posted on April 24, 2001 04:39:32 PM
To anyone teaching or raising kids, of any age, here's some advice Bill Gates recently dished out at a high school speech about 11 things they did not learn in school. He talked about how feel-good, politically correct teaching has created a full generation of kids with no concept of
reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.
It is very possible he did not write these rules but did use them for his address to the little darlings
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 thousand dollars 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. He
doesn't have tenure.
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 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.
posted on April 24, 2001 05:02:20 PMZilvy Am absolutely in agreement with each and everyone of those 11 rules. I'm printing them out to show my own kid's. A parent could not have said it better. I totally agree with Rule 8. I don't know about over in the U.S. but many schools here do not believe in competiveness in sport or the like.
Gone are the days when a teacher wrote all over your schoolwork in RED pen, they say it is demeaning for the student. Gone are the days when you got a good clip across the ear for misbehaviour - it's child abuse.
Gone are the days when a student was kept down a grade if they could not comprehend the work that was presented to them - it is solely up to the parent and student if they wish to be kept down or to continue going thru the mainstream, just hoping that maybe the child will learn at least something.
There is a real world out there - it's just a pity that children these days are not going to be prepared for it and it is actually not their fault. It's the system.
posted on April 25, 2001 02:04:35 AM
Well, I honestly thought that there would be more comments on this particular subject.
Not only are these wise words for our children, but to ourselves - we never stop learning.
posted on April 25, 2001 04:39:52 AM
Hiya Zilvy and Kazanne
The rules are very interesting and there's a lot of truth in them.
however, it just doesn't sound like the Bill Gates I'm used to hearing in the media. I haven't noticed Bill Gates being this plain spoken in interviews or even in his court testimony in the antitrust case. It seems so out of character for him to be so blunt and to the point. Unless there are many sides to Bill Gates the person and this isn't the side he usually shows to the media. JMHO.
posted on April 25, 2001 07:09:17 AM
Whether Bill Gates spoke these words or not, really doesn't matter. These words of advice are certainly on target.
posted on April 25, 2001 08:02:27 AM
I really don't care who wrote or said it first. These "rules" are spot on & should be posted inside every school in the U.S.
I have to deal with kids every day who are obviously not being prepared for the real world. They're so used to having everything handed to them with little or no effort on their parts that it is pathetic. Read? gasp Take notes? yeah right Use the index? what's an index? Learn to look it up all by yourself? child abuse. I got fed up the other day with one young man...he whined about having to look up his subject...he whined about having to write down the call number...he whined about having to walk to the stacks find the book...he whined about having to actually *open* the book to get any information from it...he whined about having to actually *read* the book (a whole 119 pages!)... After 25 or 30 minutes of this kid's whining, I finally snapped--just couldn't put up with any more. I looked him in the eye and said "life's hard--and then you die." A woman standing nearby actually gasped, , and looked at me in horror. How dare I say such a cruel thing to a mere child in junior high? The kid, however, sat down at a table & opened the book without further whining.
posted on April 25, 2001 08:06:01 AM
The only reason I mentioned the authorship is that I don't really like Bill Gates, not that he cares, and that I didn't think he was wise enough to have written it himself.
posted on April 25, 2001 08:20:39 AM
As I said before, I didn't mean to take away from the message, but there are more than enough "facts" that are not really facts floating around as it is without adding to them. If the message has any meaning, it will stand on its own merits, regardless of who spoke it.
posted on April 25, 2001 08:33:51 AMBunnicula Hooray, if just once in a while a non parent would tell 'em to knock it off! Get with the program, quit whining, or some other startling comment to bring things into focus...these kids just might realize RL takes effort, and you are required to act within certain guidelines to gain attention and ultimately respect.
posted on April 25, 2001 09:49:22 AM
RULE 5
Flipping burgers are not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had
a different word for burger flipping-they called it opportunity.
Whoever wrote this probably spent more time flipping burgers than studying the English language. It should read:
Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity.
Burgers is not the subject of the sentence. The action of flipping is the subject. The verb should agree with the subject.
_____________________________________________
Nothing undertaken honestly and given one's best effort is beneath one's dignity.
Indeed, one's dignity is defined by what one does and how one does it and not by who you are (or think you are).
posted on April 25, 2001 10:50:59 AM
I cut and pasted this item, but I wouldn't want the message to be lost due to one grammatical error, Codasaurus, it has been corrected. Thank you (I think)
posted on April 26, 2001 10:38:54 AM
RULE 12
Just because an email says "THIS IS TRUE - I GOT IT FROM A FRIEND I TRUST!!!" and "SEND THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!!!!!," it doesn't necessarily mean that it is, or that you should.
posted on April 26, 2001 10:57:09 AMEveryone is bored bored bored.... glad I could provide a little something to keep ya'll busy see rule 9949-1/2 or NOT!
posted on April 26, 2001 11:18:53 PM
Gee coming from Mr Silver Spoon, it means so much!
Let's see, Seattle Prep (who has a cheer that goes "That's all right! That's Okay! You'll Work for us someday!)
He's been an opportunist and I have done my share of depositions for companies that have been s*#$!d sideways by them.
His pop had one of Seattles biggest lawfirms.
Honor my butt!
That's an old email that's been floating around for years. I probably got it back in 1995.
, and looked at me in horror. How dare I say such a cruel thing to a mere child in junior high? The kid, however, sat down at a table & opened the book without further whining.
