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Absent fathers hurt their children and society

“We need our fathers” is a profound statement, one that is as truthful as any can be. It is a statement tinged with sadness and yearning, especially when it comes from boys and young men whose father is missing in their lives.

Yet it also is a forceful slogan. It is a rallying cry that should get our society’s attention and support. “We Need Our Fathers” is a campaign launched by Kasai Guthrie. He is a Glasgow High School junior. The campaign comes out of his own yearning to be with his father. Former News Journal reporter Beth Miller told of the young’s man search and reconnection in an article earlier this week.

The article also outlined a young man’s need for that missing dad. Unfortunately, it is a need that is spreading throughout our society. Absent fathers have an effect on children, especially on sons. Today the number of households headed by single women is growing. Marriage itself is retreating, with more children born out of wedlock.

Research shows that this trend is having an effect far beyond the individuals involved. Marriage is becoming a class dividing line. A child growing up with married parents is increasingly more likely to graduate from high school, go on to college and have a successful life. For decades, as sociologist William Julius Wilson and his colleagues have written in a new report, our society has ignored the “critical significance of the family as the primary socializing influence on children and youth.” This retreat from marriage is found among all races and classes, they said, but the numbers are highest in poor and minority neighborhoods. They quoted another search team as saying, “marriage has disappeared from the poorest communities” in the country.

With that disappearance has come a large barrier to social mobility. We are now seeing higher levels of intergenerational social immobility. If you are born poor, you are ever more likely to stay poor.

Finally, researchers and government officials are beginning to recognize that something needs to be done. Among the steps they should take is encouraging marriage and helping poor fathers gain the skills that would make them employable. Apprenticeships and training programs should be expanded. Marriage penalties embedded in many transfer programs should be eliminated.

W. Bradford Wilcox of the Institute for Family Studies recommends we launch a civic campaign modeled on ones to prevent teen pregnancy. This campaign would encourage “working-class young adults to put marriage before parenthood, value fatherhood, and slow down their romantic lives.” Churches and civic organizations should join in the effort.

Programs like these, especially the ones expanding livelihoods, are important. Yet so are campaigns such as Kasai Guthrie’s “We Need Our Fathers.” These fathers need to listen to their children.

Opinion piece
23 Janury 2015

http://www.delawareonline.com/story/opinion/editorials/2015/01/23/absent-fathers-hurt-children-society/22249553/

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