Should be posted in all schools and work places

[holdfast]

Should be posted in all schools and work places.

 

AND ALSO SENT TO EVERYONE WHO THINKS THE WHOLE

WORLD OWES THEM SOMETHING.

 

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!If you can read this in English Thank a soldier!!!

[oxcowboy]

very true words for our youth, my school starts on tuesday, i might have to use a few of these in the comming school year.

 

jason

[danc]

Yup, Those are my top proprieties when I wake up every day.

[scuro]

Rule #12 There is a sucker born every minute

 

http://www.hoax-slayer.com/bill-gates-speech.shtml

However, the rules were neither written nor spoken by Bill Gates, they did not originate as a high school speech, and they are not at all recent. In fact, the current incarnation of these rules is a somewhat abridged version of an original piece that was penned by author Charles J. Sykes.

Edited August 28, 2008 by scuro

[Chris]

Who cares who wrote it....it's all true.

[TennesseeGuy]

Heck with Snopes. If Bill Gates won't take credit for it, I'll say it's from Holdfast.

 

Good stuff.

[fishinggeek]

Thanks for posting. I genuinely enjoy reading your candid and thought-provoking posts, and I must say this is probably the first one that comes to mind that I'm generally in agreement with, except maybe the last part. I like reading about other people's perspectives, and I'm really thankful our common thread here is fishing.

[bigugli]

School boards post that? My God! the kids might actually learn a fundamental truth or more.

[CLofchik]

My vice-principal in high school had a framed slogan behind his desk. In brief, bold, black & white text it summed up those sentiments in one sentence.

 

LEAVE HOME NOW, WHILE YOU STILL KNOW EVERYTHING!

Edited August 28, 2008 by CLofchik

[danbo]

This is crap! Kids are a direct product of their home environment. When you wag a finger with blame, three point back at yourself!!!

Kids today are fine..even from all the broken marriages & poor single-Mom's that give all for the kids!

Also being in the Canadian Military doesn't make you anymore or less of a MAN!

I find this mentality a complete joke.

Look at the world our children are inheriting from US!!!

No wonder HOPE is fading..

try mentoring some kids instead of discouraging them. LOVE is a start.

[fishinggeek]

This is crap! Kids are a direct product of their home environment. When you wag a finger with blame, three point back at yourself!!!

Kids today are fine..even from all the broken marriages & poor single-Mom's that give all for the kids!

Also being in the Canadian Military doesn't make you anymore or less of a MAN!

I find this mentality a complete joke.

Look at the world our children are inheriting from US!!!

No wonder HOPE is fading..

try mentoring some kids instead of discouraging them. LOVE is a start.

 

I agree kids in general are fine, even the so-called "at risk" ones. It seems that every generation "beats up" the kids in thinking they are in some way inferior or ill equiped. And I agree with your military comment. Maybe I missed something, but I didn't see anything in holdfast's post that would suggest otherwise. I thought they were just things kids should be aware of in general, no?

[ozaibak1]

Chances are you'll be working for a nerd... I guess that's true if you are a nerd yourself, I duno many nerdy bosses. Unless they the boss of a tech company.

[Kirk]

Anyone that thinks flipping burgers is an 'opportunity'... shouldn't be giving advice to kids LOL

[Clampet]

Maybe Bill Gates will be a good parent for some fortunate child who will benefit from his insightful teachings, philosophy (and money).

 

Maybe the vast majority of "parents" are not fit, to be in charge of raising another human being. The law requires we pass a driver's examination before granting permission to drive a motor vehicle on public roads. Shouldn't that apply to conceiving children as well?

 

A definite advantage exists to those born to intelligent parents with the financial means to provide the necessary education and moral fiber to succeed in the world.

[steve_paul]

Anyone that thinks flipping burgers is an 'opportunity'... shouldn't be giving advice to kids LOL

 

Not sure Kirk, my 16 year old kid had the "opportunity" to work this summer flipping burgers to make some money and he took it. With the economy the way it is, not sure of too many teenagers who can be too picky on what they take as summer employment - take the opportunity if it presents itself. Post secondary education isn't cheap and since my money tree forest in the back yard is going to have a lean harvest, I am quite proud of him for giving up his weekends and flipping burgers.

