I worked for my lunch as a small child.

[kentuck]

So I speak from experience.

At 10 or 11 years old, I would wash down the tables and sweep the floor after the other kids had finished their lunches. I wasn't the only one. There were always two or three other kids that would help.

It only cost .25 cents to buy a lunch ticket but we were so poor that my parents could not afford even that. Also, because I was willing to work, my brother and sister got a lunch ticket, too.

Fifty-five years later, I remember it well. Mrs. Bays hot rolls were the most heavenly smell on earth. And I did partake liberally.

But, as I recall, I thought that I was one of the few kids that was not getting a "free lunch". I was not privileged enough to have a parent that could give me money so I didn't have to work. I wondered about the work ethic, even then. Will those kids that have their lunch money given to them grow up thinking that they deserve stuff without working for it? Will they think they are superior to me and my friends who were cleaning up their tables?

So I would say to Rep. Kingston (R-GA) that when you talk of instilling the "work ethic" in small children, what do you think you are instilling in those children that truly get the "free lunch" given to them from their parents? What are we teaching those children? That they are privileged and better than their poorer classmates?

[Squinch]

1. These guys' arguments always make more sense when they are flipped

on their heads and turned back to the asker.

Very good point. Which lunch is the free lunch? Especially considering that many of those who are privileged enough not to get the free lunch have parents who make a fortune and don't pay any taxes.

[safeinOhio]

2. Thanks for saying

What I've been thinking

[BKH70041]

3. Maybe some kids were doing chores at home or in the neighborhood.

They were using the money they received via those chores to pay for their school lunch.

In my case, I was never paid for doing my chores. My Dad's reasoning was "You live here, too, right?" In exchange for that, they provided for me as was their responsibility.

[kentuck]

5. I know what you mean.

My chores were to chop kindling and gather coal to cook with on a cookstove and carrrying our drinking water for a good half-mile just to cook with and to drink and to bath with. Like you, it had to be done and we were not paid for it.

[CrispyQ]

13. I had daily & weekly chores that were expected,

like dishes & vacuuming, but I also had extras chores I could sign up for & would get paid for. We lived on a farm, so often times it was seasonal stuff, like go turn bales, or help with the new hatchlings.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. We create a two tier society starting with kids

Happy holidays by the way

[kentuck]

6. Happy Holidays!

Happy New Year!

[aroach]

7. Me too

I also worked in the lunchroom in elementary school to earn my lunch. I can't be certain but I think my family did qualify for free lunch but was too proud to take it so they worked out with the school that I wold work in the lunchroom. I was the only student who worked in the lunchroom so I know it wasn't a routine thing. I missed class before and after lunch to do my job so it probably wouldn't fly today.

I wish my daughter could do it. She hasn't eaten lunch at school one time this school year as I've never been able to put any money on her account. Every time I think I might be able to pay for her to eat the car breaks down or something else happens and I can't. We make $300 a year too much to get free lunch but lunch for two kids costs way more than $300 a year. Makes no sense.

[awoke_in_2003]

8. I know what you are saying...

that the kids whose families have money are getting free lunch, but for many years growing up I was on a free lunch program. My work ethic is fine, but to this day I rarely take lunch to work. I skipped many a school lunch because the made it obvious who was getting a free lunch. That is why I think every child in public school should receive their meals at no cost, and I am willing to pay higher property taxes to see that happen.

[CrispyQ]

11. Ditto this:

I think every child in public school should receive their meals at no cost, and I am willing to pay higher property taxes to see that happen.

I asked below, how many free martini lunches did the criminal banksters get on our dime?

[awoke_in_2003]

12. Wall Street...

the true welfare queens.

[CrispyQ]

14. It's just disgusting, the hypocrisy of the upper class. --nt

[okaawhatever]

21. Did you read the article in Slate that was a follow up on the welfare queen? It's a very long

article but certainly worth the time. It appears she killed several people, kidnapped children, and more. It's craazzzzyyyy. She was a chameleon like psychopath. It appears she was also white. The name that was quoted in the press wasn't even her real name. Very interesting, especially how the investigator wanted to investigate more than the food stamp fraud but due to the politics he was advised not to. Also, the press mucked things up real good. Very, very interesting.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2013/12/linda_taylor_welfare_queen_ronald_reagan_made_her_a_notorious_american_villain.html

[VanillaRhapsody]

9. What are they teaching them? That they are superior to some other people...

by reason of birth.

When I was in Middle School I stopped eating lunch because as my father was military he didn't make much money and we qualified for reduced lunches...(I think just $0.10 per hot meal). I was too humiliated to stand in the "reduced and free lunch line", so I just stopped eating lunch. I would use the 10 cents to buy a container of milk in the regular line......this patterned continued through high school.

That's how much this effects the psyche of those forced to be different than their wealthier classmates. The children forced to clean up after their "superior" classmates feel will feel inherently inferior. How can you expect them not to and how does this inferiority complex (not to mention the potential for bullying by the children not forced to work to eat) effect their performance?

[awoke_in_2003]

22. +1...

and kids, especially teenagers, can be brutal.

[CrispyQ]

10. I would like to know how many free martini lunches the banksters have had on our dime.

These people are just mean nasty fucks.

[JEB]

15. There is a lot of work involved in just going to school and studying.

That is work of our children and they deserve to be fed healthy lunches. That is part of the work us adults are responsible for.

[Arugula Latte]

16. I think it is okay if kids do a little school cleaning ONLY IF all kids participate.

In Japan at many schools the kids are expected to sweep and tidy up, etc. every day. They are invested in keeping up their school and they learn how much work it takes to do so. However, I wouldn't want it to be to the point where janitors lose their jobs.

[moondust]

17. Is there a cafeteria in the Capitol building

where Jack and his colleagues can sweep the floors and wash the tables so as to instill a work ethic in them and disabuse them of the notion that they can go to Washington and become vacationing freeloaders who accomplish nothing?

[QuestForSense]

18. I worked in the lunchroom, too.

My job was to collect the money for the lunches (20 cents). Most everyone had a little job like that to do. But that wasn't what taught me about having a work ethic. We had one class of emotionally/mentally handicapped kids who came to lunch together and sat at one big table with their teacher. Every day there was a cold bottle of Pepsi Cola waiting for her at her place. Believe me, every kid in that lunchroom could see she EARNED it via her own efforts every day. We live in a different world now.

[mountain grammy]

19. You worked harder as a 10 year old than this congressman works in a year

considering what he's paid to be on vacation and flapping his mouth.

I think all school lunches should be free to all kids, period. I just honestly do not believe this could be a big financial burden.. a few dollars more from the millionaires, maybe?
If there are school chores kids can do, all kids should do them.

[DamnYankeeInHouston]

20. All kids should do chores at school.

At the first two schools I taught at, it was routine for students to wipe the tables and sweep the floor after lunch. The kids would fight over who got to do it. I was disgusted at my third school where the custodians had to do it. It made the custodians seem like servants. The kids felt it was beneath them.

[jaysunb]

23. I worked in the lunch room in jr high

even though my parents gave me a quarter everyday. I got paid ! $.90 a hour . I loved it cause I got to fuck w/ all the other kids for 90 minutes a day and skip out on study hall, free food and a pack of cigarettes w/ the money my parents gave me.
And, btw, lots of kids wanted that job !