The nuclear family: too explosive to teach?

Robert M. Levy

I always get in trouble when I praise the nuclear family…one man, one woman…a child or a few of them…all living under one roof. The criticism I get is often the same. “I am a single mother (or gay or ______ [fill in the blank] and my kids did just fine.”

Almost as often, I get a more chilling response. It comes from those “in-sync” with the 2020 Smithsonian Institution graphic “Aspects and Assumptions of Whiteness and White Culture in the United States.” That graphic describes aspects of “white dominant culture.” It criticizes the nuclear family as “racist.” According to the Smithsonian, the nuclear family is just as “White” as “hard work” and “individualism.” Therefore, it has to be eradicated.

The problem is that the statistics are clear. There is a strong correlation between economic success and the traditional family structure. The nuclear family is not a product of “Whiteness.”

The “Journal of Economic Perspectives” confirmed it. “Children [all children of all races] raised continuously by their two biological parents have higher average school achievement and educational attainment than children in blended or single-parent families.”

In the United States, the people most likely to raise children in nuclear families are Asian with a median annual income of about $155,000. It is $115,000 for Whites. If the nuclear family was racist, it would be “Asian racism,” not “White supremacy.” It is neither.

For instance, the advantage for Asians who live within a nuclear family translates into a difference between yearly earnings of $155,000 for the traditional family structure and $78,500 when an Asian single parent family is headed by a female. In other words, for Asians, income rises by a multiple of 1.97 when the family is nuclear. For Blacks the need for a nuclear family is even more acute. A Black nuclear family can expect higher earnings by a multiple of 2.18 as opposed to the all too common Black female-headed household.

Today, the median income an African-American nuclear family can expect to earn is $88,000 per year. For a Black, single parent, female headed household, that number is $40,000. Among Blacks, approximately 8.3% of nuclear families receive food assistance. For non-nuclear female-headed families, that number is 45%. Any questions?

So, the people hurt most by the failure to emphasize the advantages of a nuclear family are Black. Interestingly, the most vivacious advocates to eliminate the nuclear family are the “progressives” who claim that they “ally” with Blacks in their quest for social justice. In reality, their opposition to the nuclear family results in “social punishment.”

According to the Brookings Institution, among social scientists, there is consensus. The likelihood of a child’s success is significantly enhanced by following a certain order of life: 1) Graduate high school at the very least, 2) engage in full-time work, 3) get married and 4) have children…and in that exact order. Moreover, if at all possible, stay married for the sake of the next generation.

But, in schools, teaching such a plan is dangerous. It is as dangerous to suggest as it is for Benjamin Netanyahu to walk the streets of London or New York City. Many parents, especially hardworking and successful single mothers, see these statistics as an attack upon themselves personally. And they vote accordingly.

Often, a given person does well in spite of living in an alternative family structure. Statistics only reflect the likelihood of a particular outcome, not the actual outcome itself. Like Vice President J.D. Vance, it is always possible to upset the odds.

In the case of the nuclear family, the statistics form a map. The map shows the path of lesser resistance toward social and financial success. At the very least, we want to give our children the opportunity to follow the path most likely to reward our children with prosperity. So, most of us want our children to be informed about the advantage that comes with the nuclear family.

Our schools are the institutions tasked to educate children for success. As part of that task, they regularly educate children in the social responsibilities which maturity demands. So, when teaching students about family structure, schools should highlight the advantage of a stable nuclear family.

But why are children too often not told that nuclear families generally earn double that of female-headed households? Parents and students outside the nuclear family take umbrage. Voters often chastise school board members and other politicians who they consider “opposed” to the increasing non-nuclear lifestyle found in American households. For the sake of “political correctness,” schools often skirt the truth. The nuclear family fades and society suffers…especially the children.

Indeed, the nuclear family should be the centerpiece of health and family education in our schools. For those able to achieve it, the nuclear family structure is the most promising path to a successful life. By condemning the people of faith who primarily advocate for the traditional family, the progressives and socialists, including those who run the Smithsonian Institution, are condemning especially “people of color” to economic stress and, too often, systemic poverty. That should be taught in our schools as well.

Robert M.Levy

RobertReports.substack.com

Robert M. Levy grew up in Moore County and graduated from Pinecrest High School. He earned a BA in history and sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where his honors thesis on the Wilmington Rebellion of 1898 became part of the university’s library collection.

Admitted to the California State Bar in 1978, Levy practiced law for 40 years in California and Maryland, focusing on family and criminal law, including work with juvenile offenders and abused children. His writing on affirmative action appeared in the San Fernando Valley Law Review, and he authored Divorce: A Cynical Experience. He later earned a North Carolina teaching certificate from UNC Charlotte and taught high school social studies across Moore County.

Levy has served as chairman of the Moore County School Board, president of the North Carolina Electoral College, chairman of the Moore County Republican Party, and a columnist for The Pilot in Southern Pines. He lives in Pinehurst with his wife, Linda, and they have three children and four grandchildren.

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