11 things they did not and will not learn in school

Published 23 June 08 11:17 AM | Sheila Swanson
Love him or hate him, he sure hits the nail on the head with this! 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 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 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.

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

    

If you agree, pass it on.
If you can read this - Thank a teacher!
 

Comments

# mrzabka said on June 23, 2008 12:13 PM:

You're right, Sheila -- Bill does not hold back from being blunt here. As a member of Generation Y, I can say I grew up with a lot of unrealistic expectations of what life would be like, so there were some rude awakenings after college, and likely more to come, but I am enjoying being a part of the real world and carrying my weight. Thanks for this post.

# dorriecrossley said on June 23, 2008 06:22 PM:

Sheila,

Wow, Bill said it all there.  Life has many lessons to learn.  Sometimes the kids have to hear the hard facts from someone like a "nerd" named Bill.  Here's hoping these kids will recognize that their parents and teachers know a bit more than what they watched on the last reality show...

Thanks!

Dorrie

# sharonwilson said on June 23, 2008 10:36 PM:

I can't even begin to tell you how much I enjoyed reading this.  There is a sense of entitlement some people feel and I love how eliquently Bill tells the graduates that they aren't entitled to anything other than working hard.  Going to send this to my 21 year old nephew who is just getting ready to graduate college in a year!

# Brian Wilson said on June 23, 2008 11:13 PM:

I loved this post, Sheila!  

At Zolve, we give our resident Gen Y'er Christopher a lot of flack by tagging him with all the stereotypes of his generation.  To be fair, though, my Generation X cousins were originally stamped as "slackers."

When comes down to it, those who live the American work ethic will succeed no matter what generation they come from.

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