Blog Post #6

Randy Pausch's Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

This is the last lecture given by Randy Pausch. He was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. In this video, he talks about his childhood dreams, enabling the dreams of others, and lessons he had learned. He explained that the United States landed on the moon when he was a child; so it made him fell as if all dreams were possible. In the video, he showed his childhood dreams and told about the importance of specific dreams. He told us what he learned from achieving and not achieving his goals. One thing he learned was when you do something bad and no one corrects you it is a bad thing, but when you do something bad and someone corrects you it means that they care. I think that is an important statement because it is true and some people do not think that way. It is also important for teachers to correct their students in the classroom and for students to use the advice to make themselves better. I believe that is how we learn by correcting our mistakes. Randy Pausch also explains about how he had setbacks for his childhood dream to be am Imagineer at Disney World, but was finally given the opportunity to work with them. When he was describing his struggles he said, “Brick walls are there for a reason, they let us prove how badly we want things and our dedication”. I think this a great quote to teach our classroom students because there will always be a brick walls and things in life do not come easy. Teachers should teach their students how to break through those walls and to never give up.

Then, he asks the audience a wonderful question, “How can you enable childhood dreams?” He doesn’t answers the question until the end in his lesson learned section. But he has says this, “it is easy to recognize someone’s childhood dreams when they tell you, when they don’t is when it gets difficult.” As a teacher, it is important to enable students’ dreams but you have to find out what they are first. He goes on to explain how he helped enable students’ dreams by creating a virtual world course and a master’s degree. He stressed the importance of millions of kids having fun while learning something hard. Which I think he stresses this because for one he is a professor and for another it is important for kids to have fun while learning something hard so they don’t struggle and give up.

Finally he talks about the lessons he has learned. He gave some really good advice for teachers and students in this section. Some of my favorites were helping other, learn for your students, tell them about having fun, never lose the child-like wonder, and loyalty is a two way street. Then, he tells you how to get people to help you. He says, “You can’t get there alone, tell the truth, be earnest, apologize when you need to, and focus on others.” He says these things are how you get people to help you, but I really think it is how be successful. If teachers teach those five things, I think students would be more successful.

I really enjoyed this video. He had a lot of life and joy for someone who only had a couple of months to live. I think he said a lot of great things for teachers, students, and just people in general. I thought it was a little long and I could have done without the virtual reality clip in there, but I understand that he was proud of the course and those students. I also really like the connections he used with people in his life like his students, co-works, bosses, his wife, and more. I thought it was a special touch.