"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. " -Helen Keller

Thursday, September 09, 2010

Things Kids Don't Learn in School...

...but need to know to live. This fabulous list has been mistakenly attributed to Bill Gates but was really written by Charles J. Sykes as part of his book 50 Rules Kids Won't Learn in School: Real-World Antidotes to Feel-Good
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.

What rules would you add to this? They can be rules aimed at adults or kids.

5 comments:

Mrs. Gamgee said...

I hadn't seen this list before, but I love it. Here's what I would add...

Contrary to popular opinion, you are not owed anything by the universe, simply by virtue of your existance. You have to earn your own way in the world.

Jen said...

old classic...I brought you into this world, I can take you out. Seriously? Is there something in the air? My kids are driving me nuts.
similar to the one above,
If you don't see everything spinning around you, that means not everything revolves around you.

battynurse said...

I like that list and I like Mrs. Gamgee's addition as well. I'd like to post that on my office door at work.

Quiet Dreams said...

LOVE the one about nerds--so true.

Jo said...

As a teacher, I can vouch that schools do seem to do their best to teach the opposite of this list. Ironic, isn't it? I hope, though, that in the end I've given my students the skills to accept these truths, even if the district bigwigs have done their best to botch my efforts.

:-)

Jo