Certain Truths - Essays about Our Families, Children, and Culture 0808774808

Citation preview

Essays about our families, children and culture from

CENTER OF THE AMERICAN EXPERIMENT'.5 firstfive years With a new Keynote Essay by

CHESTER E. FINN, JR. Edited and with an Introduction by MITCHELL B. PEARLSTEIN

Certam Truths Seventeen essays about our families, children and culture from Center of the American Experiment's first five years ... by 15 of the most trenchant writers and scholars in Minnesota and across the country.

■

■ ■

■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

■

■ ■

DOUGLAS J. BESHAROV DAVID BLANKENHORN KAREN RUTH EFFREM, M.D. JEAN BETHKE ELSHTAIN CHESTER E. FINN, JR. KATHERINE A. KERSTEN JON S. LERNER GLENN C. LOURY BRUNO V. MANNO RICHARD B. MCKENZIE MICHAEL MEDVED MITCHELL B. PEARLSTEIN ROBERT RECTOR JUDITH D. VINCENT STEPHEN B. YOUNG

Cover by Pederson Design Layout by Mori Studio

•

Essays about our families, children and culture from Center of the American Experiment's first five years

With a new Keynote Essay by Chester E. Finn, Jr. Edited and with an Introduction by Mitchell B. Pearlstein

Center of the American Experiment Minneapolis, Minnesota

Copyright© 1995 by Center of the American Experiment T he editor wishes to thank Policy Review for pennission to reprint "What Do Women Want: A Conservative Feminist Manifesto," by Katherine A Kersten." ISBN 0-8087-7480-8 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form whatsoever, by photography or xerography or by any other means, by broadcast or transmission, by translation into any kind of language, nor by recording electronically or otherwise, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in critical articles or reviews. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 95-62337 Printed in the United States of America. JI

H

G

F

E

D

C

B

A

Address orders to: Center of the American Experiment 1024 Plymouth Building 12 South Sixth Street Minneapolis, Minnesota 55402 Telephone 612/338-3605 Fax 612/338-3621 Burgess Publishing A Division of BURGESS INTERNATIONAL GROUP, Inc.

SPONSORS The Board of Directors expresses its great and deeply felt thanks to the following individuals and families for underwriting Certain Truths

Mr. Marcel Eibensteiner

Thomas H. Healey & Family Wayne & Tamara Mills

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Thomas & Family

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Certain Truths would have remained a certain and unquestioned impossi­ bility without major writers, about whom I say more in the Introduction. But this anniversary collection would have been an impossibility without major underwriters. I'm exceedingly grateful for the above-and-beyond help of Marcel Eibensteiner, Thomas H. Healey and Family, Wayne and Tamara Mills, and Mr. and Mrs. William H. Thomas and Family. It's one thing to attract good writers and invite good speakers. It's much less of a think-tank success if few people read or hear what they have to propound. Which is to say my appreciation this time to American Experiment's more than 1,400 members who foot our many bills, along with many thousands of others who have given us their time, their atten­ tion, their kind words, and sometimes their what for. My gratitude is likewise bountiful to the men and women who either presently serve or who have formerly served on the Center's Board of Directors and Board of Advisors. The names of current members are list­ ed elsewhere in tlus volume, along with our senior fellows. Suffice it to say I am honored to work with them and (in the case of the Board of Directors) to report to them. This salute very much includes American Experin1ent's current chairman, Ron Eibensteiner, whose enthusiasm and tangible support for this book and other activities have been sizable. As for the actual production of the book, I very much appreciate the help of current and recent staff members Barbara Thomson Bucha, Therese Groh, Virginia Hafner, Karen McLaughlin, SallyJean Tews, and Peter Zeller. Needless to say, their contributions to this organization encompass much more than this one collection. Let me pay extra respects to Ms. Tews and Ms. Hafner. When she wasn't sailing White Bear Lake, SallyJean cloistered herself this past sum­ mer assuring consistency in footnoting and otherwise guaranteeing the clean copy before you. I trust she enjoyed the lake as much as I appreci­ ate the good looking endnotes. As for Virginia, she came aboard at the very time this project got to a positively exotic stage electronically, and she did invaluable things on her new computer that I would rather not discuss - because I can't. I've also enjoyed and profited from working on Certain Truths with

