Charles Sykes is the author
of DUMBING DOWN OUR KIDS. He [reportedly] volunteered a list of
eleven things high school and college graduates did not learn in school.
In his book, he talks about how the feel good, politically-correct
teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and set
them up for failure in the real world. You may want to share this list
with them.
-
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 40
thousand dollars 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. He doesn't have tenure.
-
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 are. So before you save the rain forest 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; they'll give you as many times as you
want to get the right answer. This, of course, 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.
|