Blog #6: What can we learn about teaching and learning from Randy Pausch?

What to say about Randy Pausch?  The words amazing, charismatic, funny and sincere immediately come to mind.  In 2007, his “Last Lecture” was all the rage.  He appeared on Oprah, tED talks, and many other televised interviews.  I never actually sat down to listen to the lecture, so much of what I heard about it was impressive enough, and everyone that spoke of the man couldn’t help but tear up.  

I, like many of us, have an exceptionally busy life.  Full time student, full time waitress, full time mommy, seriously part-time girlfriend (my boyfriend is writing his dissertation, I’m just trying to keep up with homework), and these are just the immediate pressures, not to mention extended family, friends and associates that may need any myriad of things done.  

When I finally (and forcibly, since this was a homework assignment) sat down to listen to this wonderful man speak, I was blown away.  My favorite quote:  “Always have fun.  I’m dying and I’m still having fun!”  How can we enjoy life with all the stresses and responsibilities if we don’t continue to have fun and view life with a childlike wonder?  How can we as teachers, take from what Pausch is trying to tell us and communicate that to our colleagues and students?

I’m going to skip right to the first head fake, forgive me for ruining it for anyone that hasn’t seen the lecture.  The lecture is about achieving childhood dreams, and at the end Pausch tells us that it is really about living life, because if you live life to the fullest, your dreams will present themselves to you.  I cannot agree more.  For any of us to become a successful teacher, it needs to be a part of a dream of ours.  It needs to click, to feel right, to be an organic part of our journey.  I didn’t intend to become a secondary teacher when I was a freshman in college (which was a long long long time ago), but my journey to achieve my goals and dreams has naturally led me to the place I am today.  I could not be more delighted.  I am a life-long learner.  I can’t stop it, wouldn’t even if I could, and with this delight of learning comes a compulsion to share the knowledge that I have, the excitement that I feel about my subject of study.  This, paired with an almost annoying optimism, is what makes me excited about teaching.  

So we’re all frustrated, busy, end-of-semester freaking out.  Pausch talks about brick walls as well.  Sometimes a brick wall can be a failed exam; financial aid that was cancelled; the death of a loved one; the abuse occurring at home; the car breaking down; the child getting a viral infection; an administrator that won’t allow you to move forward with an idea...any small thing can seem insurmountable under stressful situations.  Are you being called?  Is the brick wall insurmountable?  Pausch states that “Brick walls are there to stop people who don’t want it badly enough.”  I am in complete agreement.  When we graduate and become teachers, we will also have brick walls that rise up to obstruct our progress.  How will we deal with them?  

Dr. Pausch gives a list of ways in which to deal with brick walls, or in other words, live life:

• be earnest
• apologize
• focus on other people
• get a feedback loop and listen to it
• show gratitude
• don’t complain just work harder
• be good at something
• work hard (didn’t he say that already) :)
• find the best in everybody

He went into detail about each bullet point (I won’t give it away, watch it for yourself https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo  ), but what struck me the most was that every point has a few common threads:  humility, hard work, and grace.  Too often, when we think of success, we come up with an image of gleaming teeth, dollar bills, maybe a fancy car (or ten).  I think we have lost touch with the small, everyday successes that come from chipping away at those brick walls:  the AHA moment of a student, the accomplishment of just one more homework assignment in the pile of twenty, a sandwich brought by a loved one when you are too busy to eat, the smile of your healthy child.  

As teachers, it is our job to enable the dreams of others.  We are not just transferring information back and forth like unfeeling computers.  Also, we are not meant to meet just the basic requirements that our jobs provide for us.  We are meant to go above and beyond for the pure delight of learning and teaching something that we love.  If we are not on track to attain our own dreams, how are we ever going to garner inspiration from our students?  Day to day life can be very grinding.  The strongest willed can be whittled down by stressors and the only thing that can overcome the stress, the brick wall, is this:  humility, hard work, and grace.  Pausch understood these things long before he was diagnosed terminal.  His “last lecture” was not presented because he was dying, it was presented in order to show how to best live:  have fun, surmount those brick walls, and live a life filled with dreams.