Behind the Headline: Was Gingrich Right About Putting Kids to Work?

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Was Gingrich Right About Putting Kids to Work?
Time | 12/8/11

Behind the Headline
An Appeal to Authority
Education Next | Fall 2008

“Gingrich’s latest idea — making disadvantaged students do janitorial work — is faulty in its specifics but not crazy in general,” writes Andy Rotherham, pointing out  that “hundreds of schools have sprung up across the country that … have clear nonacademic curricula that focus on behavior, self-management and life skills. The goal, as described by journalist David Whitman, the current speechwriter for Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, in Sweating the Small Stuff: Inner-City Schools and the New Paternalism, is to use school as an anti-poverty tool by deliberately fostering a strong work ethic in students.” An article by David Whitman based on Sweating the Small Stuff , “An Appeal To Authority,” appears in the Fall 2008 issue of Ed Next.

Earlier this year, David Whitman appeared on the Ed Next book club podcast to discuss Sweating the Small Stuff.

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