Newt Gingrich: fire Janitors, make kids work.

[Rageaholic]

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/11/newt-gingrich-thinks-school-children-should-work-as-janitors/248837/

So firing Janitors and having children work (increasing the work force) is supposed to help the economy? What the hell is this clown smoking?

[guywithashovel]

I saw this in some other news source. And like I keep saying, I honestly think Obama can just get busy on his second inaugural address now.

However, I have said in the past that kids who get detention should be required to spend their detention time helping the janitor out with some of the general cleaning (e.g. mopping, cleaning off desks, scrubbing toilets). Personally, I think that would be more constructive than spending the time sitting in a chair and staring into space for an hour (or however long detention is).

Nonetheless, to fire the janitors and get students to do the work is ridiculous. They're suggesting that it would help the economy by putting poor kids to work, but that work would come at the expense of the fired janitors' jobs. The Law of Unintended Consequences at work.

[Crazedclerkthe2nd]

I saw this in some other news source. And like I keep saying, I honestly think Obama can just get busy on his second inaugural address now.

However, I have said in the past that kids who get detention should be required to spend their detention time helping the janitor out with some of the general cleaning (e.g. mopping, cleaning off desks, scrubbing toilets). Personally, I think that would be more constructive than spending the time sitting in a chair and staring into space for an hour (or however long detention is).

Nonetheless, to fire the janitors and get students to do the work is ridiculous. They're suggesting that it would help the economy by putting poor kids to work, but that work would come at the expense of the fired janitors' jobs. The Law of Unintended Consequences at work.

No I think the consequence is very intended. This idea is about busting unions and utilizing cheap labor, NOT about putting kids to work.

[Iseeyouthere]

Only if the students are paid the right wages.
Oh wait... they are only 9 years old, not really the legal working age...
No, they can't be forced to work. That would be on the border line of child slave labour.

What an idiot...

[fireheart17]

Don't the kids help clean up classrooms in Japan?

[ExRetailDrone]

Don't the kids help clean up classrooms in Japan?

I'm not sure about Japan, but it wouldn't surprise me. The kids in Korea clean up the classrooms. There is a person hired to do the major things, I think, but the kids help clean the school every day. I see them sweeping, mopping, using little brooms to wipe off the stairs, cleaning windows, taking out the trash and recycling (including for the teachers' offices), etc. It's pretty much considered just part of their duties as a student, it's not considered a job.

This doesn't mean I support anything Gingrich has said, mind you. I find him to be an utter moron.

[DrFaroohk]

And Gingrich will be the first one crying when these janitors who lost their jobs have to go on welfare.

[mikoyan29]

Welfare? Ha! Gingrinch wants to dismantle the safety net as well. So when those janitors lose their jobs, they'll have to go to some remote mountain and die. I'd say as long as it's not Glacier or Yosemite, but he probably wants to sell those.

[bara]

Why not keep janitors and still make the kids help?
Maybe if the kids are more involved it might help instil a little bit of pride in them for how thier scholl looks.

A few years ago we finally got a new highschool. Never mind that the district couldnt reallt afford it. Within the first year that shiny new building was trashed. Graffiti, broken windows, desks. It was sad really. At least there was some pride with the old building. Had been there since the 1920s.
But I think its a generational thing as well. Most everyone who could is getting the hell out of this town so what you have left are the people who dont give a damn.

[DrFaroohk]

Of course one problem with this is that with extra time cleaning (say, 10 minutes a day) that's 10 minutes of learning the kids didn't get. Guess who gets yelled at when they get poor grades. "You're supposed to be teaching math, not brooms and windex!"

[fireheart17]

The after-school detention program at my high school involved the kids having to do their homework as punishment :lol:

[tropicsgoddess]

That's not going to do shit for the kids nor the economy. Newt Gingrich is a moron and a hypocrite. If they want to make the economy better, create more jobs, do something to boost up consumer confidence and do some budget cuts and less earmarking and pork! Besides that they can also do away with those No Child Left Behind bullshit laws for the schools. How about them apples, Gingrich!

[Panacea]

Only if the students are paid the right wages.
Oh wait... they are only 9 years old, not really the legal working age...
No, they can't be forced to work. That would be on the border line of child slave labour.

What an idiot...

Indeed, he is. Gingrich wants to change the child labor laws to accomplish this. He's called them "stupid." He'd love nothing more than to see child labor come back, and even promotes it as a good thing by claiming that the most successful of Americans usually start making their money by working as children.

While he is right about that, what he neglects to mention are the disproportionally larger number of people who also started working as children who are still mired in poverty.

I really don't think we need 2 year olds back working in mines again, or school age children making trinkets so US companies can bring "jobs back home."

It's fine to have children help clean up a classroom at the end of the day. I clean up my classroom, and it's really not much of a chore to pick up the bits of trash and clean the dry erase board, and straighten the seats and desks.

But the janitorial jobs (some of which older kids could do, but not younger kids) are pretty lenghty:

Vacuum carpets
Wax and buff floors
Mop floors
clean toilets
clean sinks
Empty trash (including the receptacles with used sanitary napkins and pads)
Clean refridgerators
Clean lab supplies (which may involve biohazardous materials)
clean stairwells
Wash windows that may be very high even for adults
Dust high and out of reach places

The janitor who works on my floor works damn hard. Gingrich should spend a few weeks following a janitor and doing that job before he just decides to "let the kids do it."

[FArchivist]

Why not keep janitors and still make the kids help?
Maybe if the kids are more involved it might help instil a little bit of pride in them for how thier scholl looks.

Even when I was in high school over 17 years ago I didn't have time for that. I had 2-3 hours of homework a night + plus mandatory extracurricular activities. If I didn't accomplish all that? My ass was grass.

[jackfaire]

I always thought Detention is a pretty good deterrant in most cases.

Believe me you lose your afternoon fun you will think the next time.

However I think if the person is a repeat offender maybe you should figure out why.

As for the cleaning. Most classes had the students help keep the classroom itself clean.

What would have been nice though is everytime they caught a student littering making that student sweep up at the end of the day cuz those halls got so full of trash.

[ExRetailDrone]

Even when I was in high school over 17 years ago I didn't have time for that. I had 2-3 hours of homework a night + plus mandatory extracurricular activities. If I didn't accomplish all that? My ass was grass.

I'm sorry, but I don't buy this. The students would help clean the school during school hours, not after school. The Korean students help clean up their schools, and they have much less time than most American students by far. At least at my school, they have to be in school from 8:30am until 2:30pm (I work at an elementary school...middle and high school students go to school for longer and have even less free time), then they get a little time off, then a lot of them go to private academies for another 6+ hours sometimes. And they are still expected to help keep their classrooms and the school as a whole clean. It's not a lot, and when all of them are helping out, it really doesn't take that much time everyday. Some sweeping, taking out the recycling, these are not huge, dangerous, time-consuming jobs. Just the basic upkeep that any building needs. I see nothing wrong with incorporating something like this into American schools.

However, firing the janitors and having the students take over all the responsibilities that the janitors do is a level of stupid I simply can't comprehend.

[FArchivist]

I'm sorry, but I don't buy this.

Welcome to GA and the wonder that was Woodward Academy (http://www.woodward.edu/). At a tuition that is today $18-21K/year, janitor duties are not on the academic regimen.