11 rules for life or how to become a productive member of society

I found this on the internet... it has been going around for a while. This is not from Bill Gates. It's an excerpt from the book " Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good about Themselves, but Can’t Read, Write, or Add (St. Martin’s Press, 1995)" by educator Charles Sykes. It is a list of eleven things that children do not learn in school and is directed at high school and college grads. It talks about how feel-good politically correct teaching (eg: never telling a student that his work is sub-standard, as this might make him feel bad about him/herself) is creating a generation of children with a very small grasp of reality. In French we call this "la pensée magique" (magic thinking) which means that because they want it so, so shall it be. Unfortunately that is not how the world works. Never did, never will.

*Comments in italics are my thoughts

Here are the 11 rules...

Rule 1: Life is not fair-get used to it.

Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone, until you earn both. (no schooling = minimum wage = can't pay for a big apartement, recent model muscle car, clubbing and a girl friend... at most you'll end up living with mom and dad forever!)

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. (or just life in general!)

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity (especially if it is a student job to help pay for your education.). Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping-they called it opportunity. (with no schooling that is about all you'll be doing.)

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them. (taking resposability for your actions can be sooo hard, it's everyone's fault but your own... but whining doesn't get you out of the manure pile!)

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents' generation, try delousing the closet in your own room. (unfortunately some parents are stuck with their "Tanguy**" forever, some couldn't leave home even if they wanted to... not that they would want to. )

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life. (How true... wouldn't want them to feel bad, unfortunately when they get to the real world the shock is awful, and who's fault is that? Often we get fragged by parents because they think that we were too hard on their poor little angel, that we just don't understand and won't give them a chance! It's not his/her fault it's our fault for not being more comprehensive.)

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. You have to do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs. (Television and the internet tells them that they'll have the good life, with no effort or hard work, after all they deserve it.... pensée magique)

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one. (Maybe not but the good hard working students (and there are still some out there) are going to be the ones footing the bill for the lazy wastrels.)

** Tanguy is a French movie about a 30 something man who just won't leave his parents' home and the parents end up doing all kinds of things to get him to go,. It's hilarious, but something that many parents have to live with.

Full disclosure: I am a teacher and I can tell you that much of this is perfectly right.