Bill Gates and the eleven rules of life



There's an email doing the rounds at the moment called '11 Lessons Kids won't learn at school' and I think I probably receive it every six months or so from various friends. The email reports that the eleven rules were outlined in a speech given by Bill Gates at some high school or another. They weren't, and he didn't. The list is actually a shortened version of an article by a educational writer, Charles J Sykes but regardless of its origins I think the list is a good one and makes a lot of sense.  See what you think.

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Unfortunately, there are some things that children should be learning in school, but don't. Not all of them have to do with academics. As a modest back-to-school offering, here are some basic rules that may not have found their way into the standard curriculum.

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. Your life is not a sitcom. Your problems will not all be solved in 30 minutes, minus time for commercials.

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

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Would you add any rules of your own? Or do you think these rules are out of touch with today's teenagers?

I'll admit to using rule No. 1 a lot - and I'd be happy if my own Teenager took note of rule number 7.