I think in general boys are happier and more motivated if they have one or more adult male parents or relatives closely involved in their lives. And I think women, deaf people, white people, black people, and just about any other distinct group benefit from having one or more "same type" role models handy on a long term basis. But the absence of a father is the least of the problems of these (mostly black) kids who are completely out of control in public middle schools and high schools. Their relatives are usually all very uneducated, have irregular and very low-level low-responsibility jobs (if they're not just permanently on welfare), and are in many cases using drugs and alcohol heavily. There are no limits whatsoever on TV, junk food, where the kids go, be home by X time, etc. Their technical fathers are usually the sort of people who'd be nothing but a bad influence if they were living in the home with the kids -- they're gang members, drug dealers, petty criminals, etc. And by high school, many of these boys are already technical fathers themselves.
Dig up the research on children raised by early-widowed mothers. They have no fathers, and yet they in no way resemble the animal-like creatures that are causing complete chaos in inner-city schools. The boys may wish they had a dad, but they nonetheless refrain from mayhem, graduate from high school, go to college if their parents went to college, get decent jobs and support themselves as adults, at the same rate that boys raised in 2 parent homes do.
All true. What sickens me is that kids of other ethnicities (Latinos, Eastern Europeans, middle easterners, some Asians) imitate such behavior as being "cool."
I will say it is not just black kids. The black kids where I live are prodominantly middle class, and have stable families.
At my kids elementary school, the behavior problems come from hispanics and poor white trash.
I was at the school the other day and some woman was cussing (F word, sh word) out her son in front of my kids. I called her on it, and she just looked at me and started trying to justify it. I told her there was no justification.
My son's middle school is much better behaved than the new elementary school my daughters are going to. I don't know how they do it, but they have much better control.