Cleaning Is Not Child’s Play

Cleaning Is Not Child’s Play
JanSan Altruism

While I think it is very important for me to never take a political position publically, presidential candidate Newt Gingrich’s recent comment, which was posted in the December issue of my monthly newsletter DestinationGreen, did warrant my opinion. And, after some thought, I will also admit there could be some merit to his comment — although I am reasonably sure Gingrich never thought of this angle.

Gingrich suggested, in order to save money, school districts should fire their janitors and have the students clean their schools. Unfortunately, when someone makes a comment like this, it usually implies that anyone can clean — even young children — and that cleaning is not all that important.

Well, I’ve been involved with the professional cleaning industry my entire life, and I know proper, effective and healthy cleaning is a learned skill, not something any person is born knowing. When trained cleaning professionals perform proper cleaning techniques with modern equipment and environmentally preferable cleaning products, the result is healthier schools, a healthier environment and student performance, concentration and self-esteem are all enhanced.

However, as I indicated earlier, there could be some merit to Gingrich’s comment. You may not know, but in Japan, schoolchildren are taught some basic cleaning duties and are required to pick up litter and perform certain cleaning tasks in their schools each and every day. Every student is assigned specific cleaning duties. Possibly, this is one reason that Japan is often credited with having some of the cleanest, best maintained schools in the world.

Similar to Japan, if we taught children in this country how to properly perform some appropriate, basic cleaning duties, such as picking up scraps of paper from floors, stacking chairs, etc., and require that they perform these daily in their schools, it could possibly be very beneficial:

• Children would likely become more responsible on how they treat their schools and get into the habit of keeping their schools clean
• They would also learn the importance of cleaning and how it can help protect their health
• And, finally, the broader benefit: Kids would realize that keeping the indoor, as well as the outdoor, environment clean and healthy is something we can all do and must do.

However, I would never want any children, anywhere around the world, to perform critical cleaning duties such as stripping and refinishing floors, cleaning and disinfecting restrooms or food preparation areas or doing other dangerous work. Nor should they perform cleaning duties around vulnerable people — the ill, very old or the very young. These tasks are to be performed by trained cleaning professionals and custodial workers. These people have made it their careers to keep our schools and all facilities clean and healthy. Further, we must always remember, cleaning is not child’s play.

Stephen Ashkin is president of The Ashkin Group LLC, a leading green cleaning consulting organization, and Sustainability Dashboard Tools LLC. Sustainability Dashboard Tools is a web-based system that allows cleaning professionals to measure the natural resources their businesses use and the greenhouse gas emissions they generate. Armed with this information, businesses can make commonsense changes that reduce their impact on the environment. Such changes save businesses money and make them more efficient and competitive while also benefiting their facilities, employees and local community as well as the environment.