School Janitors
Newt Gingrich Says Replace Janitors With Children
At the end of our assigned month, we had to wash the floor. And that was it. We got paid $20 for the month's work, which would probably work out to about $1.00 a day (a half hour of work every school day), big wages for kids in those days.
No one complained, neither we kids, nor any adult, about child labour or exploitation, and the kids learned some valuable lessons in responsibility and working for money. Somehow, I don't think it would be that simple today.
"During a speech at Harvard University’s Kennedy School on Friday evening, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich attacked child labor laws and proposed that public school janitors should be replaced by children in order to help solve the income gap in America and break unions."I went to a one-room country school from grade 1 to grade 9. Throughout that time, the "big kids" (those in grades 6 to 9) took turns being janitor. This meant that each of us had one month assigned to us during which we stayed after school and cleaned the place up. We had to move all the desks to one side and then the other and sweep the floor, clean off the chalkboards, and, other than putting the desks back in their proper place, not much else. Since everyone either walked or road a horse, or maybe a horse drawn buggy, to get to school, getting home after janitorial duties had been fulfilled was no problem.
At the end of our assigned month, we had to wash the floor. And that was it. We got paid $20 for the month's work, which would probably work out to about $1.00 a day (a half hour of work every school day), big wages for kids in those days.
No one complained, neither we kids, nor any adult, about child labour or exploitation, and the kids learned some valuable lessons in responsibility and working for money. Somehow, I don't think it would be that simple today.
Labels: children, Memory Lane
posted by Louise at 11:51 am
5 Comments:
I went to a one-room schoolhouse from Gr. 1 to Gr. 8 (with a few months in the city the year my youngest brother was born). Everybody shared the cleanup chores, including sweeping the floor with Dustbane. (Remember Dustbane?) Clapping the erasers on the school wall outside was one of the most sought-after jobs. We did an especially good cleanup on Fridays when there was a community dance scheduled; that was when we washed the desktops. Nobody got paid.
The local mothers fixed a date in August, met at the school with cleaning supplies brought from home, and scrubbed the place from top to bottom, windows included. One of the local farmers cut the grass in the yard in the same month.
I seem to recall reading that students in Japan clean up their schools as a matter of course, also without pay.
Yes, I do remember Dustbane. But I had forgotten all about it until you mentioned it.
My dad was responsible for mowing the grass in the school yard. One year, we (a few of the kids) had planted a tree in the school yard (must have been in the spring),'cause that summer my dad mowed it down. My dad also played Santa Clause at the Christmas concert. My mom played the piano. There was always a school picnic at the end of the year, too, at which all the parents showed up and everyone played ball.
Can you imagine the uproar if todays scholars at any age were asked to do anything at all ? To begin with, the unions would go ballistic, the social busybodies would immidiately go into tirades over the dangers involved re: cleaning materials and the lack of WHMIS training and how all the latchkey kids would be put in danger at their routine disruption.
Some of us hold fond memories of days gone by , but that was before the nanny state took over.
I remember much the same thing. I attended a small country school in a fruit growing area in Oz. The sweeping and toilet cleaning after school were prized jobs especially amongst the children of poor post-war immigrants. Those children are now the !% of that area.
Wednesday afternoon was Gardening time. A piece of rope, with wooden cross pieces placed so four boys in tandem harness could pull, was tied to a hand lawnmower. One boy behind the mower and off you went. Lawns were mowed in five minutes flat. No hope of that today with safety regs etc.
(And now for a Monty Python moment.) You mean you had toilets??!!?? We had a couple of little wooden shacks out in the school yard.
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