I just watched Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture." If you haven't seen it, go to abcnews.go.com and click on Watch Video. The lecture is the final one in a great professor's career - he was diagnosed with cancer and has little time left to live, but leaves his university - Carnegie Mellon - with some advice for how to live out your dreams. One thing that caught my attention was in the interview of him by Diane Sawyer, she pointed out that Pausch pushed his students to be fearless, to take risks rather than taking the safe route. He even created an award for the most spectacular failure. I immediately thought of the class I just taught last night, where a student was explaining some options for a text she was going to present in class. I suggested the easier one to her to not make it so hard on her. When I do things like this - and I do it a lot - I always feel like I'm doing the student a favor, helping them out, getting them through the class. It has now occurred to me that I'm doing the opposite. I'm not doing a favor when I'm expecting very little from them, because that's all I'll get out of them. Instead, I need to expect them to change the world, and then give them the tools and the encouragement to get it done. It'll take more work and might make some people hate me, but what am I teaching for, if not to make a difference in my student's lives. Ask me how it's worked for me in about 6 months. I'm hoping I'll see great things.