Here are Eleven Things You Didn't Learn in School

[Dynamite220]

Originally Posted by Mike Coggins

I recieved an interesting e-mail this week attributed to Bill Gates. According to the e-mail, Bill Gates laid out the following eleven rules of life in a speech to a group of high school students. The rules actually came from a book "Dumbing Down our Kids" writen by educator Charles Sykes, not Bill Gates. They are eleven things you did not learn in school and are directed at high school and college grads. See if you agree with them. Weather you do or not, they are interesting food for thought.

RULE 1
Life is not fair- get used to it.

RULE 2
The world won't care about your self-esteme. 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 name 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 actualy 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.

I got this clipping form a Texas news paper in the birthday card my grandmother sent me when I turned 19. I thought they were good, but didn't realy give them much thought at the time. Now that I have a job and first hand experience, however, it just strikes me how right most of them are, at least from my perspective.

[Robot Jesus]

I’ve seen this in a few places, I always felt it painted the young generation as much worse than necessary. Maybe I’m just freakishly mature but I thought that this was common sense. The article was more the ramblings of a bitter old man but not much more.

[Archbio]

This sounds to me like "Shut up and get back to work." spliced with "You damn kids get off my lawn!" and framed as an angry, superficial social commentary.

These "rules" (it's interesting someone tried to pass them off as something Bill Gates would say, I think that pretty much betrays the lack of substance of the whole thing) are hardly food for thought.

[Krylo]

Yah, I'm pretty much going to agree with Archbio and Robot Jesus, and add that while you can't directly disagree with any one (except one) rule, there's the problem that it seems to divide success and failure into 'money and not money'. Life isn't based on your job. Money isn't the end all be all of existence. In fact, it's not even important at all past what you need to live. Love, family, friends, and your own happiness are all FAR more important than making loads of money, or any money at all, really. So long as you have a way to eat and a place to sleep, you're doing well. If you want a little more, go ahead and get a little more, but don't sacrifice the truly important things in pursuit of cash.

Don't stop looking at the beautiful things in life just because you might not make as much as Billy for no apparent reason. Don't feel like you're worthless just because you haven't gotten a good job yet. Don't give up your dignity for $5.50 an hour, or any amount for that matter, but don't have so much pride that you can't take a low paying job if you have to, either. Don't give up your dreams.

It may not be in the wording, but that advice, with its tone, is definately implying you should do all of those things. Get your priorities straight. People come before work. Happiness comes before economical success.

Further:

The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

That's bullshit.

Confidence will get you everywhere. It doesn't matter if you don't have as many qualifications as the next guy, if you have the self-esteem to believe you can do the job and he doesn't, you're probably going to get it. If you exude confidence people will, perhaps wrongly, place their confidence in you, and once you have their confidence you have the job. You have the raise. You have that girl by the bar.

In the real world self-esteem is perhaps more important than any other single factor.

[Viktor Von Russia]

Originally Posted by krylo

Confidence will get you everywhere. It doesn't matter if you don't have as many qualifications as the next guy, if you have the self-esteem to believe you can do the job and he doesn't, you're probably going to get it. If you exude confidence people will, perhaps wrongly, place their confidence in you, and once you have their confidence you have the job. You have the raise. You have that girl by the bar.

In the real world self-esteem is perhaps more important than any other single factor.

Amen to that.

I've seen this article several times now, and every time it's irked me at least a little. Everything on here seems to be aimed towards hippies and/or spoiled kids. I'm pretty sure everyone who's gotten into high school already knows all this stuff, and parents, teachers, and other authority figures started posting this up friggin' everywhere as if they were the Ten Commandments fresh from God's hands.

[DarthZeth]

er, only two rules mentioned money. And Rule 7 is more about self responsibility then money. and rule 3 is more about earning something before you get it.

this isnt about money at all.

and not "giving up dignity" to take a low paying job? what is that?

what are you talking about, Krylo? did dynomite edit his post or something? Because i'm not sure we read the same thing.

[Demon with a Glass Hand]

This reminds me of something someone once told me.

In highschool, I wasn't a very happy person. Why? To tell it like it is honestly, I was a drama queen. Don't ask me why I thought I could find happiness through being miserable, but that is all I allowed myself to think.

One day I was waiting for the members of my Youth Arts Council to show up for a meeting. Every meeting was chaired by the president of the Arts Council. His name was Rod and he was middle age.

As I was sitting on the steps of the Art Center, he came out the front door and asked me, in a cheery voice, "How're you doing today, Demon?"

To which I mumbled something about being okay ... kinda ... I guess ... not all that great, actually.

He gave me the most sincere incredulous look I have ever seen.

"Demon," He sighed. "The hell is wrong with you? I honestly don't care how you're doing. It's a formality. And, honestly, I don't think you're answering me honestly. You're just fishing for the attention or concern of someone who might possibly give a damn. No one does. I'm oly asking you out of courtesy. Now the next time I ask, You're going to say 'I'm doing fantastic.' And, you'll keep saying that. When you believe it, you can come back here, sit on these steps and wait for me to ask you again.

And when you do, you can shake my hand."

Since then, I have said "I feel great." or "I feel fantastic." And, you know what? I do. I also feel confident. My self esteem is at peak levels.

The moral of the story is this: Sometimes you will come across someone who is going to try and help you. How they do this is entirely up to them. Rod here took a very abrassive and commanding way to snap me out of my imaginary sorrows and set me on the proper road. He gave me advice. Advice that was a reflection of over 48 years of experience.

But it was up to me to actually listen to what he had to say and draw something from it.

I could just have easily said "Go fuck yourself, Rod." But where would I be if I did that?

Was Rod a bitter old man who was painting me and my generation to be something less than I was/we are?

"Words of Wisdom" or "Collective Lessons of Experience" can be worded in a multitude of ways. Compared to the lesson he taught me, and how he went about teaching it, these lessons are rather politely worded.

[Krylo]

Originally Posted by DarthZeth

er, only two rules mentioned money. And Rule 7 is more about self responsibility then money. and rule 3 is more about earning something before you get it.

this isnt about money at all.

and not "giving up dignity" to take a low paying job? what is that?

what are you talking about, Krylo? did dynomite edit his post or something? Because i'm not sure we read the same thing.

Implications, Zeth. Implications.

It's not always about what's said on the topside. Do you really think when they take about the real world they're talking about your friends and family? Of course not. Not unless they're idiots and/or were in very many very abusive positions.

They're talking about your job. They're talking about how you have to settle down and make a living.

That's all fine and good, but the tone of it is not. The things implied below the surface are not.

Yes, let's just tell everyone that life outside of highschool is going to be the worst thing ever and that no one is going to care about them! That they're going to take that shitty job, and if they don't like it they can curl up and die because no one gives a shit!

The thing is a crock of shit, and the implications of it definately place your professional life before your personal life. Maybe a few rules don't, but even those ones are worded so damned horribly that it's pathetic. Your parents are no longer 'cool' because of you? That's a horrible horrible thing to tell anyone. Granted, no one in their right mind is going to believe it and feel guilty, but it's basically telling them that they ruined all the fun in their parents' lives. That's a crock of shit.

I'll go through every one and explain why it's a crock of shit.

RULE 1
Life is not fair- get used to it.

So you shouldn't ever try to do anything? Just sit back and accept life's beatings? Why should I do that? Never accept that life isn't fair.

Sure, most of the time it isn't, but that doesn't mean you have to just sit back and take it.

If it's not fair do what you have to do to MAKE it fair.

RULE 2
The world won't care about your self-esteme. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

I already explained why this is bullshit.

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.

No shit, Sherlock. I'm sure somewhere you've saved a completely retarded child the pain of disappointment.

But this is also one of the implication ones I talk about. These are rules of life... why is this even here? And why do they imply that everyone even WANTS to earn both?

It's not "You'll only be if..." it's "until you..." It implies that this is some sort of goal that all the listeners either are striving toward or SHOULD strive toward.

RULE 4
If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure.

My manager is nicer than about half my teachers. The assistant manager is a prick with small penis syndrome, but my manager is a damned nice guy.

Not every boss you have is going to suck. They're people just like the rest of us and most of them are going to be pretty decent folk. And, for the most part, work is a lot less 'tough' than school. School work was long, annoying, pointless, and ALWAYS cut into free time. Work is sometimes long, but never pointless, rarely cuts into your free time, and it's not nearly as annoying because you're actually allowed to talk to co-workers.

RULE 5
Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different name for burger flipping. They called it opportunity.

Actually, my grandparents never called burger flipping opportunity. In fact my grandfater once told me straight out that if you don't like a job, you quit. It's not worth being someplace you hate. Life is too short for that.

Opportunity in this sense is just the opportunity to get money. If you don't like flipping burgers don't do it... unless you absolutely NEED the money.

RULE 6
If you mess up, it's not your parents fault, so don't whine about your mistakes. Learn from them.

And this is just him being an asshole with one little added sentence on the end. In forum terms, this line directed toward any one person would be considered flaming. There's no reason for that.

Besides that, it's a complete non-sequitor. "If you mess up, it's not your parents fault, so don't whine about your mistakes." Where did the parents fault even COME from? Seriously.

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.

Again, I already explained the things wrong with this.

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.

And this is another one of these implication things.

Winners and losers? What condition is there to win in life? A high paying job? A wife? 2.5 children? Normalacy? Survival? What is winning?

Taken in conjuncture with the tone of the rest of these I'd bet anything he's talking about that 40,000 a year again. That's not winning in life. Base victory on money and you're going to have a hollow pointless 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.

Again: Finding yourself and being happy with yourself > having a high paying job. The implication here is that the job is more important, adding to the over all tone.

RULE 10
Television is not real life. In real life people actualy have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Gasp! More of that same implication!

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

I can't argue this one either, except, it's again, bringing up work, helping to set the over all tone of the piece.

Writing is about more than just what's on the surface. In fact, the surface barely even scratches the actual message and content. The tone of the piece is just as important, if not more so.

[Meister]

I thought I'd read that somewhere. According to Snopes the list is the work of one Charles J. Sykes. The version we have is somewhat shorter, so you may want to take a look at the snopes page; also, there are three "rules" omitted:

Rule No. 12: Smoking does not make you look cool. It makes you look moronic. Next time you're out cruising, watch an 11-year-old with a butt in his mouth. That's what you look like to anyone over 20. Ditto for "expressing yourself" with purple hair and/or pierced body parts.

Rule No. 13: You are not immortal. (See Rule No. 12.) If you are under the impression that living fast, dying young and leaving a beautiful corpse is romantic, you obviously haven't seen one of your peers at room temperature lately.

Rule No. 14: Enjoy this while you can. Sure parents are a pain, school's a bother, and life is depressing. But someday you'll realize how wonderful it was to be a kid. Maybe you should start now. You're welcome.

Everything that has been said applies to those as well if you ask me.

[Robot Jesus]

Continuing the theme of personal happiness being more important than money. I remember reading a study somewhere that measured the “happiness factor” of different events. Finding a partner was equivalent to winning the lottery three times.