11 Rules Your Kids Will NOT Learn In School

We have somehow, in our quest to raise confident children, created a world in where all kids are wrapped in bubble wrap: instead of confidence we have given them a warped sense of reality. "Everyone wins", "I'll drive you, it's not safe to walk or ride your bike anywhere", "If you go to college you will make $100K plus in life"..... this certainly wasn't how I was raised. I rode my bike EVERYWHERE, my parents couldn't be bothered with taking me places. I NEVER got a trophy or an award unless I earned it and I certainly didn't think I was going to be making that kind of money unless I worked my ass off and worked my way up in the world.

Charles J Sykes wrote a book 50 Rules Kids Won't Learn In School. Maybe some of you have seen the list of 11 items I am about to post, they have been making the circuit around the internet for a while now, but unfortunately for poor Charles they have been mistakenly tagged as something Bill Gates  has said. Don't get me wrong, Bill Gates is an amazing person and has said some very insightful things, but not this: Credit must be given to Charles for these very eye opening words.

I'm not sure how, or why, many of us strayed so far off the path of our parents in raising our kids. I guess we live in a world of "Political Correctness" (don't even get me started on that subject!) where everyone is afraid to offend and most are too easily offended, but people we have become soft and our kids are paying the price for that now.

So, without any more ramblings from me - here are the 11 Rules Your Kids WILL NOT Learn in School. (the other 39 are great too, so check out the book if you want to see the rest ;o)

1. Life is not fair! Get used to it.

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

3. You will not make $60,000 a year right out of High School. You won't be a Vice-President with a car until you earn both

4. If you think teachers are tough, wait until you get a boss.

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

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

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 think you are. So, before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents generation, try delousing the closet of your own room.

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 in real life.

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. 

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

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