Posted on 11/19/2011 9:32:20 AM PST by BarnacleCenturion
Newt Gingrich tonight said at an address at Harvard that child work laws "entrap" poor children into poverty - and suggested that a better way to handle failing schools is to fire the janitors, hire the local students and let them get paid for upkeep.
"This is something that no liberal wants to deal with," Gingrich said. "Core policies of protecting unionization and bureaucratization against children in the poorest neighborhoods, crippling them by putting them in schools that fail has done more to create income inequality in the United States than any other single policy. It is tragic what we do in the poorest neighborhoods, entrapping children in, first of all, child laws, which are truly stupid.
(Excerpt) Read more at nation.foxnews.com ...
Thanks for sharing that! GO to Newt.org and tell them about it! It would be for rebuttals.
Just recently people were lamenting the fact that fields with very edible gleanings are disked under and asking why farmers don’t let people go and pick them. Same answer, lawsuits, someone gets hurt and they sue. The other reason is that very few people want to do the work it takes to pick and process their own food, the grocery store is too easy and still fairly reasonable unless you are truly hungry and few are.
I will pick and bring produce to older people but I refuse to do it for able-bodied people. I tell everyone that it is there and it is free for a little labor and very few people ever avail themselves of the offer.
I know all the farmers and whenever they have gleanings they let me pick them and I can take whoever I want with me and they don’t care but once again finding someone who will take the time and put forth the effort is hard to do. People will ask me to pick them some and I refuse unless there is a darned good reason they can’t and they really need it. I don’t do welfare for able-bodied people.
Unemployment is important, but so is cutting the cost of education and instilling civic responsibility in the children. There are always jobs that children can’t do at the school such as clean toilets and replace lights, etc, but there are some menial chores that the children can help with. That can save us the cost of paying someone a full salary and benefits to just push a dustmop every night.
Like Japan, the kids in Thailand are responsible for cleaning their schools. Responsibility and respect are important lessons.
Say hi to Mitt to us
I am not for liberal candidate like you are. I am for Cain, Bachmann or Sanatorum and that is it. Take your liberalism and liberal candidates and shove it and them.
LOL, that is exactly why my brother and his friends worked in the fields, getting a tan and having money which would also make them attractive to girls.
the baggage, the baggage, the baggage, the baggage, the baggage, the baggage, the baggage, the baggage, the baggage, the baggage, the baggage, the baggage, the baggage, the baggage, the baggage, the baggage,the baggage, the baggage, the baggage, the baggage, the baggage, the baggage, the baggage, the baggage, the baggage, the baggage, the baggage, the baggage, the baggage, the baggage, the baggage, the baggage,
NOW. can we give this tired old # One media/demRat talking point a rest for a bit.
so transparent.
say "hi" to Mitt for us.
I work at a school, and I understand exactly what Newt means here. I get herds of students every year who have not a whit of understanding of what it means to work hard and work productively. Obligating the kids to clean after themselves and maintain the school where they work (at learning) seems like the balanced counterpart to doing chores at home.
However....
See how neatly the Wizard of Smart creates his own cow pie and steps in it with a genteel smile ? Instead of wording his thoughts carefully, Prof. Gingrich boldly proceeds as if all discussions were academic wordfests over at the local bar between fellow brianiacs. I can easily, easily, easily see his comments here can be morphed with ease by leftists into cartoons of Dickensian hovels with rag-wearing orphans hoisting mops and buckets.
I agree with Savage that Gingrich would be a disaster, if only for the image of a doughy old white guy placed in counterpart to the dapper, thin Obama. Comments like this are another concern.
Gingrich needs to go on the talk show circuit and peddle his ideas there. He’ll be eaten alive in the general election - like a professorial Dole or McCain.
God help us.
He IS this stupid.
When we were kids, we were given a weekly allowance…call it a “poverty” level allowance.
We also had our chores around the house to complete. It was to teach us responsibility and how to handle money and not to overspend beyond our means. Certainly, shoes and clothing did not fall into this category. My folks would provide that. Oh yes. No reward money for making good grades in school. That was expected.
My comment now: Had it been now and living in the U.S. my parents would probably be arrested for child abuse for having us do some household chores as we were not of age.
Having to learn to clean my room, cook to include cleaning up, wash my own clothes and iron, and learned to shop for groceries prepared me for later life when I was on my own.
One of Newt's premises - that people on unemployment shouldn't be sitting around for months doing nothing.
Its getting very tiresome listening to Freepers repeat the MSM mantra of Newt's baggage. They have placed a visual image in the minds of some people and are laughing at their successful slandering of a primo candidate. You want Baggage..look at ANYONE in public office and I'll show you baggage. It comes with the job and the anal exams that accompany them. The only Perfect person was crucified 2000 years ago.
That's true and everyone would agree but it really isn't what he meant. He said "fire the janitors and hire the kids". Completely different.
When my grandkids were in Head Start (gasp) they always had to clean up the room at the end of the day. And now their Young Marines post does the same. Entirely different from preposterously suggesting that they would be the sole paid workforce.
Sadly, he is suggesting a fix for an institution that is immune to fixes: the public schools, where most of the nation's children are forced to serve the twelve-year sentence.
As smart as Newt is, he really should learn a little more about the subject before he embarrasses himself. It makes me wonder whether we're looking to find a president or a national superintendent of schools when these candidates spend time talking about schools -- a concern traditionally managed at the local level. (Why is there still a cabinet-level agency after 40 years of failure? Can Newt explain that?)
Suggested reading and viewing: anything by John Taylor Gatto.
You're slipping. But now we'll be treated to a lone line of your inane posts - but we still won't hear who YOU support, how they could better beat obummer and how they would bring us back from the brink.
Is that because you're in the pocket of the one candidate banned from FR?
Say “hi” to Mittens for us...
(Everybody get ready for an onslaught of anti-Newt posts from lil johnnie-one-note)
The Ed. Dept. has only been around 32 years -- 32 years too long.
Absolutely. I know a few people personally that have said they are not going back to work until their unemployment runs out.
Their parents pay high taxes for public schools and you think they will like their kids cleaning those schools? No way! Besides the janitors know how to do it better, and taxes are paying for it. How about lowering the salaries of the teachers and principals? Now that’s a good idea!
Paying the kids is a stupid idea.
How about making cleaning the school part of their regular school day? They do that in some countries.
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