Mary Rooke Commentary and Analysis Writer
In April, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed legislation requiring Tennessee public schools to teach about the “Success Sequence” for living a happy, successful life as part of the state’s family-life curricula.
State Representative Gino Bulso, who sponsored the legislation, said studies show that completing high school, going on to higher education or becoming employed, getting married, and then having children.
“When you look at Millenials, that is adults who are now 32 to 38 years of age, for those who followed this Success Sequence, this timeline of education, employment, marriage and then children, 97% of them avoided poverty, and that includes 95% of Black students, and 96% of Hispanic students, regardless of their upbringing, regardless of whether they came from intact families or not,” said Bulso. “By the time they reached their 30s, if they followed the Success Sequence, they were able to avoid poverty and enter the middle class or higher class.”
It’s time for states across America—from here in Virginia, down to Florida and Tennessee, and across to Utah and beyond—to incorporate the “Success Sequence” into their family life education. A new article makes the case 👇🏼. https://t.co/EDohtuoHq7 pic.twitter.com/KDBzpM1gTl
— Brad Wilcox (@BradWilcoxIFS) January 9, 2023
The importance of curriculum changes like those in Tennessee and proposed in other states like Texas, Ohio, and Alabama cannot be overstated. As our society breaks away from anti-family and anti-American ideologies, like DEI, critical race theory, and gender ideology, we need to fill those gaps with knowledge that prepares our students with the correct path to live ordered lives.
Essentially, the idea behind the law is to teach students that the key to success in their lives is to follow a specific path: graduate from high school, work full time, get married, and then have children. Following those steps in that order gives the greatest access to achieving social and economic accomplishments. (Sign up for Mary Rooke’s weekly newsletter here!)
Finish school, get a job, and get married before you have kids – follow this “Success Sequence” and you’re very likely to avoid poverty.
But, most of Texas’ kids don’t know the Success Sequence. @SenBryanHughes and @MattShaheen share their bills to teach it in Texas schools: pic.twitter.com/GxbQUkQXSJ
— Texas Public Policy Foundation (@TPPF) April 3, 2025
While the reasoning behind this legislation doesn’t seem to be that novel, especially if you follow Christian theology, our children are completely turned around on the issues of family and success due to the influence these left-wing ideologies have had on their upbringing. Obviously, parents play an incalculable role in teaching their children how to become adults. Still, as we saw in the statistics on how prevalent divorce has become and its effects on our children, some families themselves don’t have these tools to pass down to younger generations.
While the legislative sponsors, like Bulso, focused on uplifting students into economic success, the reality is that it teaches them so much more. (ROOKE: Blue State Should Pay The Price For Breaking America’s Greatest Promise)
Children need guidance. Typically (and ideally), this knowledge comes from the parents. However, the number of hours our children spend at school is not insignificant. It makes up a massive amount of time in their day, and if they are being taught the correct order on how to live, it could make all the difference in a child’s life in cases where the parents are unable or unwilling to be their guide. And it is undoubtedly an improvement on a curriculum that focuses on oppressor/oppressed classes or one that teaches children unscientific junk science about being born in the wrong body.
1. @bryan_caplan weighs in on the Success Sequence. He’s a fan.
“there is a simple and highly effective formula for avoiding poverty:
1. Finish high school.
2. Get a full-time job once you finish school.
3. Get married before you have children.”https://t.co/NZoQqWzAjq— Brad Wilcox (@BradWilcoxIFS) February 25, 2021
Sex education became a huge craze after the rise in teen pregnancies. The state took it upon itself to teach our children about “safe sex.” But what it turned into was an overwhelming approval of sex for any reason as long as they were using contraception.
Instead, Tennessee is asking its students to focus on the economic development they could have if they wait to have kids until they get married. This also teaches them that families and children are positive things, not something they should fear.
With an alarming birth rate drop and our society’s increasingly anti-family culture, this law gives me hope that we will be able to save the next generation from the pitfalls that have plagued Millennials and Gen Z. Afterall the goal in a rightly ordered society is to have the family uplifted, the poor rescued from poverty, and our children better off than we were.
Tennessee is paving the way for this growth, and more states should take the opportunity to do the same.
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