 

At worst, he has learned that "Do you want Fries with that order" is not a career path he should pursue.

[bigugli]

Slinging suds in the beer garden, or being a carnie, at the Ex 30 years ago was not a great career path either, but it put a lot of cash in the pocket for two weeks of hustle. The bottom rung is still better than no ladder at all.

[scuro]

What parent has never been exasperated by youth? Somehow the whole 11 rules just seems more palpable when we think that the rules came from the quiet and highly successful Bill Gates who finally spoke his mind at a high school. Truth is Gates had nothing to do with the 11 rules and I suspect that it was American conservatives who sold this bill of goods under false advertising. More on the real author of the 11 rules below.

 

 

Charles Sykes, the true author of the 11 rules, is a conservative radio talk show host in Milwaukee. He is the author of several books, including PROFSCAM, THE HOLLOW MEN, A NATION OF VICTIMS, DUMBING DOWN OUR KIDS, and THE END OF PRIVACY.

 

Bellow is a blog that gives an example of his writing style on body types.

 

http://www.the50rules.com/Blog/tabid/3431/...90/Default.aspx

Hollywood’s enthusiasm for hyper-skinniness has led to something called the “lollipop look,” in which a celebrity is so emaciated that her head looks too large for her bony body. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that this skeletal look is either normal, or glamorous, unless your definition of “glamour” includes starvation, bingeing and purging, gastric bypass surgery, and other debilitating and wasting diseases. And never make the mistake of confusing the celebrity body image with how real people’s bodies actually look. This may be difficult to realize because yours may be the first generation in the history of mankind to pass through adolescence without seeing anyone naked in person. The key words here are “in person,” because of course you can access a hundred thousand nude pictures with the click of a mouse. But at least you’ve been sheltered from ever having to see a naked classmate in the shower after gym class. Apparently, that’s just too much reality for you to handle. It was not always so. For generations, group showering was just a part of life, a routine that emphasized basic hygiene, common sense, and the reality of puberty: if you didn’t shower you’d stink. It was also an early reality check: we learned that bodies weren’t perfect, that they came in various sizes, stages of growth, and variations. This sort of knowledge actually is useful, especially when it comes to deciding what’s normal and what is freak of nature. But some years ago the geniuses who run your school decided that no matter how sweaty or rancid you might be, you wouldn’t have to take showers after gym class. Eventually that idea spread to a lack of showering after any athletic event – which, in spite of deodorants and body sprays, leads to some very long and ripe rides home on the team bus. Of course, this insulation from real-world nakedness means your generation has to get its notions of the human body from such reliable and trustworthy sources as Hollywood, magazines, and the internet. And grownups wonder why so many young women are obsessed with looking like Keira Knightley. Unfortunately, millions of your peers look at super-thin stars like Mary-Kay Olsen or Lara Flynn Boyle and think they are normal. The rest of us think, “get those girls a milkshake, a cheeseburger, anything.”...

Edited August 29, 2008 by scuro

[Kirk]

I agree 100% steve-paul, every kid should have some time at a job with, 'do you want fries with that' to discover what an opportunity is and what you do for money if you blow that opportunity.

 

16 is a great age to be learning that lesson.

 

My oldest is 5 so I don't know yet whats in store for him when he turns 16...maybe by then burgers will be flipping themselves and I'll find another task for him. lol

Edited August 29, 2008 by Kirk

[holdfast]

Do you think that the Fast food joints here in Sask and Alberta are hurting for employees because maybe our youth think that this type of job is inappropriate. Problem here is that these jobs have a horrendous customer service is because the food service has such a shortage they will hire anybody no matter what their background is. I know that when I was a teenager I learned to keep my job because I know I could of easily been replaced. Yea and I was lucky to even have a job. As far as who wrote the points, couldnt careless who, but they make sense to me. Got this from my cousin in Seattle, he neve wrote it either but thought it was interesting enough to send.

Edited September 1, 2008 by holdfast

[bassjnkie]

Right on!!