Tuesday, November 16, 2010

For Poor Kids, Family Instability is Worse Than the Poverty

Most poor city kids are born to parents who are not married. Half of those parents say they will marry. But only 15% actually do. For the rest, most lose contact with their fathers. If mom has kids with a different man, dad is likely to be gone for good.

I think this is the bedrock of why poor neighborhoods are a tangle of pathologies. As Kay Hymowitz says, the instability of their homes is more damaging to poor children than the poverty.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"I think this is the bedrock of why poor neighborhoods are a tangle of pathologies."

I think these are symptoms. The bedrock is lack of moral education. We live in a post Christian America and we are reaping the benefits.

Anonymous said...

Maybe we should study Asian families in America. Asian students excel under most every circumstance.

Gruntled said...

Moral education is done most effectively by example in functional families.

Asian families do so well mostly because immigration selects for the most talented and/or ambitious.