Chapter 3: Families and Communities

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

Whether a child grows up with his or her mother working and father at home, has a stay at home mother, a single parent, working parents, remarried parents, adoptive parents, gay or lesbian parents, extended families, grandparents, or an unmarried couple, it does not hinder their ability to succeed. The family structure does not affect the student’s ability to achieve at high levels in school and beyond. This is evidenced by the fact that so many successful professionals have been raised by single parents (99). While some children in various household arrangements may have difficulty in achieving at high levels, it is poverty, conflict, and instability that hinder them, not the family structure that they grow up in (99). What is more important is that children are loved and cared for, while also being given the tools they need to succeed. The ability to do this is independent of the structure of the family they grow up in.