Randy Pausch video

The very first thing I noticed about the video, obviously, was that Mr. Pausch was in amazingly good spirits despite the fact that he probably only has a couple more months to live. I like the story of how when he played youth football, his head coach was really riding him hard in practice. After practice, the assistant coach mentioned to Randy that he noticed it and said it was a good thing. The reason it was a good thing is because when someone stops trying to correct you for making a mistake, that means they have given up on you. Another thing he mentioned when he was talking about football was how parents have their kids play sports because of "head fake". By this he means it's not football what parents actually want their children to learn, it's what they get out of football that's important. For example, teamwork, perseverance, and fundamentals are something you get out of football. This is something we can take out of everything we do. Sometimes as a college student we feel like there are certain classes that are just not important to us for the future. However, there are plenty of things we can get out of that class to help us in whatever we plan on doing.

Another thing Mr. Pausch talked about was the significance of brick walls being in our way. Those brick walls are there to prove how much we want something. If you want something bad enough, you will break through the brick wall. If you don't want it, you will never get through the brick wall. To me, college is a perfect example of a brick wall. He also spoke of how a very well know virtual reality colleague of his told him that if you wait long enough, people will surprise and impress you. By this, he meant that sometimes you just have to get to know someone before you really get to know them and understand them.

About halfway through the lecture, Mr. Pausch spoke about a two week assignment he gave the class. When the students presented their assignments, it completely blew him away. They were so good he didn't know how to go about the rest of the semester so he called a mentor. He told the mentor about the assignment, and that if they would have spent the entire semester on the projects, he would have given the class all As. The mentor told him to go into the class and tell them that he thought they were capable of much better. The reason he told him this was because he thought it was important to never set the bar. A lot of teachers always set a bar they want their students to reach. If the students reach that bar, then they usually don't go any further. If you never set the bar, the students are always learning more and wanting more.

Mr. Pausch's lecture was definitely an inspiring one. He spoke of many things, including how the best way to make your dreams come true is to help others make theirs come true. I think that everyone that is going into the profession of teaching must have this attitude to be a successful teacher.