One for the Younger members

[mf_dolphin]

In keeping with my equal opportunity offending threads, here's one for our younger board members

To anyone with kids of any age, or anyone who has ever been a kid, here's some advice Bill Gates recently dished out at a high school speech about 11 rules they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how 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 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 $40,000 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 are. So before you save the rain
forest from the parasites of your parents' 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 be working for one.

[grentz7721]

That was rude. I don't want to get myself involved with any of that
stuff.

[OtherHD]

lol George

[pojo]

Its true.

[j]

THose are all so true... especially the one about blaming your parents (or anybody but themselves) for messing up.

[petal*pusher]

HA! Loved this! (I know....I know....I'm NOT one of the "youngsters" here!)

I'm copying this to slip into the administrators mail boxes at school! Working in an invoronment that caters to young people gives me a unique perspective on the absolute TRUTHFULNESS in these 11 rules!

Rude??......I see nothing "rude" in being honest about what happens in the "real world"! I sense from today's youth that many have also become disallusioned at what is actually "expected" from them in the school systems! When expectations are lowered, performances seldom exceed them. My belief is that most kids now-days actually WANT someone to have high expectations for their abilities...........unfortunately, the instructional staff often get blamed for following "rules and regulations" that are set up WITHOUT THEIR INPUT!!

So many kids are led to believe that they have limitations in their abilites........I think this is the saddest thing.........because they only strive to meet those "supposed" limitations. .......................p

[j]

I almost responded to the "rude" statement myself, but actually thought it couldn't be anything but sarcasm....a joke so to speak. I'm hoping I was right.

[azsnowman]

Ya know.......I don't know HOW MANY times I've heard and repeated this stuff to my son, you know what, it's Soooooooo true isn't it???

Dennis

[Stephanie]

Great advice and it is so true! However, most of us have to learn the hard way!

[mf_dolphin]

We all have to learn the hard way I guess. It's so true about setting high expectations. They need to be reasonable but also they should require some good old fashioned work to achieve. My youngest sister had to work hard to get "B's" in school. But for her that was a major achievement. The other three of us could sluff off and get "B's" . What to guess who got kudo's for the B and who got chastised? LOL Thank God my parents expected my best effort in everything I did. It has served me well for the almost 30 years since I got out of High School.

[southerngale]

Wow, that's true. My kids are still 5 and under but I definitely know some kids who need to read this.

PRINT

[grentz7721]

IMO, It's FALSE. REALLY FALSE.

[wx247]

I don't think it is false. And I am a young'un... so true, but it is applicable for every generation in a way.

[David]

Well, George, you have your opinion, so do others.

I have no opinion myself.

[mf_dolphin]

I never said it applied to everyone You are absolutely right Garrett. In some sense it could apply to every generation but there's no doubt that today's youth are not being held to the same achievement standards as prior generations as far as school goes.

[streetsoldier]

If I had my way, this message would be presented, on sepia-tone Constitutional Bond paper with multi-color Copperplate script, to every school board, administrator, teacher and student...framed and ready for mounting.

[WidreMann]

Rude??......I see nothing "rude" in being honest about what happens in the "real world"! I sense from today's youth that many have also become disallusioned at what is actually "expected" from them in the school systems! When expectations are lowered, performances seldom exceed them. My belief is that most kids now-days actually WANT someone to have high expectations for their abilities...........unfortunately, the instructional staff often get blamed for following "rules and regulations" that are set up WITHOUT THEIR INPUT!!

So many kids are led to believe that they have limitations in their abilites........I think this is the saddest thing.........because they only strive to meet those "supposed" limitations

I happen to agree. The process has become so abstracted that kids end up feeling like they are just being processed through a system, starting in Elementary school straight through college. Each step is treated as preparation for the next step but nowhere along the way is there ever any big picture presented to tell everyone why they are bothering in the first place. And so, kids end up rebelling. And it's really the system they should be rebelling against, but instead they kind of go against everything education has to offer, which is sad, because it's a bit like cutting off your nose to spite your face. The even sadder thing is I don't think there's an easy solution. No, I take that back, good parenting can help the problem and a school system that shows that it cares in a specific way and not a generic, institutionalized way.

[blizzard]

IMO, It's FALSE. REALLY FALSE.

To me it seems obvious that you are one of the "younger" ones here on the boards. When you have really lived in the "real" world, you will find that they are true, Oh, so true. But it is apparant you are one to have to learn the hard way, on your own. But that will make you all that much more appreciative of the lessons you will learn. :6:

[hunter84]

I think they are good rules to teach. I'll print this and probably save it

[grentz7721]

blizzard,
There "rules" doesn't do wth life. As in fact, this joke really needs to go.