Dr. Horn's Metaphor

Eli Pardue
4/22/08
AP Lang Comp
LaMags

It Takes a Family affected me as a person and conflicted with what I believe more than any other piece we have read so far. I deeply regret that Santorum has such a close-minded perspective on child rearing. He puts forth many statistics regarding single-parent households and households where the mother and father are unmarried compared to statistics from “healthy” households with a married mother and father. What Santorum fails to comprehend is that it is not necessarily the fact the parent is single that increases the child’s chance of becoming delinquent, or unsuccessful. It has much more to do with the parents skill in parenting. There is much more neglect and abuse in single parent families perhaps because the parent is not fit to be a parent (this is also perhaps why the marriage failed in the first place). How can I speak from such a perspective? Because I have lived in a single parent household for half of my life, and before that, I lived in not one, but two married households. I have plenty of personal experience with single parent households. I even know the differences of single parent households in two completely different parts of the country, and the differences between an upper/middle class single parent household and a lower class single parent household. Therefore, I very much resent Dr. Wade Horn’s metaphor comparing a single-parent household to a plane that doesn’t always reach its destination. I understand that there is some truth to it. I understand that because my household has at times been dysfunctional. However, I am not upper class. I do not have many of the luxuries that upper class single parents can provide to their children. And yet, my mother has placed me in a private, college preparatory high school and ensured my success. So, given my experience in single parent households, excuse me if I am reluctant to believe that a single-parent household is an inherently dangerous way to rear a child.