THIS Is Why Fathers Are Necessary

Not many good news stories begin in such a bad news way. It happened last month here at Southwood High School in Shreveport, Louisiana. Over the course of three days, 23 students arrested for fighting. But strangely, there hasn't been another incident since. Perhaps in part because of this most unusual crisis intervention team. Nobody here has a degree in school counseling. No majors in criminal justice. Your qualifications are? We're dads. We decided the best people who can take care of our kids are us. So Michael Lafitte started Dads on Duty. We're out doing what we do for our babies. A group of about 40 Southwood dads who now hang out at the school in shifts. Today, any negative energy that enters the building has to run a gauntlet of good parenting. I immediately felt a form of safety. We stopped fighting. People started going to class. How could that be? You ever heard of a look? A look? Dads have the power to do that? Yes. Not many people know it, but yes. Let's go, let's go. But it's not just the firm stares and stern warnings. Let's make it to class, my son. It's also the dad jokes. They just make funny jokes like, oh, hey, your student's untied, but it's really not untied. They hate it. They're so embarrassed by it. And it's that perfect mix of tough love and gentle ribbing that dads do so well that has helped transform this school. The school has really just been, like, happy and you can feel it. Which is why the dads plan to keep coming to Southwood indefinitely. Because not everybody has the father figure at home. Or a male period in their life. So just to be here makes a big difference. Both boys and girls need fathers. We'll begin with boys. A boy has no built-in understanding about how to be a man. Meaning a good and responsible man. Male nature is wild. Most obviously regarding sex and violence. If a boy does not have a father who models how a man controls himself, he will most likely not know how to control himself. Let alone want to. That's why most males in prison for violent crimes grew up without a father. After days of riots in the U.K. in 2011, quite like the 2020 riots in America, Christina Adone wrote a column for the London Telegraph whose title says it all. London riots? Absent fathers have a lot to answer for. In the column, she wrote, The majority of rioters are gang members. Like the overwhelming majority of youth offenders behind bars, these gang members have one thing in common. No father at home. There's no question that many mothers have done an excellent job raising a boy without their son's father. But common sense alone suggests that a mother simply cannot model what a boy should be any more than a man can model to a girl what a woman should be. And then there is the issue of controlling boys and their wild natures. Again, there are mothers who are able to do this. But if a boy is at all difficult, as so many are, as he gets older, most mothers will find it more and more difficult to control their son. Because unruly boys listen to their fathers much more than they listen to their mothers. Which is precisely why most violent criminals grew up in fatherless homes. They obviously did not listen to their mothers. As regards daughters, the father is the man girls learn to relate to. Without a father to relate to and bond with, there are at least two destructive consequences. First, she will not know how to choose a man wisely. She will not know how a man should treat her. She may well end up with a man who mistreats her. Second, to fulfill her desire to bond with a man, as primally yearning in most women as bonding with a woman is in most men, she will go from man to man. Girls without fathers in their lives are far more likely to be sexually promiscuous and to begin sexual activity at an earlier age. Which, in turn, are reasons many young women are depressed. Few women find sleeping with man after man fulfilling. Most find it ultimately depressing. Finally, fathers give both sons and daughters the thing children need most. A sense of safety and security. As much as children need love, they need a sense of security even more. And in general, moms give love and dads give security. I learned how necessary fathers are not only by having one and being one, but by the many people, men and women, of all ages, who have told me that they see me as a father figure. I am honored to fill that role. The good news is that many men can fill it. Grandfathers, uncles, teachers, mentors, clergy, and yes, even a man on the radio. But some man has to be your father. I'm Dennis Prager.