HIRE kids??? When I was in school, cleaning the school was part of the school day.
Our local janitors have way to much power.
School teachers used to open up the gym on weekends and over holiday breaks so that kids could practice basketball and exercise.
But their union now demands that a janitor be on the clock while the gym is being used...even if the teacher is present!
Sadly the gyms sit empty now...unless someone is willing to pay “the rent” which really pays for the janitor.
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.
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.
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.
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.
My first grammar school (catholic). The students cleaned the classrooms. Mopped the floors, cleaned the desks, blackboards, etc. The pastor & parish members drove the school busses. Parents helped out with painting. This is distant past, we probably had some contracted janitorial/maintenance assistance - however, it was minimal. These were parents who were involved in the community.
>> Newt: Fire the Janitors, Hire Kids to Clean Schools
I’ve been suggesting the idea of providing college tuition credits through farm labor. The service industry could also participate.
In fact, I will throw all of my political support (and maybe a lot of financial support, too) behind the candidate who has the courage to stand up and tell the truth about public education: There is no place in a free nation for "public education" as we know it. Up until the last 150 years or so, I'm willing to bet that you will not find any documented case in human history of a society that rounded up all of its children on a daily basis and warehoused them in large buildings for the purpose of "educating" them.
It’s actually not the worst idea.
My parents taught me to clean my room and help clean the house. If the school is ‘in loco parentis’ kids could learn how to clean things the right way using different cleaning supplies than they might have at home. There’s also pride knowing how to clean the right way, to be proud of keeping your home/school clean.
So what do the janitors do for jobs?
Weird article, weird statement by Newt. Another dull day on the trail.
When I was a kid, there were 2 adult janitors who supervised a crew of teen janitors.
I went to a private tuition-free high school producing some of the finest students in the country where ALL maintenance not requiring a license was performed by the students, including industrial craft work.
Here in Japan the kids clean the school every day . They have to and don’t get paid .
While you're at it, fire the lunch room staff and hire the kids to cook the gruel and clean out the wooden bowls.
Fundamentally, Newt and many of the posters to this thread fail to see that the underlying problem, not only with the academic failure, but with the unionization of the janitors, is **socialism**! Government K-12 schooling is the very definition of a single-payer, compulsory use, **socialist** entitlement!
If Japan wants to **force** its children into prison-like schools and then **force** them to clean these prison-like structures that is their business, but is this what we want to teach American children? Should we teach them to be submissive slave labor to the state?
There is a solution: Begin the privatization of all K-12 schooling. We need complete separation of school and state. Let these “clean up” up matters be settled** privately*** between the parents, teachers, and principals in the **private** setting of a **private** institution.
Janitors now have to deal with all the “green” issues, there are so many regulations about what cleaning products can be used in schools and how they are allowed to be used it is not even funny. So many safety proceedures to follow, it is crazy. The children would get quite an education in government regulation and environmental issues if they did start cleaning the schools.