Never forget - Newt Gingrich thinks school children (nine year olds) should work as school janitors

[malaise]

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

<snip>
Last Friday, during an event at Harvard, Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich offered up a modest plan for alleviating poverty in the United States. It was time, he said, to relax our "truly stupid" child labor laws. In particular, schools should fire their unionized janitors, and hire children as young as nine to do the work instead. Per The New York Times:

"You say to somebody, you shouldn't go to work before you're what, 14, 16 years of age, fine," Mr. Gingrich said. "You're totally poor. You're in a school that is failing with a teacher that is failing. I've tried for years to have a very simple model. Most of these schools ought to get rid of the unionized janitors, have one master janitor and pay local students to take care of the school. The kids would actually do work, they would have cash, they would have pride in the schools, they'd begin the process of rising."

This suggestion is, on its face, insane. It sounds like a bad Stephen Colbert joke. But if you stop and consider its merits for a minute or two...well no, it's still quite insane. And if you spend an evening researching the nitty gritty of what public school custodians actually do for a living, it turns out to be downright cruel.

[yellowcanine]

1. Well if we start this there is no end. Newt also thinks men are pining to hunt giraffes.

"If combat means living in a ditch, females have biological problems staying in a ditch for thirty days because they get infections and they don't have upper body strength. I mean, some do, but they're relatively rare. On the other hand, men are basically little piglets, you drop them in the ditch, they roll around in it, doesn't matter, you know. These things are very real. On the other hand, if combat means being on an Aegis-class cruiser managing the computer controls for twelve ships and their rockets, a female may be again dramatically better than a male who gets very, very frustrated sitting in a chair all the time because males are biologically driven to go out and hunt giraffes."


Link and fun survey results here on Newt and giraffe hunting.

http://www.davedoyle.com/prof/pastProjects/Nerd/humor/political/newt_giraffe.html

[pinboy3niner]

3. When Gingrich visits the zoo...

[kristopher]

2. There is a kernel of wisdom in his thinking

In Japan the children - all of them - clean their school and in the context of their culture it does work to make them 1) more of a cohesive group and 2) more respectful of public property.

Paying the poor kids to do it is exactly the kind of sick twist to a good idea that I'd expect from Gingrich. Why not make a real living wage the law of the land, Newt?

[tonyt53]

4. That SOB sure did say that, but it was several years ago during discusion of school lunch funding