How True. Please read to the end.+

Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about
eleven (11) things they did not and will not learn in school.
He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings
created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and
how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.



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

Rule 2 : The world doesn'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 $60,000 a year right out of high school.
You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss

Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity.
Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping:
They called it opportunity.

Rule 6 : If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault,
so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

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 thought you were:
So before you save the rain forest
from the parasites of your parent's generation,
try delousing the closet in your own room..

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.

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.
*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.

Rule 11 : Be nice to nerds.
Chances are you'll end up working for one..

Excellent!
And we also survived spankings and running with scissors :)
And we had transportation all the time...it was called Shank's Pony (walking)

"running with scissors" eh? Had to look that one up as I seem to not be as literate as some (most).

We called walking, “shank‘s mare“, but also had another convenient method of transportation: hopping on running boards. Then, they vanished.

Hey Dave, this is great, but misattributed. A quick check of snopes.com has the full story, but here is the short version:
"This list is the work of Charles J. Sykes, author of the 1996 book Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can’t Read, Write, Or Add. (Sykes’ list was published in numerous newspapers, although it did not appear in his 1996 book. It did, however, form the meat of Sykes’ 2007 book, 50 Rules Kids Won’t Learn in School: Real-World Antidotes to Feel-Good Education.)"
The dead giveaway is a reference in rule #3 to a carphone, which was state of the art in the '90s, but who has one now?

I even survived riding in the back of pick up trucks and being "hot boxed" by my smoking parents on car rides.

NoVaDamer wrote:Hey Dave, this is great, but misattributed.  A quick check of snopes.com has the full story, but here is the short version:
"This list is the work of Charles J. Sykes, author of the 1996 book Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can’t Read, Write, Or Add. (Sykes’ list was published in numerous newspapers, although it did not appear in his 1996 book. It did, however, form the meat of Sykes’ 2007 book, 50 Rules Kids Won’t Learn in School: Real-World Antidotes to Feel-Good Education.)"
The dead giveaway is a reference in rule #3 to a carphone, which was state of the art in the '90s, but who has one now?

True. It doesn't sound anything like Bill Gates. That's not to say that the content isn't excellent advice.

In my early schooling, Sister Mary Rulermaster knew just the trick to make you "feel bad about yourself".
Grades were issued without mercy, according to objective standards. Failure was a definite possibility.
Rewards were often little cards depicting Saints who died miserably as martyrs.
And so on. Guess what? we survived just fine and knew all about Rule 6, early on.

Trailrunner wrote:True. It doesn't sound anything like Bill Gates.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/schoolrules.asp

I am however a little tired of everything they don't like being attributed to "political correctness". Politically Correct simply means "Don't be a dick". Have respect for other people and treat them like you'd like to be treated. Sound familiar?

Flamingo wrote:I am however a little tired of everything they don't like being attributed to "political correctness". Politically Correct simply means "Don't be a dick". Have respect for other people and treat them like you'd like to be treated. Sound familiar?

Just a little history, which makes the term even stranger. Way back in the days of Chairman Mao (this is decades and decades ago), I had a tenant who was a self-avowed Communist. She told me about the Little Red Book and alla that. At that time, the True Believers always wanted to be "politically correct"; meaning in accordance with Mao's teachings. How the hell that ended up being a put down phrase that conservatives use against liberals......I do not know. I prefer "do unto others" as a guideline, just as you mentioned.

ferret wrote:Excellent!
And we also survived spankings and running with scissors :)
And we had transportation all the time...it was called Shank's Pony (walking)

...and the 2 times I got paddled at school with one of those Cricket looking bats which left quite an "impression" figuratively and literally on my backside which I most definitely deserved and contributed in making me into a better Human Being.........

gringal wrote:In my early schooling, Sister Mary Rulermaster knew just the trick to make you "feel bad about yourself".  
Grades were issued without mercy, according to objective standards.  Failure was a definite possibility.
Rewards were often little cards depicting Saints who died miserably as martyrs.
And so on.  Guess what?  we survived just fine and knew all about Rule 6, early on.

I had Jesuits who never handed out cards but did give me a great education.  We use to refer to the Franciscans penguins as the Sisters of Perpetual pain which seemed much more important than education to them. I am grateful for both as I also learned a tolerance for religion which was needed as both my parents were athiests.  Some folks think Athiesism is a religion which is great fun to argue about.  Overall for me it was a very positive experience. As Pedro said I deserved the paddle.

Z

All joking aside regarding Sister Mary Rulermaster; I, too, received a great education. One of my parents was an ardent Agnostic; the other was an even more ardent Catholic, which is why I was sent all the way across town on a streetcar rather than attend the public school a block away.
The art of compromise was freely practiced in that household.