The Last Lecture is a powerful and inspirational book written by a Professor of Computer Science, Randy Pausch. The book is a memoir of his life based on the last lecture he gave at Carnegie Mellon University about a year before he died of pancreatic cancer. Although, it was his last lecture, it is clear that the lecture itself is not about dying. Similarly, the book is not about Pausch’s death. The book consists of various stories from Randy’s Pausch life, and ideas on living life to the fullest. In this paper, I will review Pausch story, and identify issues, concerns, and possibilities discussed in the book. Further, I will explore what needs to be done in respond to these issues.
Book overview
In the beginning of the book, Pausch reveals that he is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and his recent treatments did not work, so he has only months to live. “While for the most part I’m in terrific physical shape, I have ten tumors in my liver and I have only a few months left to live.
I am a father of three young children, and married to the woman of my dreams. While I could easily feel sorry for myself, that wouldn’t do them, or me, any good” (Pausch, 2008). Knowing that he has a very limited time to live, Pausch decides to write a lecture on achieving childhood dreams. To him, the lecture will be a legacy that he can leave for his children.
When Pausch discusses his childhood dreams, he describes how his parents made achieving his dreams possible by their constant support. He talks about each of his childhood dreams and what he has learned from them. Pausch never made it to the NFL, but he had learned many valuable lessons from participating in sports. For instance, Pausch learned important lessons from his...
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...g dealers or gang dealers (Rudkin, 2003).
Conclusion
This paper is a report of the book The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. In my work I made an attempt to identify issues, concerns, and possibilities discussed in the book, and to explore what needs to be done in respond to these issues. The book is a memoir of Pausch’s life in which he shares his wisdom about how to live a productive and meaningful life. The lessons, questions and issues that this book raise are universal. Many people can benefit from the book regardless of their age, race, or social status. I cannot express how much I enjoyed this book. Randy’s Pausch life is a truly unique powerful story that can serve as a guide for families, schools, and community leaders on how to help our children develop the skills of resilience to deal more effectively with stress, and to cope with everyday challenges.
It is truly remarkable how Randy Pausch and Morrie Schwartz stories are so similar but yet so different. They both seem to have an outlook on life in a positive way, not sad or demeaning. The only crippling difference is the fact that Morrie was at the age that wasn’t abnormal to be sick and Randy was just dealt the cards for a short life. One of Professor Randy Pausch’s many quotes during The Last Lecture makes a similar point between his experience and Morrie’s when he says, “…it’s hard to raise awareness of pancreatic cancer – people who get it don’t live long enough.” ALS is such a rehabilitating disease that scientist have issues pinpointing the causes to even get close to a cure, which didn’t hinder either of their strive to keep going as far as they could.
The author Wes Moore dad was a hard worker and he had dreams & goals set for the future. The other Wes’s parents didn’t have as much drive and ambition. The other Wes’s dad walked out on him and his mother was left to work jobs just to provide for the family. Author Wes’s parents ambitions rubbed off onto him and his mother’s love for education drove her to push Wes academically. The two mothers had different expectations and ambitions for their sons. The other Wes states “‘We will do what others expect of us, Wes said. If they expect us to graduate we will graduate. If they expect us to get a job, we will get a job. If they expect us to go to jail, we will go to jail.” (Moore 126). The expectation the families had on both Wes’s shaped who they were and that influenced the decisions they made, that caused their lives to end up so
The world has experienced many changes in past generations, to the present. One of the very most important changes in life had to be the changes of children. Historians have worked a great deal on children’s lives in the past. “While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.”- Author Unknown
“To be in your children’s memories tomorrow, you have to be in their lives today,” states Barbara Johnson, an award-winning Christian author. Parents have natural laws for caring for their children and protecting their youth as a family. Examples of this are supporting children throughout their lives, teaching kids the basic principles of life, and giving the youth restraint and control to expand safety. But, as many kids have experienced, some parents definitely are unable to follow these rules. The narrative The Veldt by Ray Bradbury not only places the reader into a house of the future, but also demonstrates how parents overlook their children when their lives are so far apart. This story puts our minds into the character George Hadley as he and his wife start to become suspicious of their children’s thoughts coming true in the mysterious, active nursery of the future-like home. After finally realizing what their kids have become, the parents finally recognize how little concern they have for their youth. Generally,
Most everyone has experienced a time when they did not have to worry about financial problems, jobs, or even lives. That time for most individuals is a time of immaturity and learning. Childhood is an important part of everyone’s life. Who a person will become is the result of this period in one’s life. Although the majority had an enjoyable and carefree childhood, there are still many that do not have the chance to enjoy it. Just as a coin has two faces, Annie Dillard’s “An American Childhood” and Luis Rodriguez’s “Always Running” have shown the readers that not everyone had a fun and exciting childhood.
Resilience and hardiness has long been a topic of research and discussion within different paradigms and fields of study, for example, in military psychology, psychiatry, health statistics and measurement, medical anthropology, education, medicine and organizational settings. Resilience means the skills, abilities, acquaintance, and insight that accumulate over time as people struggle to conquer adversity and meet challenges. It is an ongoing and developing fund of energy and skill that can be used in current struggles (Saleebey, 1996; Liebenberg, 2005).Most commonly, the term resilience has come to mean an individual's ability to overcome adversity and continue his or her normal development.
