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Some Rules Kid’s Won’t Learn in School

There is always a lot of debate about how we equip our children for work.  Gone are the days when children can get a good education, stay in the same job for 40 years and then retire on a reasonable pension.

Young people need to learn new skills to enable them to adapt to the changing work environment and the best way is to show them how to build their own business to recession proof their income.

Although the following rules are regularly accredited to Bill Gates in many emails and articles circulating the internet they are in fact based on the work of educator Charles Sykes. 

According to snopes.com the rules are an excerpt from Sykes’ book Dumbing Down our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good about Themselves But Can’t Read, Write or Add.

Although we may not agree with all the rules, Sykes tried to bring a dose of reality to an education system, which is failing our young people.
 
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 $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 de-lousing 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.