11 Rules - Dumbing Down Our Kids

yellum

Dumbing Down Our Kids

Charles Sykes is the author of DUMBING DOWN OUR KIDS.

The following is a list he created for high school and college graduates of things he did not learn in school.

In his book, he talks about how the "system" may have created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and 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 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 screw 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 paying your bills, cleaning your room, and listening to you tell them how idealistic you are. So before you save the rain forest from the blood-sucking 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, bears not 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.

Sparks

I like #11

Silverfish

Oh my god I think he got that from my parents

DEmeant0r

some are quite funny and true

sunbeam

Originally posted by yellum
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.

Sounds like my old English teacher who believed in 'motivating' us by telling us how stupid we were and how hard everything would be. :mad:

You are not your accomplishments, but without self esteem you'll accomplish very little.

commuterised

like the one in particular who insisted in reminding you that they wouldn't be there to sit your leaving cert for you, like eh duh!!!

Stark

I'd probably change no.1 to "Life's not fair, try doing something about it". The rest of them are so true.

Chevano Riley

i wanna cut this guy up. he's just spouting hackneyed ****. he talks about 'life, 'the world', 'success'. what do this words mean? who's successful? the vice president of that company with a car phone. alot of our generation genuinely don't want this, and would rather define success to be that which makes them happy.

Charles Sykes is getting a visit. no, not. i dont earn enough to afford the air fare.

po0k

I would define success as finding someone I want to spend the rest of my life with, having a few kids with her and being able to support them all and raise the kids to be responsiblie good-natured people. Not like the little fuckers our older brother's and sisters spawned in the last 10-15 years.

Chevano Riley

Originally posted by SyxPak
little fuckers our older brother's and sisters spawned in the last 10-15 years.

solice

as depressing as that was, i would have to say that they were inspiring.
what i took away from it was "i am the master of my own destiny". its true.

Shinji

alot of our generation genuinely don't want this

He's presenting an aspirational example. What you're really saying is "a lot of our generation are lazy sods who can't get off their backsides and try to justify this by mouthing off about how they 'don't want' to achieve anything".

de5p0i1er

Kids should be told this on the last day of school if not sooner.