V

Certain Truths

Milt Adams of Burgess Publishing, Jack Caravela of Mori Studio, and Kevin Pederson and Sue Schadow of Pederson Design. One final tribute. I am, as readers will gather, exceptionally proud of Center of the American Experiment, as I very much believe in the impor­ tance of our work. But as members of what columnist Bill Safire calls the "conceptual frarneworkers union," I'm very much aware of the fact that both the Center and I ply an abstract trade. Or, at the very least, I recog­ nize that my colleagues and I spend much more time writing and speak­ ing, say, about poor people than helping them one on one. Again, our work is demonstrably vital, as big ideas, after all, do have big conse­ quences. But organizations like American Experiment represent but one half the equation if the fuller endeavor has to do with helping real people in need. My wife, Diane H. McGowan, and her colleagues throughout this and other communities, take on that other, more personally complicated half of the equation. Diane is the executive director of the Shelter at Our Saviour's, a South Minneapolis, church-based program which provides an increasingly broad array of services to men, women and children who have been homeless. In dedicating this book to her and others who pursue their call­ ings and ministries face to face and hug to hug, permit me to acknowl­ edge that the value of what I do for a living would be measurably abridged without people like Diane doing what they do. Because while think tanks may be very good at preaching a kind of "word," it takes sac­ rificing people like my wife to actually live it. Mitchell B. Pearlstein Minneapolis,Minnesota November 19 9 5

vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS Sponsors Acknowledgments

iii V

Introduction by Mitchell B. Pearlstein Ten Tentative Truths What Ought Society Do vVhen Families Crumble? What Ought Government Do liVhen Children are Endangered?

1

21

by Chester E. Finn, Jr.

What Do Women Want?

35

A Conservative Feminist Manifesto

by Katherine A Kersten

Mean-Spirited People and the Maintenance of Poverty by Stephen B. Young

59

Talking About Values

69

Emboldening Politicians and Other Leaders to Debate vVhat Matters

by Mitchell B. Pearlstein Fatherless America by David Blankenhom

91

Hollywood vs. America

105

Popular Culture and the War on Traditional Values

by Michael Medved

The Tyranny of the Urgent vVhere Do Children Fit on Our Priority List?

123

by Karen Ruth Effrem, M.D.

The Constitutional Case for Universal School Choice in Minnesota (with Update) by Jon S. Lerner

14 5

Cerlain Truths

Ghetto Poverty and the Power of Faith by Glenn C. Loury

167

Outcome-Based Education Has It Become MoreAJJliction Than Cure? by Bruno V. Manno

177

Reforming Welfare by Robert Rector

221

Teen Sex, Welfare Reform, and the Politicians by Douglas J. Besharov

235

Reforming Adoption Putting Children First by Judith D. Vincent

249

O rphanages Did They Throttle the Children in Their Care? by Richard B. McKenzie

267

Families and Citizens Why the Stakes for DemocracyAre So High by Jean Bethke Elshtain

287

From Moynihan to "My Goodness" Tracing Three Decades of Fatherlessness in the United States, 1965-1995 by Mitchell B. Pearlstein

303

Ten Not-So-Tentative Truths (Keynote) 333 What Ought Society Do When Families Crumble? What Ought Government Do When ChildrenAre Endangered? by Chester E. Finn, Jr. Endnotes

351

Authors and Discussants

381

Board of Directors Senior Fellows Board of Advisors

383

About Center of the American Experiment

385

INTRODUCTION Mitchell B. Pearlstein My colleagues and I in American Experiment are proud of this book, as it speaks with power to the very convictions which animate the Center. Which is another way of saying that Certain Truths bears down hard on many of the toughest problems severely hurting our people and lessening our nation - and pursues what must be done culturally, politically and in other ways to end the unnecessary pain and damage. T his is an anniversary book, as it marks Center of the American Experiment's first five years as a conservative think tank in Minnesota. (More below on this alleged "geopolitical contradiction in terms.") It takes its name, Certain Truths, from two essays by the distinguished education scholar, Chester E. Finn, Jr., the first titled "Ten Tentative Truths," and the second, "Ten Not-So-Tentative Truths." As some readers will recall, Dr. Finn wrote the first paper as the keynote speech for the Center's first conference, on poverty, in 19 9 0. I had asked him to address two profoundly difficult questions that April morning: What ought society do when families crumble?" And, "What ought government do when children are endangered?" Five years later, in 19 9 5, I asked him to keynote this, our first book, by updating his 10 precepts. As one can tell from his new title, "Ten Not­ So-Tentative Truths," Dr. Finn has come to be less provisional about what's wrong and what needs to be done on behalf of families and chil­ dren. Checker (as Dr. Finn is known) is a friend and colleague of long-standing, and I'm terrifically pleased that his two superb papers both kick-off and con­ clude this anthology of 17 essays, all of which I will return to serially in a moment. But first, permit me to expand on several points just introduced and teased.

