Unit 3: Compelling Evidence: "What to Do With the Kids This Summer? Put 'Em to Work," by Ben Sasse

The bus rolled up at 5, and my friends and I stumbled on, fighting off sleep until we arrived at the fields.

Detasseling corn was a rite of passage in this Nebraska town: In order to cross-pollinate top-notch seed corn in those days, you needed people, lots of them, to walk through the fields to pull corn tassels manually from individual rows.

For the rest of the day, our bare skin would brush against sharp corn leaves until it was marked with innumerable paper cuts.

It’s not an idle question.

Detasseling corn, like a lot of agricultural work, is now done mostly by machine.

And parents, on the whole, had fewer household labor needs and could afford to spare their kids the less pleasant experiences of their own childhoods, while providing them with things they wish they’d had, as well as opportunities to cultivate new skills.

Another thing I noticed was an unnerving passivity.

And how would an America built on self-discipline and deferred gratification survive?

It’s supposed to be a protected space in which kids who’ve become biologically adult are not obligated to immediately become emotionally, morally and financially adult.

Our efforts to protect our kids from hurt feelings, tedious chores, money worries and the like are well intentioned.

But many of us, perhaps especially middle-class parents, are unwittingly enabling many of our kids to not grow up.

What’s the modern equivalent of detasseling corn?

When we dropped her off, she was nervous but eager.

Between checking cows for pregnancies — a job that involves a shoulder-length glove — and bottle-feeding orphaned heifers, she loved it and hated it.

But she knew that her mild suffering was also a formative experience for a lifetime.

I also don’t romanticize agrarian life — there’s too much manure around for it to be truly idyllic — but meaningful work for kids is less about any particular task than the habits the hours teach.

I also don’t romanticize agrarian life — there’s too much manure around for it to be truly idyllic — but meaningful work for kids is less about any particular task than the habits the hours teach.

I also don’t romanticize agrarian life — there’s too much manure around for it to be truly idyllic — but meaningful work for kids is less about any particular task than the habits the hours teach.

Older folks will benefit from the help, and your kids will gain from the perspective of people who’ve been on the planet longer than they have.

Travel need not be about changing locations, but reaching across generations to break out of the artificial age segregation of our era.

Few experiences help our kids discover the distinction between needs and wants like the great outdoors.

The key thing is not to have been passive consumers on someone else’s trip.

The key thing is not to have been passive consumers on someone else’s trip.

Becoming a reader grows our horizons, our appetite for the good, the true and the beautiful, and our empathy.

The health of our republic depends on shared principles like the First Amendment, but it is also built on the Teddy Roosevelt-like vigor of its citizens and local self-reliance.