The Last Lecture, Etc.

I wanted to share a bit out of a book I'm picking away at. I don't get a lot of reading done these days, in book form. Most is spent at the computer terminal and is correspondence/problem solving related. I'm halfway through a wonderful little book by Randy Pausch (thank you again, Debbie!). He's the educator from Carnegie-Mellon who passed away this year. His "Last Lecture" can still be viewed online and if you've not heard it, I highly recommend you take the time to do that. Below is a link where you can find different ways to experience his last lecture:

http://www.cmu.edu/uls/journeys/randy-pausch/index.html

The bit I was reading today struck a chord with me. This topic has come up more than once in my conversations with children who are now raising children. I thought his comments were valuable... I'll type in a couple of pages (it's not as long as you'd think... it's a small book):

From Chapter 24, A Recovering Jerk

It is an accepted cliché in education that the number one goal of teachers should be to help students learn how to learn.

I always saw the value in that, sure. But in my mind, a better number one goal was this: I wanted to help students learn how to judge themselves.

Did they recognize their true abilities? Did they have a sense of their own flaws? Were they realistic about how others viewed them?

In the end, educators best serve students by helping them be more self-reflective. The only way any of us can improve – as Coach Graham taught me– is if we develop a real ability to assess ourselves. If we can't accurately do that, how can we tell if we're getting better or worse?

Some old-school types complain these days that higher education too often feels like it is all about customer service. Students and their parents believe they are paying top dollar for a product, and so they want it to be valuable in a measurable way. It's as if they've walked into a department store, and instead of buying five pairs of designer jeans, they've purchased a five-subject course-load.

I don't fully reject the customer-service model, but I think it's important to use the right industry metaphor. It's not retail. Instead, I'd compare college tuition to paying for a personal trainer at an athletic club. We professors play the roles of trainers, giving people access to the equipment (books, labs, our expertise) and after that, it is our job to be demanding. We need to make sure that our students are exerting themselves. We need to praise them when they deserve it and to tell them honesty when they have it in them to work harder.

Most importantly, we need to let them know how to judge for themselves how they're coming along. The great thing about working out at a gym is that if you put in effort, you get very obvious results. The same should be true of college. A professor's job is to teach students how to see their minds growing in the same way they can see their muscles grow when they look in a mirror.

To that end, I've tried hard to come up with mechanical ways to get people to listen to feedback. I was constantly helping my students develop their own feedback loops. It was not easy. Getting people to welcome feedback was the hardest thing I ever had to do as an educator. (It hasn't been easy in my personal life, either.) It saddens me that so many parents and educators have given up on this. When they talk of building self-esteem, they often resort to empty flattery rather than character-building honesty. I've heard so many people talk of a downward spiral in our educational system, and I think one key factor is that there is too much stroking and too little real feedback...

It's interesting to note the generational differences in how parents and educators have approached children. Diane had an article posted recently about the "Millennial Generation" and their sense of entitlement and fragile egos. Maybe in the next generation we can find that middle ground... the best of both approaches. It always seems like the pendulum swings too far when people are reacting against anything. The good news is... people tend to be pretty resilient, no matter how their parents and teachers manage to screw them up... and we all do it in some way or another since none of us is perfect. ;-)

On another topic... Diane posted some cute photos last night. After having a conference call on Skype with she, Karen and Niklas... Diane and I had a two-party video chat. Toward the end I brought in birdy from the other room and had him on my shoulder. It only took him a few moments to zero in on Diane's onscreen face, as she made his favorite birdy noises. It was pretty entertaining. You can't hear the loud whistling he was doing... but if you click on this small image, you'll get a larger one and can better view of her post with pictures... or you can click on the link for her blog in the lefthand sidebar.

Well... I've successfully avoided fixing dinner and answering emails... so I'd best get moving. I got a little soap package ready to add to some other parcels in the mailbox, recorded a neat Education Week talk on C.S. Lewis for a couple of the kids and brought many of the ripe tomatoes in from the garden. There has been a break in the rain this afternoon... I hope it's like this tomorrow. Some narcissus bulbs still wait to be planted.

P.S. - Today I've had someone knock on the door, passing out Obama door hangers that urge me to get out and vote (for him) and also received a phone call this afternoon. The Obama people are looking for Michael... does he live here? Nope... not for a long time. They want him too. I've never seen so much co-dependent harassment about voting in my life. Yes... it's important and I've already sent off my ballot... but we are grownups and don't need to be contanstly harrassed about it... do we?

It's been assumed by most of us that Obama will win this election, but I'm thinking his people are still a bit worried... it's closer than they'd like. I'll just be glad when the election hoopla is over and the country can get back to the real business of running the country and not just running their mouths.

Sorry... I'm so tired of campaign ads. :-/