work harder.
After he described his childhood dreams, in the next segment, Pausch talked about enabling the childhood dreams of others. He realized that he could help students attain their childhood dreams through teaching. The last place that he taught was Carnegie Mellon. At this university, Pausch created a class called “Building Virtual Worlds”. There were 50 students in the class from various departments who worked in groups for 2 weeks producing a virtual world. After 2 weeks, the groups were reassigned and the students built another virtual world; this went on for the duration of the class. He described it as “having a new playmate” every 2 weeks. In this lecture, he included an example of one of the virtual worlds, and it was fascinating. Pausch taught this class for 10 years, passed it to someone who was “better than” he was and created the Entertainment Technology Center. The ETC is a 2 year plan for a master’s degree. While talking about his teaching career, Pausch stated, “[the] best education to give is for somebody to be self reflective”. I think this is another great point. People learn from their mistakes, but if they are not “self reflective” then they will never change for the better. Sure, students can read grades on a paper, but if they are not responsible for their own actions then they will not learn. Dr. Strange uses this strategy as well. He told us in the first week of class that we would have to answer questions about our assignments, for example, were they turned in on time. If these questions are answered truthfully, a student already knows the answer to questions like “what is my grade for this semester”.
The final part of the video was lessons learned. In this section, Pausch gives many helpful tips on being a teacher, or life in general. The main statement that he kept referring back to was “brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things”. This is definitely true in my life, and I am sure true for others as well. “Brick walls” symbolize the challenges in life, and we must get “over” them to reach our goals. Those who want to achieve will find a way around them and those who do not care enough will quit. As educators, we must help our students find ways around these “brick walls” which will enable them to attain their goals. Just a few other words of wisdom that Pausch passes on are, “have fun”, “never give up”, “focus on others, not yourself”, “get feed back loop and listen to it “, and “find the best in everybody; no matter how long you have to wait for them to show it”. These are all helpful advice for anyone in any profession. My favorite is the last statement, “find the best in everybody; no matter how long you have to wait for them to show it”. I think this is extremely helpful advice for teachers. It seems like it would be easy for a teacher to turn their back on a student who does not care and does not try; but if we give that student enough support and feedback, they can and will strive to be a better person. The Freedom Writers Diary and Randy Pausch helped me understand this statement.
In conclusion, I think that Dr. Randy Pausch is an extremely inspiring speaker. He achieved his childhood dreams and never gave up, even when he was diagnosed with cancer. At this point in time, besides my mother, he is the most inspiring person. His lecture seemed to give me that extra boost that I needed to help me make it through this semester. I wish I could have met him. My favorite part of the entire lecture was the last few seconds when he said “this talk’s not for you, it’s for my kids”. Randy Pausch was an extremely intelligent man and is a great role model.