teaser

Opinion: Yes, families still matter

Let’s admit that without a healthy family, kids suffer – sometimes for life.

  • By Mike Clemens
  • Wednesday, March 3, 2021 12:58pm
  • Opinion

By Mike Clemens

While social injustice and systemic racism attract media, one question remains: do families matter? Yes, because that’s where young lives start. Analysis of chronic socio-economic problems without considering the status and impact of families must be considered incomplete.

Scholars planning to confront complex issues usually try to learn from history. Past studies reveal: a “tangle of pathologies,” and “breakdown of the nuclear family” as a “fundamental source of weakness.”

Intact families help children navigate many challenges to their becoming responsible adults. Especially in single-parent homes, kids can be developmentally neglected. Without age-appropriate guidance, then Madison Avenue, Hollywood, Silicon Valley and peers increasingly shape young minds, not parents.

The Moynihan Report, a baseline study done at the beginning of LBJ’s War on Poverty, raised concerns about “high nonmarital birthrates.” The Urban Institute updated several statistics; troubling trends continue. Traditional families are in decline, particularly among some groups.

All single moms face adversity; many don’t overcome their status. Without a father, what happens to kids born to unwed mothers? Single-parent households, often headed by a woman, statistically begin and usually remain poor.

Research shows that poor kids don’t do as well as rich kids in school. By the time a child turns 3, there’s a significant word gap between the richest and poorest children.

About a third of those entering kindergarten lack needed language skills. “Learn to read, read to learn” remains good advice. Kids who fall behind in reading may never catch up; some drop out.

Parents who read to their children often create an emotional bond as they teach them to use words. Daycare keeps kids safe, but usually can’t offer the custom nurture that parents provide their own during teachable moments.

Before children reach school age, they’ve developed major aspects of their personality. Once developmental windows close, educational challenges increase if preschoolers don’t get what they need. Thus, many try to help the poor before they begin school; they need it.

Why does school matter? K-12 presents opportunities to learn. Jobs require employees who have learned and can learn even more. Marginally educated young adults find it difficult to get a good job. From now on, lifelong learning will matter even more.

Many of society’s existing problems get worse when people can’t find work because “the best social program is a good job.”

While the K-12 educational system does its best for all classroom occupants, not all become or remain good students. Some of today’s high school graduates seem ill-equipped to face a fast-paced world that now requires creative adaptability.

One time-tested recipe to avoid poverty involves: 1) finishing at least high school, 2) getting a full-time job, and 3) waiting until age 21 to get married and have children.

Brookings Institute research found that “of American adults who followed these three simple rules, only about 2 percent are in poverty and nearly 75 percent have joined the middle class.”

Recent congressional hearings spelled out specifics of inequity: criminal justice, education, health and wealth. Problems in each area correlate to the circumstances of one’s early childhood.

While governments, corporations, and non-profits can help poor families, they don’t start them – people do. Individual choices create young lives. Families have always been society’s basic building blocks, but kids having kids often creates difficulties.

Promiscuity contributes to single-parent households and related difficulties. One impact of widespread church decline may be the increasing failure of young adults to see the community value of sexual morality and self-respect.

While media focuses on current issues, our collective future may depend on better decision-making by those starting families. Knowledgeable policy-makers know that complex social problems don’t have easy answers and aren’t solved by just adding money.

While politicians typically try short-term responses, long-term strategies should at least seriously consider the concept of preventing predictable problems.

Socio-economic solutions shouldn’t focus just on race — only one dimension of today’s complex issues. Regardless of race, many kids from broken homes struggle both in school and in later life.

Even children from two-parent homes (none perfect) face challenges growing up today.

Let’s admit that without a healthy family, kids suffer – sometimes for life.

Let’s admit that something besides race may be among the major causes of widespread social problems.

• Mike Clemens is a former statewide budget analyst. He resides in Juneau. Columns, My Turns and Letters to the Editor represent the view of the author, not the view of the Juneau Empire. Have something to say? Here’s how to submit a My Turn or letter.

More in Opinion

Web
Have something to say?

Here’s how to add your voice to the conversation.

Sunrise over Prince of Wales Island in the Craig Ranger District of the Tongass National Forest. (Forest Service photo by Brian Barr)
Southeast Alaska’s ecosystem is speaking. Here’s how to listen.

Have you ever stepped into an old-growth forest alive with ancient trees… Continue reading

As a protester waves a sign in the background, Daniel Penny, center, accused of criminally negligent homicide in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely, arrives at State Supreme Court in Manhattan on Monday, Dec. 9, 2024. A New York jury acquitted Daniel Penny in the death of Jordan Neely and as Republican politicians hailed the verdict, some New Yorkers found it deeply disturbing.(Jefferson Siegel/The New York Times)
Opinion: Stress testing the justice system

On Monday, a New York City jury found Daniel Penny not guilty… Continue reading

Members of the Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé hockey team help Mendenhall Valley residents affected by the record Aug. 6 flood fill more than 3,000 sandbags in October. (JHDS Hockey photo)
Opinion: What does it mean to be part of a community?

“The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate… Continue reading

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, at the Capitol in Washington on Monday, Dec. 2, 2024. Accusations of past misconduct have threatened his nomination from the start and Trump is weighing his options, even as Pete Hegseth meets with senators to muster support. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times)
Opinion: Sullivan plays make believe with America’s future

Two weeks ago, Sen. Dan Sullivan said Pete Hegseth was a “strong”… Continue reading

Dan Allard (right), a flood fighting expert for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, explains how Hesco barriers function at a table where miniature replicas of the three-foot square and four-foot high barriers are displayed during an open house Nov. 14 at Thunder Mountain Middle School to discuss flood prevention options in Juneau. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire file photo)
Opinion: Our comfort with spectacle became a crisis

If I owned a home in the valley that was damaged by… Continue reading

(Juneau Empire file photo)
Letter: Voter fact left out of news

With all the post-election analysis, one fact has escaped much publicity. When… Continue reading

The site of the now-closed Tulsequah Chief mine. (Michael Penn / Juneau Empire file photo)
My Turn: Maybe the news is ‘No new news’ on Canada’s plans for Tulsequah Chief mine cleanup

In 2015, the British Columbia government committed to ending Tulsequah Chief’s pollution… Continue reading

The Alaska Psychiatric Institute in Anchorage. (Alaska Department of Family and Community Services photo)
My Turn: Rights for psychiatric patients must have state enforcement

Kim Kovol, commissioner of the state Department of Family and Community Services,… Continue reading

People living in areas affected by flooding from Suicide Basin pick up free sandbags on Oct. 20 at Thunder Mountain Middle School. (City and Borough of Juneau photo)
Opinion: Mired in bureaucracy, CBJ long-term flood fix advances at glacial pace

During meetings in Juneau last week, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)… Continue reading

Rosa Parks, whose civil rights legacy has recent been subject to revision in class curriculums. (Public domain photo from the National Archives and Records Administration Records)
My Turn: Proud to be ‘woke’

Wokeness: the quality of being alert to and concerned about social injustice… Continue reading