TERRY SCHILLING | JUNE 24, 2024
On August 31, thousands of parents will assemble in Washington, D.C., for the inaugural March for Kids. The event aims to draw attention to the growing movement to protect children, both from a toxic culture that attacks their innocence and a corrupt government that refuses to defend them.
However, it is impossible to understand the increasing threat to children without also recognizing the widespread assault on the American family that has taken place in recent decades. Both fathers and mothers have faced unique challenges, while parenthood as a whole has come under pressure from powerful cultural and economic forces. With Father’s Day just behind us, it’s worth examining the plight of fathers in particular and how lost fatherhood has contributed to the current crisis.
There should be no doubt that there is a crisis. By any measure, America’s children today are struggling. Academically, students have never been in worse shape — according to the National Assessment for Educational Progress, in 2022 only 36% of fourth-graders were proficient in math and only 33% could read at grade level.
Our kids are also suffering from a severe mental health crisis. The number of children on anti-depressants grew by over 40% from 2015 to 2021, and youth suicides increased by 62% from 2007 to 2021.
The difficulties facing children today can be traced to many factors, from the advent of smartphones and social media to the failure of state-run education and malicious influences in pop culture. But the most important, and perhaps least acknowledged, cause has been the disappearance of fathers from the lives of their kids.
