Love him or hate him, he sure hits the nail on the head with this! To anyone with kids of any age, here's some advice. Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept 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 $60,000 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.
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 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.
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. __________________
posted
Actually Bill Gates statement is rather sad.
I thought he had more class than that. He has been playing in the big money world to long.
Kids need to enjoy being young and naive as long as they can that's part of growing up. The reality of real life comes way to soon for many kids.
Hopefully he allows his kid to enjoy being a kid and not being pushed into the corporate world before he or she needs to be. I think his wife has a little more parent sense than him.
Most coaches are teachers MCJA and each has their own ideas about what teaching is all about some good some very bad.
IP: Logged |
posted
I think the sad part of what Gates said is that it needed to be said at all. And it did.
I don't think kids need to grow up fast but I do think they need to experience a reality that is age specific and not make believe. If they learn to deal with realities as they grow, they'll have experiences that will guide them in their choices of behaviors and such. If they never experience losing they will be ill prepared for disappointments in life. If they never experience having to work hard to achieve a goal, they'll always expect things to be given to them. They should learn to appreciate and respect their parents.
Personally, I don't see what you think is so wrong with what Gates said.
IP: Logged |
he was speaking to High school students, not elem. school.
i find it amazing how much support there is for sports, and yet somehow we are (for the most part) doing our best to dumb down the academic side of education.
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise.
IP: Logged |
posted
I agree with Glass and Sunny, IWISH. Too many of our children are entering the real world with a Hollywood style view of what it is. They don't have the foggiest idea of how to cope with failure because our schools are doing their best to remove failure from life. They don't know how to cope with competition because everyone gets an award.
'And the award for best project that didn't have the color purple in it goes to...'
I've just completed two seperate courses that my company paid for so that it's supervisors would know how to 'Coach for Success.' It's a Liberal PC way of saying, you didn't screw up, you just didn't succeed. You can't fire anyone because then they could sue. No matter how badly they perform at work. Gates understands that in a world where your company literally hinges on being better than the competition, the award for second place is usually accompanied with a pink slip.
IP: Logged |
posted
Interesting points i wish i could see it from your points of view.
I kind of like it back when i was in high school and the most important point about a job was to get gas, beer, date money and a few other things.
I am not sure i had that much reality of what was to come or even cared. I guess i thought i would figure it out as i go and i am still not sure i have. I don't think i am any better or worst for it although i wish i had bought those 20 acres in Huntington Beach,Ca back in the 1960's.
The idea that most young people don't know about winning or losing, success or failure because they have not faced it is incorrect.
Parents forget that those young kids of their's deal with their parents success and failures all the time. The way we as parents deal with our successes and failure's are affecting how our kids deal with their's.
I am coaching 5 years olds again which i have stated before. These kids know about winning and losing far more than i wished they did and it comes from the home front.
IP: Logged |
posted
I was not really sure why these statements by Bill Gates did not set right for me until i thought about it more.
I lived very close to Microsoft when they were in there developing stages. I remembered a little of his past and just refreshed my memory.
This is a guy whose dad was a prominent lawyer, his grandfather was vice president of a national bank and his great grandfather was a State Legislator.
His mother served on the board of directors for First Interstate Bank System and United Way.
His parents were wealthy.
Bill Gates attended Laskeside High School one of the top prep schools in the State of Wash. He also attended Harvard.
Does Bill Gates have a real perception of most of his above statements?
IP: Logged |
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic
