In 1965, the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote: “The role of the family in shaping character and ability is so pervasive as to be easily overlooked. The family is the basic social unit of American life; it is the basic socializing unit. By and large, adult conduct in society is learned as a child.”
Sixty years later, Moynihan’s words still ring true, as evidenced in a new report by Nicholas Zill of the Institute for Family Studies.
While Zill examines the phenomenon of “grade inflation”—with more students in elementary, middle, and secondary schools receiving A grades (and in many cases undeserved in order to keep parents and administrators happy), he also found that those students raised in intact, married homes were more likely to receive A’s than those raised in single-parent, stepparent, cohabitating, or in some cases relative or nonrelative…
