Education is the solutions towards producing better fathers

Fathers all over the world are experiencing very low ratings as demonstrated by the poor support for “Father Day” --- celebrated June 19, 2016. Most children would be happy to celebrate the contributions of their own father, but in several cases, especially among the African Americans, dads are nowhere to be found.

We cannot overemphasize the important role that fathers play in the family structure, including satisfying the welfare and development needs of their children. Nonetheless, our fathers are facing several challenges that are hindering their ability to be “good fathers.” On the other hand, there are perhaps an equal number of “worthless” fathers who are very uncaring and refuse to man-up to their responsibilities.

Equally, to be a father one must have the necessary resources -- human and capital -- to take care of the financial needs of their children. In plain language, it takes plenty of money to raise a child from birth to 18 years of age. Therefore, the unemployed and other resource-poor men should first consider where the money is coming from before impregnating any woman.

With an extremely high level of testosterone and other stimulating hormones engulfing the mind of a young unemployed man with limited resources, having fun with as many ladies may be his only outlet to demonstrate his true manhood. Perhaps as the old adage says, “the devil finds work for idle hands.”

Conversely, we will never have a perfect situation, as there will always be men with sufficient resources – “nuff money” -- who refuse to take care of their children. Some of these men only respond to the harsh penalty of the child support courts or other legal interventions.

Up to 60 percent of African American families are headed by single females. Black men constitute nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million incarcerated population and have nearly six times the incarceration rate of whites. Furthermore, several studies have concluded that more black males are in prison than are enrolled in colleges and universities.

While we are not expecting every black man to attend college, we are very concerned that the so-called school-to-prison pipeline is larger than the school-to-college pipeline.

Therefore, starting at the kindergarten level to high school, a better education program for African American boys could be the solutions towards empowering and producing better fathers.

After all, education is always the most important institution towards social mobility and improved living condition.

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