A few weeks ago a friend with teenagers was telling me that his wife had been e-mailed Bill Gates” 11 Rules of Life and she put the list on the refrigerator for their kids to read from time-to-time. He showed me the list and I was impressed. Soon afterward I went looking for the list on the Internet to print out a copy for myself.
In my search I discovered that the list didn”t really come from “a speech Bill Gates recently gave to the students at Mt. Whitney High School in Visalia, California,” as reported in most of the e-mails that have been distributed around the country. According to the Urban Legends Web site, the list was actually gleaned from a longer list of rules to live by that was written by Charles Sykes and initially published in the San Diego Union-Tribune. Sykes is the author of a book titled “Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves, but Can”t Read, Write or Add.”
I suppose whoever began the original distribution process on the Internet must have thought it would carry greater weight if it were attributed to someone more famous, like Bill Gates. In reality, the list makes sense, no matter who wrote it. Check it out. The notes in parenthesis are mine.
“Bill Gates” Speech to Mt. Whitney High School in Visalia, California.
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 (Sykes” original version stated $40,000) a year right out of high school. You won”t be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both. (The car phone entry is a tip-off that the list isn”t recent.)
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 think you are. 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.”
What struck me the most about the set of rules is its indictment of the philosophical direction of America”s modern education system. Sykes” original newspaper column was more pointed. It began, “Unfortunately, there are some things that children should be learning in school, but don”t.” In almost everything I”ve read recently concerning the plight of this country, the troubles with our educational system crop up every time. Mentioned often is the fact that education today has moved toward downplaying individual excellence and toward honoring group achievements.
Success in life really does go to individuals who compete and win. If our schools have gotten away from teaching this, as many people claim they have, then America”s youth are being ill-prepared for their future.
Gary Dickson is the editor and publisher of the Record-Bee. Call him at 263-5636, ext. 24. E-mail him at gdickson@record-bee.com.
