RULE #1:  Life is not fair.  Get used to it.  The average teenager uses the phrase "Life is not fair" 8.6 times a day.  You got it from your parents, who said it so often you decided they must be the most idealistic generation ever.  When they started hearing it from their own children , they realized the second part of Rule #1.

RULE #2:  The real world won't care as much about your self esteem as your school does.  You will be expected to accomplish something before you get to feel good about yourself.  This may come as a shock.  Usually, when an inflated self-esteem meets reality, kids complain it's not fair (see Rule #1).

RULE #3:  You are not going to make $80,000.00 a year right out of high school.  And you won't have a company car and a car phone and an expense account either.  You may even have to wear a uniform that has a designer label on the front of the shirt advertising the company you are working for.

RULE #4:  If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you have a boss.  He doesn't have tenure, so he tends to be a bit edgier.  When you screw up, he's not going to ask you how you feel about it.

RULE #5:  Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity.  Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping, they called it an opportunity.  They weren't embarrassed making minimum wage either.  They were thrilled to have the opportunity to make that first step towards independence.  They would have been embarrassed being unemployed sitting around talking about the latest music release or how high they scored on the newest video game while they mooch off their parents.

RULE#6:  It's NOT your parents fault:  You screwed up, so you are responsible.  There is no one else to blame.  Forget "It's my life", "you're not my boss" and other eloquent proclamations of your generation.  When you turn 18, it's on your dime.  Don't whine about it or you'll sound like a baby boomer.

RULE #7:  Your parents weren't always this boring.  They got that way paying bills, cleaning up after you, nagging you to get your act together and listening to you tell them how they have no idea what it's like to be a kid in today's world.  And by the way, before you try to save the rain forest from the blood-sucking parasites of your parents' generation, try delousing the closet in your bedroom.

RULE #8:  Your school may have eliminated winners and losers, but life hasn't.  In some schools they give you as many chances as it takes to get it right.  They lower the grading system making it easier to get an "A" and harder to get an "F" and have abolished the class valedictorian, lest anyone's feelings be hurt.  Effort is just as important as results.  But don't worry about that because your boss will go easy on you to spare your feelings. 

RULE #9:  Life is not divided into semesters and vacation breaks and you don't get the summer off.  You will have to show up to work every day for eight or more hours a day five or more days a week.  You don't get to start over every grading period, it just keeps adding on.  A failure built on a success is still failure.  If you leave your seat, it may not be there when you get back.  While we're at it, very few jobs allow you to foster your self-expression or help you find yourself.  Fewer still lead to self-realization.

RULE #10:  Television is not real life.  Your life is not a sitcom.  Your problems will not be solved in 30 minutes less commercial time.  They will not go away at the end of the show.  In real life, people actually have to leave the coffee shop to find a job.  Your friends will not all be beautiful people whose only concern is who they are going to sleep with this week.  They will be real people with real problems and a genuine personality who, like you, will also come to the realization that these truly are some of the rules of life.

Exactly what kind of schools teach that, and what kind of parents let it happen?

It sounds like the spoiled kids of the past.

Sure was not my school, or my kids school.

i'll admit i learned MOST if not ALL of this from my father. the sad thing is my "sister's" boyfriend needs to get his head so far from out of his ass and read all of these and apply them to his own. damned mama's boy!!!

oh i almost forgot to mention--my maternal parent always said he was an idiot and never knew what the hell he was talking about---guess he isn't so completely imbecilic after all!!!

I think, in fact, most people know the exact opposite.  Even when some of this tripe is 'taught' in school, its not like kids believe everything they are taught.  Though there is some truth in some of it, if you take it far enough.

RULE #1:  Life is not fair.  Get used to it.
Ask the pudgy ugly girl who was not popular about getting on the Cheer Squad, or the fat kid rejected for sports, and the other 95% of the class who are never going to get the top grades that the other 5% always get.  Kids know this.

RULE #2:  The real world won't care as much about your self esteem as your school does. 
In fact, it will not care about it at all.  Nor should you.  If you need it boosted, get a hooker or a psychologist both of whom are paid to care for a few minutes.  P.S.  The hooker is cheaper and more rewarding.

RULE #3:  You are not going to make $80,000.00 a year right out of high school. 
Hell, you ain't gonna make it out of college either.  Matter of fact those college loans are going to eat up so much of your disposable income the first few decades your going to think you should have gone to trade school and got paid to work instead of taking out huge loans to learn.  Only too late will you find out, that's more than likely true also.

Also, using stupid numbers to make your point will never work.  Keep them within reason if you want people to believe you.

RULE #4:  If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you have a boss.
Your teacher has to have you in class.  You boss does not have to have you at work.  Huge difference.  I've had to fire people in my life, and though at times it hurt, there were other times it was the best part of my job.  I liked to start off with "So, how did you like working for us?"  Sometimes I did things just for me.

RULE #5:  Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity.
Of course, back in the day, flipping burgers was a job for teenagers and not retired people or old ladies whose kids have left the house.

RULE#6:  It's NOT your parents fault.
In fact, yes, some of it is.  If our nation is in part a stinking putrid mess wallowing in self-centeredness, debt, and abrogation of responsibility I think you can thank the baby boomers for that.  For going out and doing whatever they 'felt' they needed to do, instead of like, parenting the kids they spawned.  Spending what they didn't have, or make while blaming the other side for all the social ills.  People on both the right and left of the baby boom have all but destroyed political institutions in the name of polarizing entertainment, making it all but impossible to govern in the first place.

RULE #7:  Your parents weren't always this boring. 
No, in fact they were far worse when they were under the illusion that they were cool, or hip.  But yes, any trip down memory lane will show you that their music taste in general sucked.  Their fashion sense was laughable.  And whatever made them more boring, it sure wasn't responsibility.

RULE #8:  Your school may have eliminated winners and losers, but life hasn't. 
What, are there no high school sports anymore?  Are fat ugly girls still kept from being cheerleaders?  Is the smart kid going to the big university and you can't get into the local community college and auto lube joint?  I think kids get this.

RULE #9:  Life is not divided into semesters and vacation breaks and you don't get the summer off.
In fact my kids went to school in farm country, they see the world in terms of farming seasons. They didn't get the summer off, they worked harder in the summer than they did the rest of the year.

RULE #10:  Television is not real life.
In fact, its mind control so that the idiots, morons and not so bright and very lazy among us can be entertained without any effort on their part. Do you want to know why mommy's belly covers her private parts when she stands up and why daddy has not been able to look down and see his dick since Ford was President?  TV.  Want to know why they are always unhappy?  TV.