Dreams are something all humans share in common and they manifest the realization of our lives. They have a great influence over our essence and can provide colossal amounts of courage and strength to accomplish our greatest desires. However, when we do not have dreams to fight for our lives become meaningless and sorrowful, nevertheless this is the situation many people face throughout their lives. Broken dreams have become a popular theme among writers because a connection can be made with the theme and because there one’s truth can be faced. Whether dreams are forgotten or unaccomplished, there is a theory by philosopher Carl Jung that states, “Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment, and especially on their children, than the unlived lives of their parents”, incorporated into literary pieces, we are able to understand the impact thorough the work of several writers. The theme is encountered on “Boys and Girls” by Alice Munro, “Brother Dear” by Bernice Friensen, and “A Cap of Steve” by Morley Callaghan. The stories portray parents living vicariously through their children as well as the impact their social and economical status has on them therefore forcing their will upon them and leaving them with no choice but to resign to their life and fulfillment of their dreams.
In Of Mice and Men, it seems an incontrovertible law of nature that dreams should go unfulfilled. From George and Lennie’s ranch to Curley’s wife’s stardom, the characters’ most cherished aspirations repeatedly fail to materialize. However, the fact that they do dream—often long after the possibility of realizing those dreams has vanished—suggests that dreaming serves a purpose in their lives. What the characters ultimately fail to see is that, in Steinbeck’s harsh world, dreams are not only a source of happiness but a source of misery as well.
...ll wants and desires often results in a future filled with deep sadness. However, children do not degenerate by themselves; rather they are not spoiled till those of influential stature in the eyes of the children sink in to the corruption of favoritism. Even though times have changed, this corruption present in “Why I Live at the P.O” is analogous to what favoritism is today. In the modern world, partiality towards a certain child usually comes from strong feelings of love that bury themselves in an prominent figure’s mind and subconsciously spoil the child. This irony, that amplified love actually causes one to suffer later in life, depicts the broader issue that by getting one used to an imaginary life where all desires are fulfilled, he or she cannot accept the fact of human nature that, outside the household, people are indifferent to another person’s wishes.
In How Children Succeed, Paul Tough attempts to unravel what he identifies to be, “some of the most pervasive mysteries of life: Who succeeds and who fails? Why do some children thrive while others lose their way? And what can any of us do to steer an individual child – or a whole generation of children – away from failure and toward success?” (Tough, 2012). Children are born into environments of varying circumstances, good and bad, influencing their development. Through direct encounters with researchers, educators and children of different environments, Paul Tough approaches his questions by ex...
The process of resilience is dynamic. Individuals may be born with the ability or they can learn to be resilient (Windle 2011). Over life time the ability to be resilient can change. It is important for people to understand that they have the ability to develop resilience. If they have the mindset that they can they can develop the skill set, they are more likely to increase their resilience (Yeager, Dweck 2012). In a common example; if a student believes they have the ability to improve in math, and are they thought to persist in the face of adversity. With hard work, persistence, and new tools, they can become good at math (Yeager, Dweck, 2012). With the mindset, knowledge, and coping skills, individuals can can foster the
Resiliency is an important factor to posses in a constantly changing world. Resiliency in the family, arguably the closest social circle an individual may have, is extremely important for a healthy family. Family resiliency is the ability to deal with a stressful family event and be able to cope as well as bounce back from it. It is important for a family to be able to adapt to the stressor and overcome it. After learning about family resiliency and thinking back to previous family experiences; such as my mom losing her ability to hear, I realize that my family in fact posses a great deal of it. After learning about family resiliency in class, I now have greater insights about how resilient my family has been through negative experiences.
Resiliency is the ability to bounce back or keep going on after the occurrence of unfortunate circumstances or events of adversity. Students’ resilience can have an immense effect on their ability to handle academic and emotional issues. For example, students with resilience are more optimistic, cooperative, energetic, helpful, inquisitive, and on-task. They’re more likely to overcome instances of adversity such as academic and emotional issues. Students who have resilient attitudes are set apart from their peers whom are conversely alienated from academic success. When students have a lack of resilience to academic challenges and setbacks, they often give up and have a prolonged sense of failure and discouragement that negatively affects their ability to persevere.
The life course and systems perspective provides building blocks for understanding positive development during middle childhood. As parents and social workers, we must recognize that resilience is seldom an instinctive characteristic; rather, it is a process that is facilitated by influences within the child’s surrounding. Research suggest that high-risk behaviors among children increases when children perceives declining family involvement and community supports. Therefore, the primary goal of parents and professionals is to dedicate to the child’s well-being positive internal and external supports that promote maximal protective factors, while minimizing risk factors for optimal developmental transitions. Chapter 5 of Elizabeth D. Hutchinson, Dimensions of Human Behavior The Changing Life Course 3rd, 2008.
Jeff Kemp, a retired professional NFL quarterback, once stated, “Sports teach positive lessons that enrich America even while revealing its flaws” (Kemp). Athletics offer so much more than the joy of game day and the thrill of a win. Being involved in sports holds the key to a world filled with passion, excitement, and once in a lifetime opportunities. There is nothing better than seeing the student section arrive in full force or hearing the school fight song chanted before kickoff. However, when life moves on and leaves sports behind, the lessons it has instilled in athletes never disappears. The play calls may be foggy and the jersey will be too tight, but what was innocently learned in the jersey shines out at an older age. Although life lessons can be learned through everyday activities, lessons such as teamwork, self-confidence, and dealing with failure are only truly learned through sports by young athletes.