The Atlantic recently ran an article stressing the importance of fathers in a child’s life. I certainly agree with the premise and I was gratified to see the reporters were both women.
This is because for all too long women, and especially women in the media, were eager to downplay the importance of fathers in families even though it was to the detriment of the children’s well-being.
The situation Lois Collins and Marjorie Cortez outline is dire. Half of the children born to women under the age of 30 are born out of wedlock. And the rate in the black community is double that.
These children start out with two strikes against them: First, fatherless families are more likely to be poverty-stricken families; and two, without a strong male role model in the family the children are more likely to go astray and stay astray.
Currently the Census has found one in three children are growing up in homes without biological fathers for a total of 24 million.
Here’s how this absence affects them. Warren Farrell, author of "Father and Child Reunion," explains, “Dad . . . helps with impulse control and memory and enhances a child’s ability to respond effectively to new or ambiguous situations, for boys and girls. Children who are close to their fathers tend to achieve more academically, while kids with absent fathers are more likely to drop out. Fathers are the biggest factor in preventing drug use.”
Many of the problems schools are experiencing with emotional and behavioral problems may originate in fatherless families. Girls with absent fathers are often prone to hyperactivity and teenage pregnancy, while the boys have poor impulse control and act out.
Feminists may have succeeded in getting women out of the house and into the workforce, but they have also driven fathers out of the house in the process.
One of the more favorable developments in recent years has been a marked reduction in the rate of divorce for college-educated couples. Duplicating this progress among couples in lower income and educational brackets would be a great help in addressing this pressing problem, as would a growing economy that provides jobs and cultural change that emphasizes marriage before children.
Contrary to the propaganda leftists attempt to peddle, it doesn’t take a village to successfully raise a child. It takes only two. A man and a woman who are also father and mother.
Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan. He is president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation and chairman of the League of American Voters. Mike is an in-demand speaker with Premiere. Read more reports from Michael Reagan — Go Here Now.