To be completely honest, I was very wary about this video when I saw it was over an hour long. I was afraid it would be very long and irrelevant to my life. However, as soon as Randy Pausch started talking, I realized that the video was going to be worth watching. An hour and sixteen minutes later, I could not be happier that I was given the chance to watch this video. Pausch was so inspirational to me and honestly taught me a lot about not only how to achieve your childhood dreams and help others achieve theirs, but how to live my life. With the tragedy that surrounds life today, it is refreshing to hear such positive things. I learned an infinite number things from Pausch, but I will only go over a few things that stuck out the most to me.
Fundamentals are the key to anything. If you do not understand the fundamentals, you will not be able to expand on ideas properly. The perfect example is in math. You have to learn 2+2=4 before you can fully understand why 2x2=4 as well. This is my mission as a teacher- to make sure my students understand the fundamentals so they can succeed when faced with more in-depth information.
A quote that really stood out to me was by Pausch's assistant football coach. "When you're screwing up and no body's saying anything to you anymore, that means they gave up." This is a heavy statement. I think teachers are so worried about hurting a child's feelings now that they will not tell the student when they are doing something wrong. This is robbery! Teachers that think like this are robbing kids of their education. For example, I was on color guard in high school. During practice, the instructor would make us do the same 8-count some ten to fifteen times because one person was out of sync with the rest of us. She refused to call out the one person who was wrong as to not hurt anyone's feelings. It was infuriating. How can someone know they are doing something wrong when no one tells them?! Of course, a teacher should never be rude to a student, but constructive criticism can help them succeed! A little enthusiasm with that constructive criticism can do wonders as well. To elaborate on this point, teachers especially should get their students to become self-reflective. Self-reflective people become self-respected.
Pausch was talking about the above things in football terminology. One of his childhood dreams was to play in the National Football League. He said he did not accomplish his goal, but he ultimately got more out of working towards it than he would have accomplishing it. He said, "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted." This statement is incredibly correct. Students need to realize early on that they will not always get what they want, even if they work really hard for it. "Brick walls" will always be there. They are there to stop the people who do not want it bad enough and to see how badly you want it. While things might get hard, you should always have fun learning and accomplishing your goals. Another piece of advice was to never lose the child-like wonder.
In his Last Lecture, Randy Pausch stressed the importance of the "head fake", or indirect learning. When you have kids, you do not let them play football, baseball, basketball, or whatever other hobby or sport to learn that hobby or sport. You let them play to learn important skills such as teamwork, leadership, sportsmanship, perseverance, etc. It is so important for children to learn these skills at a young age, so they can carry it over in to their school and personal lives. It will ultimately allow them to live better lives.
A close friend of Pausch's is Jon Snoddy. His quote, "Wait long enough and people with surprise and impress you." I feel as though teachers need to keep this on their minds. As he pointed out in his video, teacher cannot just put the bar anywhere for students' work. Let them set the bar, and it will be higher than you could have ever imagined- especially if their work has an audience.
A few other pieces of advice from Randy Pausch was to help others, loyalty is a two-way street, be earnest, apologize, focus on other people, and tell the truth. This video is immeasurable in the amount of good words it has for someone wanting to lead a better life. I will, without a doubt, carry these words of wisdom with me in both my personal life and my future career as a teacher.
Thanks for reading!
Jennah Rose
"To be completely honest, I was very wary about this video when I saw it was over an hour long. I was afraid it would be very long and irrelevant to my life." You judge a video by its length. Or is an hour too much for you? That sounds like me judging Twitter before I had used it!
ReplyDelete"I think teachers are so worried about hurting a child's feelings now that they will not tell the student when they are doing something wrong." Educators seem to me to be more prone to that behavior than coaches. Why do you think that is the case?
Thorough. Thoughtful. Very well done!