Parts of this article appeared in the Tryon Daily Bulletin several years ago. But once again, it’s the time of year for high school and college graduates to take their next steps in life, and it’s likely to be quite a shock for most of them.

Too many kids today have an entitlement mentality. Add to that the destructive culture of political correctness keeping them from having to deal with opposing opinions, and what we end up with are some graduates that are far less independent and pioneering than we were, just a few generations ago.

Schools have banned dodge ball because it would be a tragedy if a ball hit her in the nose, and some little league sports no longer even keep score because there would be hurt feelings if a game had winners and losers. Colleges have “Safe Zones” to protect students from having to hear opposing opinions that might challenge them to do some critical thinking. That’s the new reality for today’s kids, and that reality doesn’t teach kids much about life.

Here are 11 rules about life that kids are not, and will not, be taught in today’s schools or colleges. It’s a good wake-up call for kids and would be a good reminder for those protesting the realities of life. These 11 rules are excerpted from the book “Dumbing Down our Kids” written by educator Charles Sykes who believes we are creating an entire future generation of soon to be adults that have no concept of reality, and how this approach is actually setting these kids up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1: Life is not fair – get used to it!

Rule 2: The world doesn’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.

Maybe it’s time our high school and college kids got a dose of reality before they actually have to learn it the hard way. To me that would be like giving them chicken soup…it couldn’t hurt.

Ron Kauffman is a consultant and expert speaker on issues of aging, Medicare and Obamacare. Ron is the author of “Caring for a Loved One with Alzheimer’s Disease,” available as a Kindle book on Amazon.com. His podcasts can be heard weekly at www.seniorlifestyles.net. Contact Ron at 828-696-9799 or by email at drron561@gmail.com.