A professional association of teachers in Great Britain has sounded an alarm regarding the harmful effects of widespread divorce and single-parent families on school children.

The demise of the traditional family is creating a "toxic circle" of school failure, poverty and crime, teachers said yesterday.

Many pupils struggle in class because they are brought up in chaotic homes without married mothers and fathers, according to the 160,000-strong Association of Teachers and Lecturers.
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The comments come as official figures show the number of single parents in Britain has increased by 250,000 to almost two million over the past decade.

Recent research shows that children with unstable home lives are more likely to perform poorly at school.  Furthermore, children from broken homes tend to become adults who experience unemployment, live in poverty, and commit crime.  Says secondary school teacher Phil Whalley:

"Those who under-achieve in their education are more likely to go on and live dysfunctional lives and be unable to support a stable family life for their own children.

"In short, as a society we are in danger of creating an expanding, perpetuating and toxic circle."

Mr Whalley said evidence from 16 countries in Europe and America showed that even cohabiting couples contributed to the problem. They are twice as likely to separate as married couples, he said.
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"The educational outcomes for all the children in so-called blended families are worse than the achievements of children brought up in traditional nuclear families."

Difficulties in school start before pupils ever set foot in the classroom.  If Britain and other countries are serious about improving educational outcomes, we must stop pretending that family arrangements are a matter of official indifference.  Children do best when raised in a family headed by a mother and father who are married to each other.

Another cause of instability in children’s lives is daycare.  Governments should stop subsiding parents who want to pay strangers to take care of their children.

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