Ten Rules That Kids Won't Learn In School

With the start of the new school year, there's been a list of rules that kids will not learn in school. It's been attributed to Bill Gates and has been printed by countless newspapers and quoted by Paul Harvey and Ann Landers and many others.

The actual author is Charles J. Sykes. He's an interesting author - you may want to check out some of his works.

Here are the rules:

1. Life is not fair. Get used to it. The average teenager uses the phrase "It's not fair" 86 times a day.

2. The real world won't care as much about your self-esteem as your school does. This may come as a shock.

3. Sorry, but you won't make $40,000 a year right out of high school. And you won't be a vice president or have a car phone, either. You may even have to wear a uniform that doesn't have a designer label.

4. If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss.

5. Flipping burgers is not beneath dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping. They called it opportunity.

6. It's not your parents fault if you mess up. You're responsible! This is the flip side of "It's my life" and "You're not my boss."

7. Before you were born your parents were not boring. They got that way paying your bills and listening to you.

8. Life is not divided into semesters. And you don't get summers off. Not even spring break. You are expected to show up every day for eight hours; and you don't get a new life every 10 weeks.

9. Smoking does not make you look cool. Watch an 11-year-old with a butt in his mouth. That's what you look like to anyone over 20.

10. Your school may be "outcome-based," but life is not. In some schools, you're given as many as times as you want to get the answer right. Standards are set low enough so everyone can meet them. This, of course, bears not the slightest resemblance to anything in real life—as you will find out.