11 Rules of LIfe

UPDATE: Okay Sarah has corrected me in that Bill Gates did not write these rules. In fact, according to Snopes: This list is the work of Charles J. Sykes, author of the book Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can't Read, Write, Or Add. (The list has appeared in newspapers, although not necessarily in this book.) IN Fact: One version that appeared on the Internet in June 2002 asserts this is the text of a commencement speech given by Bill Gates to the graduating class of Mt. Whitney High School in Visalia, California. It isn't — he didn't give such a speech, and folks at that school are mystified as to why they've been dragged into this apocryphal story. So there you go: I stand corrected and have removed all reference to Mr. Bill Gates. I do however, want to list the rules as they are something relevant to think about & as a part of what occured in a conversation with a teacher last week.

11 Rules of Life.


~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 $60,000 a year right 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 to 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 does not 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.


Makes you think, dosen't it? I found #8 very interesting as I found out this was a huge debate amongst the teachers in my kid's school. To say I was disturbed, that the abolishing of a failing grade was being considered, was an understatement. An example was given in whereas the arguement is being made that if a child does not hand in an assignment how can they be given a failing grade as the teacher did not have anything to mark. Say whaaaat? How will this teach the child any sort of responsibility or accountability in getting his work done? The same with allowing a test to be written over and over and over. Should the failing grade not be telling the teachers that this child is not ready to move on and may need extra help or intervention? What is the point of giving the same test just to get them passed so that the child doesn't feel bad? I must come from the old school where a child had to prove they knew the work before they could be passed on to harder work. Is this not setting them up for a major failure in life later on? I don't get it. Either I need to get with the program or they need to give their heads a shake. Is this what they are teaching our future teachers in university? Somehow this scares me for the future of children that are struggling within the schools. Is passing them just to pass them the answer? Does it really give them self esteem in the long run? Seems to me it presents more self esteem issues than it cures. What do you guys think?