A preview of "The 50 Rules Kids Won't Learn in School" (to be released Thursday):

RULE (9): Your school may have done away with winners and losers. Life hasn’t. In some schools, failing grades have been abolished and class valedictorians scrapped lest anyone’s feelings be hurt. Effort is as important as results. This, of course, bears not the slightest resemblance to real life, which still rewards excellence and delivers a sharp poke in the eye to failure.

There’s an Alice in Wonderland quality to much of public education these days: “Everyone wins, and all must have prizes!” Or at least trophies for participation. In the movie Meet the Fockers, the "Wall of Gaylord" celebrates one character’s lifetime achievements in mediocrity, prompting the character played by Robert De Niro to muse, “I didn't know they made ninth-place ribbons."

Of course they do.

RULE (10): Life is actually more like dodgeball than your gym teacher thinks.

It comes at you quickly; it requires alertness and skill; the outcome is unpredictable; the weak can sometimes overcome the strong; it involves elimination and has both winners and losers. …

RULE (11): After you graduate, you won’t be competing against rivals who were raised to be wimps on the playground.

The Duke of Wellington once said that “the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton ” – reflecting his view that competitive sports shape a nation’s character. We sure as hell should hope that’s not true about America unless, that is, we plan on going to war against an enemy who also values non-competitive, risk-free, self-esteem building play activities for its young….