Fatherhood

Edin and Kefalas Trump Horn Single parent families are becoming more and more common across the nation. Author Wade F. Horn captures the heart of the matter with alarming statistics in his article “Promoting Marriage as a Means for Promoting Fatherhood,” while Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas look at the issue first hand by interviewing various single mothers in their article “Unmarried with Children.” Although Horn, as well as Edin and Kefalas effectively convince readers of their views by using…

Men Worthy of Honor Edgar Lee Marshall, Sr./Robert E. Marshall A Father 's Day Tribute to Two Good Men Our father, Mr. Edgar Lee Marshall came to Texas on September 14, 1999 to live with me because his doctors in Alabama and Maryland had informed him that he had only two weeks to live, due to congestive heart failure. He decided that he wanted to spend that time with my children and I because he hadn 't gotten to know my children. I told my children that we were going to teach Granddaddy…

As Kruk (2012) observes, fatherless adolescents have more difficulties with social settings, adjustments and manifest behavioral problems. Some hide their resentment and unhappiness by putting on a good face, or others imitate a tough character persona to hide their fears and anxieties (Kruk, 2012). Due to the stress of dealing with these emotions, fatherless children perform inferior academically. 71% of high school dropouts come from fatherless families; they score poorly on tests or…

Fathers Benefit Kids Does the presence of a father contribute to the healthy development of his children? The article Even Sometimes Dads Confer Big Time Benefits on Kids covers the claim on how fathers who bounce in and out of a child’s life is better than not having a father whatsoever. The primary researcher from the University of Houston, Daphne Hernandez, presents her insight into the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth analysis. Hernandez and her colleagues’ purpose of the analysis…

Most people on this earth, at one point or another, has had either a biological father or maybe even a “father figure” in their lives, whether for the entirety of their lives or maybe for a short period of time. Many have had fathers that have stayed with them, while others may have left their families for financial or other reasons. There are good fathers, but sadly there are bad fathers. Two stories we read in class involve fathers, “Powder” by Tobias Wolff and Amy Hempel’s “Today Will Be a…

Everyone has a favorite memory with their father; maybe it was him teaching you to ride a bike, or dropping you off at school on your first day of kindergarten. No matter which memory comes to mind, you will always carry it with you through life and reflect on it when you miss your father the most. This message is shared in various forms of popular culture, from television commercials and movies to music and artwork. One song in particular does an excellent job of portraying this. “Welcome to…

In the State of Tennessee and just like any other state in the U.S, child support if a very controversial subject amongst many due to mainly one reason, the fairness of the courts between mother and father. Child support, a court ordered payment system, is comprised of a payment method made by the non-custodial parent to the second parent for the better benefit of the child or children. In the state of Tennessee, more often than not, custody automatically goes straight to the mother it seems.…

Jeannette Walls, a once low class, immature child blossomed into an amazing woman and journalist. While her parents fail to provide some of the simplest needs for her and her siblings, instead of letting it get to her and giving up, she makes the choice to face her problems and even learned to grow from them. Although her family held her back from many opportunities, Jeannette still kept trying her best to become a better person as she grew up. While trying to find herself in an unorthodox,…

Many teenagers are awestruck with technology, and frequently turn to it before their own fathers. For Father’s Day, Gillette released an ad entitled “Go Ask Dad.” The video opened with a statistic: 94% of teenagers ask the Internet for advice before their dads. From there, the video showed different fathers speaking in various languages about their experiences as fathers. They said it was “a challenge,” that their kids get “lost in technology.” The fathers also said their kids don’t come to…

Set against the patriarchal backdrop of the Deep South with its norm of male dominance, Alice Walker’s, The Colour Purple, maps the journey the novel’s protagonist, Celie, makes toward self-awareness and freedom. Walker’s epistolary structure highlights the importance of having opportunities to express ones thoughts and feelings in order to develop a sense of self and demonstrates how women have had their voices taken from them. Celie’s growth and the resulting parallel decline of male dominance…