Critique of Some rules kids won't learn in school Pt 1

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http://www.n0rm.net/LifeIsntFair.htm
This was an article that was Printed in San Diego Union Tribune in the month, day, and year of our lord September 19, 1996. The article is called "Some rules kids won't learn in school." which is by By Charles J. Sykes.


I think it is time to challenge this article bit by bit and challenge some of this man's values.
1. Rule No. 1: Life is not fair. Get used to it. The average teen-ager uses thephrase, "It's not fair" 8.6 times a day. You got it from your parents, whosaid it so often you decided they must be the most idealistic generationever. When they started hearing it from their own kids, they realized RuleNo. 1.


Here is my response : http://ultimatesuperset.blogspot.com/20 ... -fair.html


2. Rule No. 2: The real world won't care as much about your self-esteem as muchas your school does. It'll expect you to accomplish something before youfeel good about yourself. This may come as a shock. Usually, when inflatedself-esteem meets reality, kids complain it's not fair. (See Rule No. 1)


a. What exactly is the real world? How does a person tell if something is real or if it is just hollywood or made up? What objective tests should a child do?


b. Let's say that we can quantify self-esteem from 1 to 100. 1 is extremely low self esteem and 100 is extremely high. What is a good range that a person should stay in so they do have healthy self-esteem that is not too high or not too low? How does a person stay within that range?


3. Rule No. 3: Sorry, 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 evenhave to wear a uniform that doesn't have a Gap label.


a. What will the high schooler make when he or she graduates high school? What is the average? If the average is low or minimum wage what can the child do to feed, clothe, and shelter himself or herself?


b. How can they earn the $40,000 year, vice president, and a car phone? What about college?


c. How does a child determine how much they are truly worth in the marketplace? What are the step by step instructions to do this?


4. Rule No. 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait 'til you get a boss. Hedoesn't have tenure, so he tends to be a bit edgier. When you screw up, he'snot going to ask you how you feel about it.


a. What does this mean right here? Does this mean that the boss will demand perfection? No one can meet that demand. Everyone will screw up from time to time. We have a law called Murphy's law which proves this. What happens if you have multiple bosses who give contradictory, inconsistent, or vague instructions? What do you do then?


b. This happened at Kroger plenty of times for me. Speaking of Kroger, this is another thing that happened to me in which I was in a catch-22 sometimes. When the place was not busy I was supposed to find stuff to do. In order to do that, I had to go to the back to get supplies or do stuff in the back. The problem with this is it could get busy right when I left the front.

I could've stayed in the front even if I was idle and doing nothing to make sure the front had a courtesy clerk. They did not like any idle time at all. Either way I was violating their rules and "screwing up." This was because if I follow one rule I violate the other either way it went. What should have I done to keep in compliance and not screw up?

Those are four very good things to know about the real world, and I think that it's up to the parents to teach their children those four rules.

I agree with those rules. Even though I haven't experienced them firsthand, I've observed them being put into action through my family members.

Those rules are completely moronic and not well thought through. Nice responses cubedemon6073.