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Sydney Coleman
12/2/2012
Dr. Sledge
English 105
Plague of Fatherlessness

David Blankenhorn once said,” The U.S. is becoming an increasingly fatherless society. A generation ago, an American child could reasonably expect to grow up with his or her father. “In 2012, a third of today’s children live in homes without a father. This statistic directly relates to most of the social deformities of today’s generation. Even in history, this has been a crippling factor to many of the evil men before us such as, Jeffery Dahmer, Saddam Hussein, Adolph Hitler, and Charles Manson. All of these men had no father to guide them through life and look where they have ended up. There are many factors that indicate that the absence of fathers in America directly affects society. Those factors would include education, drug and alcohol abuse, crime, child abuse, incarceration, and suicide. The statistics of fatherless children and education are as follows: Fatherless children are twice as likely to drop out of school. Children with fathers are 40% less likely to repeat a grade. Also children with fathers are 70% less likely to drop out of school. (http://thefatherlessgeneration.wordpress.com/statistics/) With statistics like these one can see the effects of coming from a fatherless home on education of these children. More facts of fatherlessness and education include the following: American children from intact families have a 21 percent chance of dropping out of high school whereas children from broken families have a 46 percent chance. American school children who became father-absent early in life generally scored significantly lower on measures of IQ and achievement tests. A study of Australian primary school children from three family types (married heterosexual couples, cohabiting heterosexual couples and homosexual couples) found that in every area of educational endeavor (language; mathematics; social studies; sport; class work, sociability and popularity; and



Cited: "The_US_is_becoming_an_increasingly_fatherless_society." Columbia World of Quotations. Columbia University Press, 1996. 02 Dec. 2012. <Dictionary.com http://quotes.dictionary.com/The_US_is_becoming_an_increasingly_fatherless_society>. “Fatherless children are twice as likely to drop out of school. Children with fathers are 40% less likely to repeat a grade. Also children with fathers are 70% less likely to drop out of school.” "The Fatherless Generation." The Fatherless Generation. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2012. <http://thefatherlessgeneration.wordpress.com/statistics/>. “American children from intact families have a 21 percent chance of dropping out of high school whereas children from broken families have a 46 percent chance. American school children who became father-absent early in life generally scored significantly lower on measures of IQ and achievement tests. A study of Australian primary school children from three… “ "THE FACTS ON FATHERLESSNESS." Facts on Fatherlessness. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2012. <http://www.100goodmen.com.au/goodmen/index.php/good-articles/31/34>.

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