Chapter 3: Families and Communities

Resolved: All students can achieve at high levels regardless of the structure of their families.

In 2008, The Joy of Teaching stated that, “Although children are advantaged when they live with two caring and loving parents, living with two parents is not essential for success in school and life as shown by the number of successful professionals who were raised by a single parent.” A person’s life cannot be based off from how their family is structured. As a student in a large school, there are numerous people who don’t have biological parents, or parents that are specifically a man and a woman. Not all families are the same, but this doesn’t impact how well a student can learn. Students are driven by an underlying motivation, like to become a teacher. With the right set of educators, who are teaching to give all students (no matter who their parents are), a qualifying education. In fact, problem behavior and lack of academic success are more directly related to poverty, conflict, and instability in families than family structure (Furstenberg, 1999). There are many students out there that have problems in life with their families and yet still have a high academic standing. Most of the time it depends on a students will power to go above and beyond, to work hard and surpass all judgment. A students success isn’t built upon the structure of their family, it is built on the goals that they set for themselves to reach and conquer.