What do I mean by "culturally"? I wrote above about what must be done "culturally, politically and in I

Certain Truths

other ways" to ease the toll of our "toughest" problems. What do I mean by "culturally"? And what problems an1 I referring to, more exactly? As argued by scholars such as James Q. Wilson, there are essentially three ways of framing problems such as poverty, family disintegration, edu­ cation collapse and the like. One is in terms of public policies: What effects, for example, have various federal, state and local welfare policies had on alleviating - or more pertinently, exacerbating - dependency and great sadness? Charles Murray, in enormously important contributions such as his 19 8 4 book, Losing Ground, is best associated with this tack. A second way of comprehending largely (but by no means only) "urban" problems is through an economic prism: What effects, for instance, has the real or overstated loss of relatively good-paying jobs for relatively unskilled men had on their "marriageability" and, thus, on the radical demise of marriage as an institution in many communities? William Julius Wilson, a superb sociologist, is best known for this line of mqurry. Yet if public policies comprise one frame, and economics a second, then our nation's "culture" - everywhere and elusive as it may be - con­ stitutes a pivotal third. What's in the "air"? What's in1plicit in the media? What's taught in school? What's in our hearts about what's ultimately right and wrong, smart and stupid, responsible and irresponsible, especial­ ly about the most important and intimate aspects of our lives - such as bringing children into the world? For a high-profile champion of this most politically sensitive point of view, none is more acute than former educa­ tion secretary William Bennett. Now, obviously, all three realms weave within one another, much like the innards of a marble cake, as my old friend at the Humphrey Institute, Harlan Cleveland, might put it. And just as obviously, none of the three is oblivious to the effects of old and continuing national sins such as racism and other bigotries. But as anyone who has ever sampled a few American Experiment publications, or has ever attended even a small handful of Center events knows, our bias and strength are with this third, very large "cultural" or "spiritual" or "behavioral" portion of the equation; one in which ideas such as "character" and "responsibility" are central. This book stresses this third leg. In thematic keeping, Certain Truths is preoccupied with the over­ whelming American (and expanding international) disaster of our time: The extraordinary number of boys and girls forced to grow up, in large measure, without their fathers. To claim, I must add, that this is indeed a catastrophe is not to indict women and single mothers in any blanket way, as many are doing heroic jobs in successfully raising their children 2

Introduction

under very tough circumstances. If anything, I invariably lay more burden on men than on women in this area, in part because I'm a man, but also because I agree with Michael Novak, who instead of talking about the feminization of poverty, prefers to cite the masculinization of irresponsi­ bility. T his collection surely does include essays which seriously address the role of politics, policies and economics - the more routine categories of public conversation in this arena. For example, Robert Rector emphasizes, in "Reforming Welfare," how welfare's perverse incentives just about require women ( 1) not to work, and (2) not to marry an employed male. And Douglas J. Besharov, in "Teen Sex, Welfare Reform, and the Politicians," reinforces the point by demonstrating, dollar for dollar, how women are frequently better off on welfare than off it. Yet important as these two papers are - and while quickly noting that in no way do Messrs. Besharov and Rector ignore cultural factors in their explications - the book's larger weight is aligned with Glenn C. Loury's approach in "Ghetto Poverty and the Power of Faith." [M]odern social science and policy analysis [the Boston University economist argues] speak a language of cause and effect - "if we design this program then they will respond in that way." Yet it is my conviction that the core problems of ghetto poverty require for their solu­ tion a language of values - "we should do this; they ought to do that; decent people must strive to live in a certain way." John Brandl, a wonderful scholar of many hats (a former Minnesota legislator, a current member of American Experiment's Board of Advisors and, like Loury, a full-visioned economist) recently wrote similarly in the Star Tribune, when he asked: "Could anyone grow up whole with a healthy attitude toward anything from sex to parenting to the environ­ ment, having been formed by a government rather than by parents, fami­ ly, neighbors and church?" He rightly answers no, as "Government can try, but the very stuff of character formation - devotion, repentance, love - exists in a realm only clumsily reachable by politicians, bureaucrats and laws." To repeat, so as not to be misunderstood, something called "the cul­ ture" does not stand alone and atop all other explanations for what does­ n't work in America and how it all might be fixed. Nothing so serious could ever be so simple. For instance, I say all the time, in acknowledging 3

