Has Menlo created a body of fixers or acceptors? Bill Gates has advice

Claudia Corrigan | Opinions and Co-Spread Editor 
Photo from galleryhip.com

Menlo students work hard. There’s no denying it. Some students’ work may produce more positive outcome than others, but overall each student has set personal goals and they know the energy that must be exerted to reach them.

However, I feel that the Menlo community as a whole has cushioned its students, producing an innate false reaction when it comes to struggle and adversity. Menlo students have become fixers instead of acceptors. Because our absolute priority is the grade we receive at the end of each semester, it seems that every assessment, every essay, and every assignment has morphed into a part of our progress rather than a final evaluation of our knowledge and our ability to utilize it.

When you receive a B on an in-class essay you wrote for Wuthering Heights in AP English literature, think about how you often approach the situation. “Holy crap. I can’t let this menial assignment reflect upon my chances of receiving X GPA this semester.” You waltz into your teacher’s office full of dismay – there must be some extra credit or corrections that could make up for your inability to develop coherent ideas in the 40-minute allotted time period! And, often, because Menlo teachers are generous and don’t want to hinder their students from reaching their goals, they curve you grade.

But this isn’t how it works in the real world. No one cares about your goals – everyone has their own that they’re working towards. You won’t get a second-chance when your boss gives you a deadline for your pitch in two days. It’s over – you lost.

There is no one who has portrayed these ideas better than Bill Gates in his speech to Mt. Whitney High School in Feb. 2000. I hope you gain as much perspective as I did.

“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 and video games are 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.”

– Bill Gates