[Cincinatus' Wife]

"While many teenagers sleep in during the summer, 14-year-old Will Bennett wakes up at 5 a.m. to make it to his summer job -- corn detasseling.

While it's hard work in the hot sun, it does have its rewards, said Bennett, a Galesburg resident and Gull Lake student who is in his second summer of detasseling.

"Money doesn't just come down to you. It teaches you how life is going to be," said the industrious young man who will start high school this fall.

....."Lori Bennett, whose family moved to Galesburg about four years ago from Lansing, said when she first heard about corn detasseling, she wasn't sure she wanted her son to do it.

"I'm a city girl. What do you mean you're taking my son out to corn detassel?" she said of her initial reaction.

But now she's a convert.

She praised the company her son works for: "They had great informational meetings," and "they operate in a very professional manner."

And she sees the work as "a great job for young boys."

"One of my neighbors said, 'If you put corn detasseling on a job application or resume, they will know you can work really hard,'" she said."...... Source

[HiTech RedNeck]

And why not girls? Keep both genders in Kool-Aid (and sunscreen, at least till they’ve built up good tans) and detasseling won’t be too hassling. I bet the boys would prefer that to mowing suburban lawns all day in the same weather.

[dennisw]

right on
right on
right on
right on
right on
right on
right on
right on
right on
right on
good honest clean outdoors work for teenage boys and girls which also means good hardworking boys meet good hardworking girls......  which is a good thing!!! Let them meet the good kids and associate with them instead of the degenerates and druggies

[VanShuyten]

I detassled and walked beans when I was a teen. Early mornings were cool and wet, and the days were hot and steamy. Long-sleeved shirts and jeans were mandatory to prevent cuts from the sharp-edged leaves of corn.

I also detassled many years later after moving back to the US the summer before graduate school started. I still have that Dekalb hat they gave us crew leaders.

Obama forgets the entire purpose of schools having summer vacation. It was so farm kids could help out in the fields - hoeing, picking vegetables and cotton, baling hay, and detassling corn.