Great lines from "50 Rules Kids Won't Learn in School" by Charles Sykes

As I was reading 50 Rules Kids Won't Learn in School I kept writing down page numbers when I came across a good thought or interesting observation. Here are some of my favorites:

p.17 In talking about the self-esteem movement Charles writes "Ask yourself if it is better to feel good about your swimming abilities, or to actually know how to swim."

p.63 In response to teenagers who want to save the world Charles quotes P. J. O'Rourke who said "Everybody wants to save the earth; nobody wants to help Mom do the dishes."

p.67 "The Habit of blaming other people for your problems is easily acquired and difficult to shake."

p.73 "A willingness to be offended at the smallest slight is not a sign of superior consciousness -- it is a decision to be a whiner and an emotional bully."

p.90 "There's something ironic about the number of people who are careful to put only low-fat, sugar-free, vegan, whole-grain, organic food into their months and who then turn around and pump raw sewage into their heads."

p.112 Bill Swanson CEO of Raytheon said "A person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter, or to others, is not a nice person."

p.121 Charles ridicules government attempts to fix obesity. "Apparently we're also supposed to assume that youngsters who tune out millions of parents, blow off thousands of gym teachers, and ignore the incentives of being attractive to the opposite sex will somehow listen to the federal government."

p.133 Charles took his family to Gettysburg. He wondered "How in God's name did they ever make this boring? How did our schools decide this wasn't worth teaching and that if it was worth teaching, it should be taught badly, carefully gutted of anything that might capture the imagination of children?"

p.144 "If you have any friends who resent your success, you should recognize this obvious fact: they aren't really your friends in any sense of the word."

If these sound interesting, check out my review of the book.


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