At a campaign stop in Iowa Thursday, former speaker Newt Gingrich, making an argument against century-old child labor laws, said: "Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works ... [s]o they literally have no habit of showing up on Monday. They have no habit of staying all day. They have no habit of 'I do this and you give me cash,' unless it's illegal."
His comments were in defense of his suggestion two weeks ago that kids living in poverty work as janitors in the schools they attend.
The former speaker has long positioned himself as a thoughtful conservative and a student of history. A lot of people believe that to be true. In this case, though, he's betrayed both roles.
To become productive members of society, children living in poverty don't need laws relaxed so they can clean toilets. They need to be in school learning how to read and write -- just like kids living in more affluent areas -- which is the path to a fair chance at success in life.
Since Mr. Gingrich was in Iowa, a short drive would have taught him something else about poverty in the United States -- that it's not just in urban areas.
In America today, there are at least 8 million people living in poverty outside actual urban and suburban "neighborhoods." These people live in genuinely rural areas like the farmlands of Iowa and the hollers of Kentucky. In these places, poverty usually means isolation from good jobs, healthy food and a quality education.
Speaker Gingrich has often railed against class warfare in America. As a student of history, he should know that class warfare isn't a one-way street of the poor fighting the wealthy. Indeed, with his own words, he taught that history lesson to himself.
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http://web-japan.org/kidsweb/explore/schools/index.html
Ah, but I was forgetting - you'll all be better edumacated... in something or other, right? 'Course you'll always be on top...
p.s. It seems to me that if everyone, both rich *and* poor, started their first blush of youth (largely) serving older people (with access to books as a *reward*), and the amount of service was tapered off past their prime, everyone could (potentially) end their lives *being* served... a continually increasing (and increasingly enjoyable) status...
Besides, didn't somebody say, 'There's a sucker born every minute'?
Did Newt Gingrich have a "habit of working" when he was a small child?
My question for America is a simple one: didn't we have enough of this man last century? Do we really need to listen to this nonsense again?
Newt, if you want to present yourself as a "compassionate conservative" you need to get over yourself.
Ugh. This guy's conceit is about as attractive as a rotting roadkill.
Newt Gingrich just makes me ANGRY.
I also am amused by your apparent lack of knowledge of how much work it actually is to do well in today's schools. They cram so much more into the 12 years than they did when we were kids, and the amount of homework is far more than it used to be. So I reject your insinuation that kids will not learn a work ethic if all they do is "just" go to school.
And it does't matter how much work it takes to do well in school, most of the kids who I'm refering to don't do well in school, right up to the time they drop out. So reject away.
Low income parents who might be reading this--especially if you want more for your kids than low wage work ala Newt--check into Gear Up programs in your state. They are a college prep program for low income kids, and offer good scholarships. They also help tutor and coach for scholarship interviewsm, ACTs etc. They have resources for summer schools and camps that some kids might need to catch up on credits etc. They actively work with kids to find scholarships and help them apply.