Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams
This video is a truly remarkable and moving presentation by Randy Pausch at Carnegie Mellon University on September 18, 2007. His bravery and jovial nature in the face of terminal cancer is truly amazing. The video is unbelievably funny and is also quite stirring. In the video, Dr. Pausch talks about his childhood dreams, his life as a virtual reality creator, and his career as a professor. His honesty is quite palpable. Dr. Rausch's presentation manages to stay fresh and optimistic throughout. The video offers a good deal of food for thought for educators and people in general.
I really liked Rausch's description of everything he learned from his experiences in trying to become and NFL football player. His idea of 'head fakes' that indirectly teach traits through some other medium is spot on. More specifically, Rausch mentions that the long term lessons of football are not how to block and tackle, but rather the deeper values taught in football such as perseverance. He calls on teachers to look out for these 'head fakes' as potential ways to successfully impact students' lives. His point that "if nobody is criticizing you, they probably have given up on you" is definitely something I agree with and have used in my own coaching career with my own players.
Dr. Rausch also makes mention numerous times about figurative "brick walls" that people are bound to hit throughout their lives. He points out that brick walls are only in place to keep those who do not want something bad enough from getting it. He asserts that brick walls are merely a challenge and that the ultimate key is to keep going. This is also a value that I have attempted to infuse into the minds of students I have had the opportunity to instruct. Being able to teach values like this is probably one of the most special opportunities for educators, because lessons like these are not forgotten after the final exams are over, but stay with students for a lifetime.
Dr. Rausch's tales of his career in virtual reality and educating students about it is amazing. One of his lifelong goals was to work as an 'imaganineer' at Disney Land, a dream that he was eventually able to achieve. He also points out that as educators, one of our goals must be to help students achieve each of their own childhood dreams. I found this to be a very profound idea about the long term goal of teachers, and I think that this is definitely true. I would argue that everyone dreams of great thing during those years of childhood wonder, and teachers are definitely on the forefront of being able to help people achieve these dreams. It is a goal of mine to be a teacher that hopefully can do things that enable my students to one day achieve their dreams. Dr. Rausch was able to help many of his students accomplish their dreams, such as working on Star Wars films, and I can only hope to one day be able to tell stories like this about my own students one day.
I really liked Rausch's description of everything he learned from his experiences in trying to become and NFL football player. His idea of 'head fakes' that indirectly teach traits through some other medium is spot on. More specifically, Rausch mentions that the long term lessons of football are not how to block and tackle, but rather the deeper values taught in football such as perseverance. He calls on teachers to look out for these 'head fakes' as potential ways to successfully impact students' lives. His point that "if nobody is criticizing you, they probably have given up on you" is definitely something I agree with and have used in my own coaching career with my own players.
Dr. Rausch also makes mention numerous times about figurative "brick walls" that people are bound to hit throughout their lives. He points out that brick walls are only in place to keep those who do not want something bad enough from getting it. He asserts that brick walls are merely a challenge and that the ultimate key is to keep going. This is also a value that I have attempted to infuse into the minds of students I have had the opportunity to instruct. Being able to teach values like this is probably one of the most special opportunities for educators, because lessons like these are not forgotten after the final exams are over, but stay with students for a lifetime.
Dr. Rausch's tales of his career in virtual reality and educating students about it is amazing. One of his lifelong goals was to work as an 'imaganineer' at Disney Land, a dream that he was eventually able to achieve. He also points out that as educators, one of our goals must be to help students achieve each of their own childhood dreams. I found this to be a very profound idea about the long term goal of teachers, and I think that this is definitely true. I would argue that everyone dreams of great thing during those years of childhood wonder, and teachers are definitely on the forefront of being able to help people achieve these dreams. It is a goal of mine to be a teacher that hopefully can do things that enable my students to one day achieve their dreams. Dr. Rausch was able to help many of his students accomplish their dreams, such as working on Star Wars films, and I can only hope to one day be able to tell stories like this about my own students one day.
I really like the way he used his successes and failures to motivate his audience to reach their potential by believing in their own childhood dreams. There's something about reaching back to childhood that makes the impossible seem possible again. Maybe that's why Disney World seems so magical even as an adult!
ReplyDelete