Parents are favorite targets of so-called “experts” who are happy to dispense advice on how best to raise well-adjusted children. For example, the conventional wisdom for the past few decades has been that “early education” is good for kids. Experts have clamored for institutional daycare and more available preschool to prepare children for kindergarten. New York City has recently instituted universal pre-K for four-year-olds at a cost of $400 million.

As it turns out, there’s a much simpler and less expensive way to boost children’s eagerness to learn, among other things. According to a study by researchers at Mississippi State University, when parents attend weekly church services, their children show significant benefits in five different areas.

In other words, the more parents participate in public worship on a weekly basis, the higher their children rate in the following areas:

• eagerness to learn
• variety of interests
• creativity
• persistence
• responsibility

Regular church attendance was also linked to better evaluations of children’s self-control, social interaction, and interpersonal skills. 

Perhaps it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that there are both unseen and unexpected benefits to going to church—beyond the obvious ones, of course.

Unfortunately policymakers typically ignore solutions to social issues that don’t involve more tax dollars.  Real answers may be simpler to name but more difficult to implement. We already know, for example, that children fare better in numerous ways when raised by their married biological mother and father. We know that teenage girls in particular benefit by having involved fathers in their lives. And now we know that going to church is a boon to children.

It’s hard to imagine New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio giving a speech in which he encouraged New Yorkers to get married before having children, and to stay married afterwards. Or to seek out communities of faith for the sake of their strengthening their families. How much easier, to say nothing of self-aggrandizing, to announce a program of free (or not, if you count taxes) pre-kindergarten for all NYC four-year-olds.

Wouldn’t it be refreshing to hear a politician say that the answers to so many of our problems—from “school readiness” to teenage pregnancy to drug abuse to gang violence—can be found in our homes, in ourselves, in our faith and in our families.  Wouldn’t it be a relief for a leader to suggest that finding ways to encourage life-long marriages, strengthen families, and support religious communities should be our top priority as a nation.