Words of wisdom from a coach

The following is an excerpt from a piece entitled "Words of Wisdom From Coach to Player" by Charles Sykes.

Charles Sykes is the author of "Dumbing Down Our Kids."

He volunteered for high school and college graduates a list of eleven things they did not learn in school. In his book, he talks about how the feel good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and set them up for failure in the real world. You may want to share this list with your kids.

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 $40,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different term 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 and move on.

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 are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parents 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 will give you as many chances as you want or need to get the answer right. This, of course, 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 get a job.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you will end up working for one.

God bless,
Steve