If such a thing as American Values exist anymore in our fracturing society, then personal responsibility is one of them.

Many of our biggest heroes are people who started with nothing, then worked their way to greatness through determination and perseverance. Our national origin story is that of people so willing to make their own fortunes that they picked up everything they owned and moved across an ocean.

Letters to the Editor:Feeding kids is parents' responsibility

Americans hate mooches and disdain leeches, and we're generally skeptical of anybody who isn't willing to earn their keep.

Still, most everyone agrees that there are some people whom society must help: the elderly, people with severe disabilities and/or chronic illnesses, wounded veterans. These are people whose circumstances, often tragic and usually not of their own making, make it inhumane to expect total self-efficiency.

But what about children? When and to what extent should we apply to them our ethos of personal responsibility?

In a recent column, I argued that Delaware should be prioritizing help for its high-poverty schools. Specifically, I argued we as a society need to be doing more to help students at those schools deal with the out-of-school issues that make it hard for them to learn. Issues like hunger, poor health care and psychological trauma.

I received many thoughtful letters from readers about the piece. Most agreed that teachers can't be expected to single-handedly overcome the problems students in poverty bring to school, but a few questioned why taxpayers should be the ones to help fix those problems.

"We can't do anything about this until parents start taking responsibility," one reader wrote.

"Society should not be expected to do everything that parents are supposed to be doing," said another.

This column was written before the publication of my colleagues' searing series of stories on youth gang violence in Wilmington, but I'm pretty confident that at least one Facebook commentor will say something along the lines of: "Where are the parents?"

There is no doubt that good parenting is one of the strongest pillars of better schools and a stronger society. Government can never replace parents, and society cannot fill a void of insufficient self-initiative.

Yes, some people are just bad people and bad parents. Some fail to provide for their children because they are unwilling to make the sacrifices parenting requires.

It's seldom that simple, though.

Many moms and dads are working one or more low-wage jobs, despite their best efforts; many never had a good education themselves; many are single parents; some are battling the disease of addiction. Not all of these obstacles are self-created; some parents were born into these struggles the same way that their kids were.

Nobody is born with the skills or the character that make true personal responsibility possible; those things are taught and learned.

That's why, whatever our personal views on how much society and government should be tasked with helping adults, we ought to take shared responsibility for kids.

If the moral argument doesn't sway you, consider your own self-interest.

If you don't like paying taxes for public education or donating to nonprofits that help outside of school, just wait until your taxes fund more police and bigger prisons — the inevitable results of letting kids twist in the wind.

Don't like spending money on social welfare programs? If we don't give at-risk kids more than what their parents give them, we'll never break the cycle that keeps those programs costly.

I'm not saying government is always the answer — churches and nonprofits could use your donations and volunteer time as much as the government needs your taxes. Nor am I suggesting that any program that purports to help kids should get backing — we have to be realistic and efficient.

But if we as a community can invest in anything, it ought to be kids who by sheer bad fortune came into families that don't have the means or willingness to give them everything a growing human being needs.

Debates over the extent to which government should be caring for less-fortunate adults are healthy. The moral hazard of creating government dependency is real and should be avoided.

But to to those who argue that we shouldn't pitch in to help kids because it's parent's responsibility, I'd request this: go talk to these kids yourself. Look them in the eyes, hear their stories, and try to put yourself in their shoes.

If, after doing that, you can honestly say that you feel no compunction to help, then so be it.

Somehow, I expect most of you couldn't.

Contact Matthew Albright at malbright@delawareonline.com, (302) 324-2428 or on Twitter @TNJ_malbright.