Pick Your Parents Wisely

Peruvian Child at Sacsayhuaman - photo by JoAnn-Sturman

Scott Sturman
fliesinyoureyes.com

Gap Widens Between White, Latino Students
by Christine Armarlo Associated Press June 24, 2011

This headline caught my eye the other day but came as no surprise. The details of the article confirmed the worst suspicions. The academic performance of white and Latino students has not changed in twenty years despite a lot of money and effort. By the fourth grade Hispanic students are on the average of two grade levels below white students, and the disparity increases as the students progress through higher grade levels. Much of the blame cited in the article centers on the educational establishment and government programs.

When my brother and I were born, neither of my parents had a college degree. By the time I arrived in Cheyenne, Wyoming, as a second grader, my parents were penniless after two failed business ventures. With no family business to inherit, my mother and father made it clear that education was the means to success. Both of them cared more about my brother’s and my future than any administrator or politician. Family support and an excellent public school system laid the foundation for us to succeed. In fact our achievement had little to do with social programs and all to do with parents and first rate teachers who insisted we work hard and do our best.

Fifty years later in Fresno, California, and many other communities across the country, the family unit is wholly fractured. As mentioned in two previous articles, (Doctor for a Day - The Governator Visits Labor and Delivery and Have Uterus Will Travel) several times per month I work on the labor and delivery floor at a local hospital. One twelve hour shift would make it perfectly clear to any visitor why the educational disparity between whites, Asians, and Latinos exists and the futility of spending billions of dollars to narrow this gap without a commitment from the Hispanic community.

Today’s Hispanic mother is likely to be poor, unmarried, under or poorly educated, living with her mother who has similar academic credentials, and pregnant by a male who offers intimacy and little else. Unlike the traditional Catholic Hispanic family, the patient’s father and the father of her child are missing. More often than not, she is accompanied by her mother, her sisters, or some school aged friends. Their babies are behind from the day they are born, and it will not change until the family unit once again becomes important in the Hispanic community.

This last Fathers’ Day the Pew Research Center released a study which indicated that 46% of all males under the age of 45 in the United States have fathered a child out of wedlock. 76% of males between 21 and 24 who have children are unmarried. The rate is highest for those with less than a high school education, young age, and black and Hispanic ethnicity.

Despite these grim statistics, it is rare to hear public comments critical of irresponsible male behavior. The professional sports world is a prime example. Millionaires playing basketball, baseball, football, and soccer, and many of them have sired multiple illegitimate children. Of all the years I have watched athletics, I cannot remember a sports announcer deprecating an athlete for being a dead beat dad. On the contrary, celebrities are lifted to a pedestal and never called to task for outrageous conduct. They could be the best of role models, but the only difference between them and their adoring fans is money and fleeting fame.

As bad as many public schools are, it is too easy to blame them for the plight of minority youth. The real culprits are irresponsible parents who care less about the condition of their children than do government officials and public interest groups which haplessly treat the symptoms rather than the problem. Children raised in single parent homes are more likely to use drugs, have trouble with the law, do poorly in school, and become teenage parents. These facts serve as a powerful indictment against the welfare system which undermines the family unit by discouraging marriage and encouraging women to be careless about choosing the fathers of their children. The age old biologic law to pick the man best able to care for ones offspring is trumped by the automatic financial reward for having any amount of children. Welfare is the dog who is always happy to see you and asks no questions as opposed to a husband who, like a child, is more complex and challenging.

If the purpose of welfare is to benefit children, and they are more likely to succeed in a two parent environment, imagine if welfare benefits were given only to children of married women?