Excerpt from the book "Dumbing Down our Kids" by educator Charles Sykes.
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 til you earn both.
Rule 4. If you think your teacher is tough - wait til you get a boss!
Rule 5. Flipping hamburgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for hamburger flipping: it was called opportunity.
Rule 6. If you mess up its 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 rainforest from the parasites of your parents 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 will give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the SLIGHTEST resemblance to ANYTHING is real life.
Rule 9. Life is not divided into semesters.. You dont 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 will end up working for one
Bill Gates' Life Rules (High School Speech)
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