A foundation for flourishing

It is more apparent with each passing day that American society faces significant challenges, and among the most pressing are those having to do with raising up future generations of citizens and leaders. The tried and true benchmarks of growth and maturity are increasingly delayed and even denied by adolescents and young adults. From a culture that idolizes a particular kind of safety and risk aversion to a life that is dominated by screens and artificial worlds, teens are experiencing a developmental crisis. Anxiety is rampant while emotional immaturity and the inability to think critically are endemic among millions of young Americans.

Part of the solution to these multifaceted challenges must come from our educational institutions. While there are many good reasons to be critical of the American school system, it remains the case that most American children will be formed by government schools for at least some significant portion of their lives. That’s why efforts like those recently seen in Tennessee and Ohio to introduce important normative dimensions of human socialization and development are so important. Recent legislation proposed in these states would make teaching what’s known as the “Success Sequence” part of the government school curriculum.

The Success Sequence is simple yet powerful. It is, as the Institute for Family Studies puts it, “a proven formula to help young adults succeed in America.” The idea is that there are certain benchmarks or goals that one must attain before seeking other goods. And while these seem like common sense, they are steps that embody precisely the kind of wisdom that cannot be taken for granted today. American cultural values are in such disarray that these basic steps on a path to success are not only not assumed but are often directly disparaged.

There are three basic elements to the Success Sequence. The first step is to graduate from high school. Thankfully the trends in this direction are generally positive. Over the past 50 years the completion rate among American students has risen, although there is some reason to think that this is in part because of reduced requirements and alternative paths to certification. It also matters, of course, what students are learning in high school, and this is undoubtedly quite different in 2025 than it was in 1975. This is also why including instruction that has real-world significance is important, whether that’s vocational training, technical instruction, or teaching about the Success Sequence itself.

Step 2 in the sequence is to get a full-time job, and here is where the path to success starts to get much more difficult. The economic challenges faced by young Americans today are real as well as perceived, but one of the biggest difficulties is convincing people that there is inherent value in work and meaning to be found in productive service done for the good of others. Generations of Americans now seem dubious about the worth of work, and there is much that needs to be done to restore the role of work in our moral imaginations.

The third and final step in the Success Sequence is the most fraught: Get married before having children. This basic biblical teaching is borne out in the social science data. Children raised by a married mother and father fare much better in almost every measure of social flourishing. Mothers are obviously crucial here, particularly in their unique God-given gifts to nurture, inspire, and love their children from infancy through adulthood. But fathers are also significant, and often overlooked or seen as dispensable. As Brad Wilcox of the Institute for Family Studies points out, “Boys who don’t reside with their married fathers are, amazingly, more likely to go to prison than graduate from college, whereas boys from intact, married families are markedly more likely to graduate from college than spend time in jail.” And fathers are important for the development of daughters as well.

All of this means that teaching the Success Sequence is essential for the health and growth of future generations of Americans. And there are challenges at each step that need to be addressed. Schools, particularly government schools, cannot solve the problem on their own, and adding the Success Sequence to the curriculum is only part of a comprehensive approach that is needed.

Churches and families themselves have indispensable roles to play here too, both in modeling and inculcating the value of the steps on the Success Sequence as well as providing a proper framework in which such “success,” viewed almost always exclusively in economic terms, can be rightly ordered.

It is possible to do everything right in worldly terms and still be miserable. That’s why the truest form of the Success Sequence has to begin and end with truth about God and our relationship to him. As Jesus put it, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.” If we can teach the Success Sequence that has proper space for spiritual as well as economic development, our children and our society will be better for it.