Profile: Author/educator Charles Sykes and HIS rules on life

A half truth is a whole lie. ~ Yiddish Proverb

For the past couple of days on Facebook, some of my friends shared and posted this note entitled Bill Gates speech: 11 rules your kids did not and will not learn in school. While I am not a fan of Bill Gates and most of his educational philosophy, I thought the list of rules were on point. So here they are...

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 phone until you earn both
4. If you think your teacher is tough, wait till 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 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.
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.
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.

What's more interesting about this is THESE RULES WERE NOT WRITTEN BY BILL GATES. Thanks to one of the note's commentator, this website debunks the e-rumor that Bill Gates shared these rules with a group of high school students during his speech to them; in addition, I came across another website that confirms this as well. According, these rules originated from the 1996 book Dumbing Down Our Kids by educator Charles Sykes (official biography).

It is always amazing to come across books written years ago whose contents and messages are still prevalent today...must add to my book list.

Also, another book by Sykes that I may get as well is 50 Rules Kids Won't Learn in Schools.