Friday, March 7, 2008

Life isn't fair

I'm sure you've probably all seen this because it's circulated around the internet I don't know how many times. I have no idea if Bill Gates ever actually said this or even gave a speech at a high school and quite honestly, I don't know that it really matters. The advice is great and I wish we implemented it more in schools. If we really are trying to prepare kids for life, we should be teaching them these principles. Oh, I agree with all the advice and I also agree with the idea of the feel-good, politically correct teachings statement. Kids are such whiny babies these days. They have no idea what life is really about. At the same time, they have to grow up way too fast.

"Love him or hate him, he sure hit the nail on the head with this! To anyone with kids of any age, here's some good advice.
Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a high school about 11 things they did not, and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct 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 doesn't care about your self esteem. The world expects 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, and you won't be a vice-president with a company car 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 emp loyers 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 work.

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

If you can read this - Thank a teacher!"

2 comments:

tara said...

life isn't fair. clearly. i haven't made your coolest people alive list.

Rachel Cousin said...

That is awful!! I'll fix that right away. Ummm, except that I clicked on you and I was told by blogger that your site wasn't available. Could I get your site address? :-)