The 2012 graduation and commencement season is upon us.
Over the past few years a list attributed to Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, has been circulated in newspaper articles, YouTube videos and various social media platforms. Supposedly, Mr. Gates delivered a commencement speech to the 2007 graduating class of Mt. Whitney High School in Visalia, California. Now in 2007 Mr. Gates did give a speech, but it was at Harvard and not at Mt. Whitney High School. A now famous list of 11 rules for these high school graduates has been used time and time again to inspire future graduates as to the realities of the world that awaits them.
The reality is, this list actually comes from a 2007 book written by Charles J. Sykes called 50 Rules Kids Won’t Learn In School: Real World Antidotes to Feel Good Education. His previous work was the 1996 book Dumbing down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can’t Read, Write, Or Add. His most recent work, is A Nation of Moochers: America’s Addiction To Getting Something For Nothing. All of his books have a common theme : if you want something, you’ve got to work very hard to get it and not make excuses.
This is probably why his list resonates so well with people above the age of 40. Now that it has been cleared up as to who actually authored this list, it is important to not only provide this list, but to also show three points made by the author that are often omitted from what most people have come to know as the 11 Rules.
14 Rules You didn’t Learn In School:
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 a year right out of high school [or college for that matter]. You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both. (cont … Black and Brown News)
Culture * Politics * Tech * the World 