Taylor Daily Press
If you want research data on social ills related to absent or bad fathers, Kenneth Thompson can talk your ear off about school dropouts, kids in jail, teen pregnancy and more. But as eloquently as he wields these facts, he's even more compelling when he tells one specific family story: his own.
"There's a scene indelibly planted in my memory," said Thompson, the head of Texas Department of Family and Protective Services' Fatherhood Program. "It's me as a child, standing in my yard, throwing a ball straight up in the air and catching it. My dad wasn't present in my life, so that's what I did."
Thompson eventually had some long awaited guys-tossing-the-ball-around moments with his own son. But getting there wasn't easy. It took a lot of help from other family members and strong male role models in his East Austin neighborhood. These neighbors, Thompson said, deserve much of the credit for instilling the character and motivation that led to a successful career with companies such as IBM and Applied Materials.
Now, in his new career with DFPS, Thompson is paying forward his debt to those role models by helping absent or struggling fathers become positive forces in their kids' lives.
Dads as positive forces? Thompson admits this idea can be a tough sell in a cultural climate where "kids are raised on TV and Homer Simpson is the longest-running father on the air." Through the Fatherhood Program, Thompson hopes to counter both the exaggerated perceptions and the hard realities of bad dads.
The program and its allies make their case by helping families break self-destructive behavior patterns and replace them with positive, self-perpetuating ones. One of their key principles is that fathers have both rights and responsibilities within the family.
"In our protective services system, we're trying to make sure the voice and rights of fathers are well established -- and ensure that the father's role is a healthy one," Thompson said.
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