Words to Last a Lifetime

"Brick walls are there for a reason - they let us know how badly we want things." -Randy Pausch

Wow! and Wow! again! Randy Pausch's Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams, is phenomenal. I know by this point in time, many people have already seen it. However, for those of us who never had, it is an eye-opener. Randy's matter-of-fact delivery and refusal to accept sympathy for his situation is, in my opinion, pretty uncommon today. He was facing death and looked beyond himself to leave a legacy for his children that can benefit any of us who take it to heart. He gives lasting and monumental guidelines for living and teaching.

One of his pieces of advice was, "Focus on people and learning to work in groups." I think that one of the things he did very well in life was focus on people. It is good advice for anyone entering the teaching profession. Why else would one want to teach, if not to help others and focus on what you can do towards that? Also, there are many, many times when working in a group can be a benefit to all involved. In a group, your focus can not be on yourself. One must look to the success of the whole in order to be a part of that success when it is attained.

Another principle that Randy spoke of was feedback. He said that finding out how you stack up against your peers teaches self-reflection. I think this is very important today, when so many refuse to take responsibility for their actions. Many people have a very hard time analyzing and then being honest with themselves. If we could encourage and promote that and see it become a norm for personal behavior, especially in the youth we propose to teach, I believe the world would be a much better place.

Randy said, "The best way to teach is to let them think they are learning something else." This is a slight-of-hand thing to me and I think it takes a very creative person to be able to teach like that. I have heard it said many times that if a woman wants something from her husband she should let him think it was his idea in the first place. I think the same can go for children and helping them to learn, but how to do that is harder than proposing to do it. He said to let students have fun while learning something hard, which is a terrific idea. Hopefully, there will be more and more creative people who will help teachers do that.

Another of Randy's suggestions was to learn from our students. One way teachers can do this is to be open to what they have to say, and really listen when they speak. Often teachers can get caught up in thinking they have all the answers when there are times when they should be asking the questions. Randy also said that we should, "never lose the child-like wonder," and I think that goes along with learning from our students. We shouldn't be afraid of the new and different things our students can teach us.

There were way too many good points in Randy's lecture. I was so impressed with how much he cared for the people in his life and the selflessness with which he faced what was to come. I'm sure it has been said before, but he was and is a true inspiration.