CHARACTER
Does Poverty Build Your Character?
What if you already have plenty of it?
My son got his first job at 13. It was hot, dirty, exhausting work detasseling corn for a local ag operation.
Removing the tassel from the top of a corn plant doesn’t sound so hard — until you think about the sun burning your face, the sharp leaves of the corn plant cutting and irritating your skin, the mud sucking at your boots, the mosquitoes eating you alive and the fatigue of your muscles from repeated motions. Heat stroke deaths of teenagers doing such work are not unheard of.
Each afternoon, my son would call me from a phone at the grocery store where the farmer dropped off the crew, and I’d pick him up. He’d be hot, muddy and exhausted, the tips of his ears always somehow burnt despite his sunscreen and hat.
A lot of kids quit after the first day.
But he stuck with it and made enough money in a few weeks to pay for a computer, which had been his goal.
When I told him the job was good for his character, he sardonically asked why I didn’t join him out there and get some character for myself.
“My character was formed many years ago,” I told him. “I don’t need any more of it.” And in truth, the…
