What's Wrong with Nut Gingrich on Child Labor Laws

Newt Gingrich is an idiot; the things he passes off as his brilliant ideas don't hold up well under close scrutiny-- or even casual scrutiny.

I was brought up to believe that my 'job' as a child was to go to school to learn as much as I could. This was a priority that came ahead of every other activity, including when I was old enough at 12 to start babysitting neighbor kids, and when I was old enough to get a more formal regular part time job - which I did on my 15th birthday.

Nut Gingrich, who truly puts the Grinch into politics, wants to set an example for poor children (many of whom have working parents, parents who are the working poor) and give the union janitor's jobs to kids.

Apparently it has never dawned on Nut G. that janitors and other union workers for that matter, have children.  Firing them will create more kids with unemployed parents.

It is the job of adults to work, not children.

The other thing that children need time to do for normal development, besides homework and other studying, is to play, not work. This is undervalued by too many, but it IS important, as I wrote about here, linking the recommendation of our military regarding recess and early childhood education in order to have qualified citizens for the U.S. military in coming years.  I began that post, "The Connection between Recess... and Military Recruitment", with this quote:

"It is becoming increasingly clear through research on the brain as well as in other areas of study, that childhood needs play. Play acts as a forward feed mechanism into courageous, creative, rigorous thinking in adulthood.
--Tina Bruce, Professor, London Metropolitan University

And the GrinchNut isn't proposing equal pay for equal work.  He wants to pay kids on the cheap for doing the same work as the adult janitors, and of course, unlike adult full time workers he also wouldn't dream of providing those working children with benefits like health care.

Nut the Grinch further has no regard for the risks, which are far greater for children, to exposure to concentrated chemicals used in janitorial work, as well as to the very real and necessary skills that go with such a job, and of course the use of power tools and equipment.

Far better to strive for better levels of adult employment, with benefits and a living wage for the parents of poor kids.  Far better to improve the education that kids in school receive while they are there, and if anything to extend the hours of actual education, but also of recess.

What we don't need to do is to advance our economy by exploiting children, while giving a pass on any further contribution through greater revenues by taxing the upper percentage of wealth more fairly, in relation to the middle and disadvantaged classes, both the working and unemployed living below the poverty line.

And clearly, unlike the expressed policy positions of Perry and Bachmann, the last damn thing we need to do is to disband the Department of Education.  The state of Texas has deplorable educational results, barely ahead of Mississippi and some of the other undereducated southern states. Perry is a perfect example of that lack of education, with his recent failure to understand that the voting age is 18, not 21.  I can only wonder, likewise, how the education of Georgia stacks up to more progressive states.  Herman apparently failed to learn the civics class fundamentals, of how the Constitution is amended, as demonstrated by a recent statement; he appears to believe that it is signed by the President the same way that regular legislation is signed.

Nut Grinch is just one more scrooge Republican who would push us further down the ladder in comparison to education levels in other countries.  And in doing so we will all be at greater risk through a diminished military.  If asshats like Nut GettinRich GingGrinch really want to support our military, it's past time when he should be actually LISTENING to the recommendations of that military, instead of talking smack to pander to the right wing extremists ignorance on these issues.

And then we have Michele Bachmann, who has demonstrated such ignorance in her pronouncements on so many topics, that she is a true embarrassment to the educators of two states that are consistently among the highest performing in educational statistics - she shames BOTH Iowa and Minnesota.

Nut Gingrich, promoting yet more incredibly bad right wing extremist ideas.  We need more recess, we need more class time in our schools, not child labor.