At the same time, Florida and other states have passed laws offering reduced marriage license fees and similar incentives to couples who agree to take marriage classes before heading down the aisle. Louisiana and Arizona have adopted legislation offering couples considering a breakup the option of going through intensive counseling to head off a divorce. The programs have been criticized by some who assert the government has no business meddling in such personal matters and by others who argue that students would be better served if schools focused on raising their academic abilities rather than improving their social skills. While a growing body of research indicates divorce and the breakdown of the family are responsible for a number of social ills, some preliminary studies also suggest that providing students instruction in building healthy relationships can postpone sexual activity and reduce youth violence. If we can have good families, we'll have stable kids.
Academics are very important.
So many kids tell me this is one of the most useful classes they have taken. The latest movement goes against efforts of the last three decades to downplay marriage. With the sexual revolution, women's rights movement and divorce reform, marriage had been discounted and even derided by some scholars and by popular culture, experts observed. Even couples living together fare worse than married couples, according to some researchers. Cohabitating men seem to be quite uncommitted to the relationship.