Certain Truths

the immense economic changes about us, that I would not welcome the prospect of raising a family now as opposed to a generation or two ago if I were 2 5 or 3 0 and largely unskilled. And on the political and govern­ mental front, I enthusiastically endorse what Speaker Gingrich and the rest of his team have already done and seek yet to do because it will make a difference. But this book, as is the case with American Experiment more general­ ly, does accentuate cultural struts and their splintering. 1bis is so for a variety of reasons, only one of which is the fact that the disjunction between the clear-cut importance of values and virtues on the one hand, and the rotten way in which they are usually publicly addressed on the other, is gaping. Let me expand on one other teased point, the one about a geopoliti­ cal contradiction in terms. We all know the cliches about Minnesota's supposed state-of-art liber­ alism. Yet while we never voted for Ronald Reagan, we nonetheless elect­ ed two Republican senators and a Republican governor all in one day in 19 78. We're the same state that sent the conservative politician-philoso­ pher Vin Weber to Congress for a decade and his exquisitely sensible Democratic partner, Tim Penny, to Washington for a full dozen years. (Both are now Distinguished Senior Fellows with the Center.) And cur­ rently, no state can touch Minnesota when it comes to sending mixed messages and ideological odd couples to the United States Senate in the persons of Rod Grams and Paul Wellstone. All of which is another way of saying that Minnesota is a much more complicated place than routinely facile, albeit sometimes funny descriptions have it. But even if the cliches were all accurate; even if Minnesota were little more than a bastion of liberal rest, that would only make the niche for a conservative public policy and educational institution such as American Experiment that much wider and compelling. Either way, my colleagues and I have never thought that Minnesota would be inhospitable to such a venture. We've always been confident of quite the opposite, with the contents of this book but further proof. How selected? As for those contents, a few more preliminary comments before rein­ troducing the essays. First of all, how were the 17 papers selected? After reviewing every­ trung we had previously published, I concluded that the book would be 4

Introduction

stronger if it were connected by a theme (such as families and children and their cultural place) than if it just billed itself as "T he Best of American Experiment" or some such. T his meant, of course, that several genuinely excellent papers on other topics - papers that I take enormous pride in and whose authors I hereby apologize to - did not make the cut. Also eliminated, I'm afraid, for reasons of length, was the most influential publication the Center has ever released, Katherine Kersten's March 1995 monograph, Good Intentions are Not Enough: The Peril Posed by Minnesota's New Desegregation Plan. Next question was how to organize the essays? Here I played with various categories before realizing that it made most sense to simply line them up in yearly order, starting with Checker's first paper, "Ten Tentative Truths," released in June 1990, and moving on through his new keynote essay, "Ten Not-So-Tentative Truths," completed just recently. Whatever might be lost by not clustering papers topically is retrieved and embellished, I would argue, by the chronological scheme's tracing of how ideas and nuances have changed over the five years. T his is perhaps par­ ticularly the case in the matter of father absence, though in fairness, a dis­ proportionately large share of the essays were written in the last two years or so. I might add that I'm well aware that this may be the only book you read this year in which the keynote selection is stuck in the back of the volume rather than paraded up front. But trust me. It's worth waiting for. As noted, "Ten Not-So-Tentative Truths" was commissioned specifical­ ly for Certain Truths. Other papers also came to be as commissioned writ­ ten documents. But you should know that a number of entries are best described as "oral essays," as they were originally presented as speeches at American Experiment programs, and only later transcribed and edited into published texts. I say this because some papers are breezier, or less formal, or less-heavily footnoted than others, and chances are their ori­ gins are the reasons why. Finally, be advised that very little was done to reshape or synchronize the essays for the book. T hat's to say that with the exception of fixing some typos, revising some formats, adding a few clarifying dates, and deleting some graphics (for reasons of length), neither I nor the other 14 writers updated much of anything, as to do so would have subtracted from the book's sense of progression. T his means, for example, that careful readers will find minor inconsis­ tencies in statistical portrayals from one paper to another, or perhaps slightly more than optimal redundancy in some of the selections. (Given 5

Certain Trnths

that a disproportionate share of such repetition may be found in my two offerings - " Talking About Values" and "From Moynihan to 'My "' Goodness - feel particularly free to skim their offending parts.) I should also point out that in the matter of updating, and in light of the increased salience of the topic, I did ask Jon Lerner to write a brief epilogue to his 1 9 9 3 paper, "l11e Constih1tional Case for Universal School Choice in Minnesota." The essays End of prologue. What can I add about the Center's first paper, "Ten Tentative Truths," which I haven't yet suggested? We can start with what syndicated columnist Bill Raspbeny said, shortly after its 19 9 0 pub­ lication: "You won't envy the assignment given 01ester "Checker" Finn by a Minneapolis-based outfit called Center of the American Experiment. But you might find yourself wishing that our social and policy leadership, public and private, had the insight to see (and the guts to say) what Finn has said.'' What things, precisely, did Dr. Finn say? In perhaps the paper's key paragraph, he wrote: We know that a well-functioning society must condemn behavior that results in people having children who are not prepared to be good parenl