Blog Post #8 What Can We Learn About Teaching and Learning From Randy Pausch?

This assignment was not the first time I had heard of Randy Pausch. In 2011, which was also my senior year of high school, I was required to do a report on Randy Pausch. We had to buy a copy and read his book The Last Lecture before doing a presentation and writing a paper. I remember not wanting to do it at all. It was the last few months of high school and I let the book sit in my room untouched for almost a solid month, because that's how long we were given to do the assignment. In the last week, I finally picked up the book and started reading. I remember finishing it in one night. I cried, laughed, and I was moved by his story and his advice about life.

I didn't realize at the time I could use some of his advice as a future educator. In his Last Lecture video, he talks about hitting metaphorical "brick walls" in life. There will always be obstacles that we have to jump over in order to get what we want. They're there to show us how badly we want something and our dedication to get it. They stop the people who don't really want to put forth the effort. We all hit brick walls in our lives, it's just a matter if we can get past them.

My favorite quote from Randy Pausch's video is when he's speaking to his mentor and his mentor tells Pausch to go back into his class and say to his students, "That was pretty good, but I know you can do better." This is amazing advice for a teacher, or just anyone. Never set a bar so your students can keep bettering themselves and never reach a stopping point. Never say, "This is the best work I've ever seen." The students will just settle for that and never feel like they could do better.

Randy Pausch never gave up on his childhood dreams. He pushed past his brick walls and did the best he could to achieve his goals. He had to modify a few of them, but he saw them through 'til the end. He was diagnosed with cancer and his doctors gave him only 6 months to live at the most. It would be hard for me to be optimistic if I were given the same news. But he treated every day as if it if were a blessing and I think we all forget to live our lives like that. His advice is to have fun and live life to the fullest extent.