As educators we know that we impart more to our students than just content knowledge. Life lessons, motivations, these come along with the classroom content of variables and arrays. We share student’s hopes and dreams and often wonder what happened to “so and so” every now and again.
But what if we were asked to put aside content? Focus instead on the life lessons? Many universities across the country have been asking professors to do just this in a series called “last lectures”. The professors were to give what they imagined to be their last lecture in life. What would you say? Who would you address it to?
Hypothetical has a way of becoming true. This week Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch gave his lecture entitled “Achieving your Childhood Dreams” as a part of this lecture series. The catch? It just might be one of his last. Randy is one of the co-creators of Alice and has contributed enormously to computer science in his career. Randy also has terminal cancer and has been given just a few weeks to live.
The lecture that he gave was taped and can be viewed through CMU for a short while. The lecture itself is 2 hours, but watching it goes much faster than that. The Wall Street Journal has a good article with a short highlights video of the lecture.
I highly recommend watching the lecture, sharing it with your students and talking about the life lessons that it evokes. The lecture is light and full of humor and something not to be missed.
Leigh Ann Sudol
CSTA Communcations Chair