Randy Pausch: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

Randy Pausch is a very admirable person. He was diagnosed with terminal cancer and only given a few months to live. And even with all of this on his plate he still felt it important to talk to people about how to achieve their childhood dreams. He started the lecture with discussing his own childhood. Born in 1960, Randy said he had a happy childhood and felt that he was born to two fantastic people. As a child he was a daydreamer and thought since we had made it to the moon that anything was possible, which is an attitude he kept throughout his life.

As a child Randy had six major dreams, most of which he accomplished. The ones he didn't he was able to learn a lot from trying. One of the quotes he uses in his lecture is "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted". He also belives that brick walls were put there for us to prove ourselves, not to keep us out. The people they stop are the ones who didn't want it bad enough.

Randy started a program at Carnegie Mellon University called Building Virtual Worlds or BVW for short. The first semester of the program he assigned his students to build a virtual program. When asked how he wanted it done, he said for them to do whatever they wanted, with only two guidelines. The assignments that were turned in he found amazing. He went to his mentor and asked what he should tell the class, his response was tell them they did a good job but he knows they can do better. This is a great example of constructive criticism. I think that this is one of the best way to get your students to do better in class. You encourage them by telling them they did a good job and then re instill in them the fact that you believe in them by telling them you know that they can do better.

In closing his lecture he leaves the audience with a few parting thoughts that I think should be told to everyone. One of my favorites is something I think can be used with any grade level, and that is are you a Tiger or an Eeyore? are you going to be full of life and take chances and make mistakes or are you going to be an Eeyore and mope about the hard ships that befall you? Remember Brick walls are put there for us to show our determination. When things don't go our way or that class is too hard, we shouldn't complain we should just work harder. This video helped me out not by listening to his teaching methods but from listening to how he worked to get where he wanted to be and he did it with a smile on his face.