Will Our Kids Survive After School?

Do you think your high school education prepared you for the real world? 

Do you think your kids are being adequately prepared to face the rigors of the big bad world?

Many kids are wrapped in cotton wool from the moment they escape the womb and then in school and weekend sport everybody gets a participation medal despite, I believe, kids knowing damned well whether they won the game or not.

According to a new report from The Mitchell Institute which examines education and policy our kids are being taught too much that may not be any use to them afterwards but they are forced to endure it because of NAPLAN tests and other programs to measure progress and therfore perhaps influence funding.

There are many lessons during school years and it would not be the first time a teacher was asked "when am I going to use this when I leave" however that question would now appear to have far greater weight.

I have always loved the line from Paul Simon's song Kodachrome which says "when I look back at all the crap I learned in high school, it's a wonder I learnt anything at all" Amen.

What about real world skills and what a harsh place it can be when the people who continually told you how special and fantastic you are demand you perform in their workplace, if you can get in the front door.

Bill Gates 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.

It's as true today as when he first gave the speech.

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.

I challenge you to deny any of it.