There is a movement to counter this decline by promoting solid values that transcend lifestyles and belief systems. In July of 1992, Michael Josephson, a former law professor, brought a diverse group of education and youth service leaders together in Aspen, Colorado. These representatives, with strongly held beliefs and diverse perspectives, crafted and unanimously endorsed a statement called the Aspen Declaration. With the hurried lifestyles of today's families, youth are influenced less by their families and more by media and individuals outside the home. If we don't like the choices youth are making we need to look at the choices they're being shown.
Character is learned through example and practice.
We can't sit kids down for a workshop and have them walk out an hour later with high moral character and integrity. They need reinforcement from the community. Area schools are starting to focus on character education, but youth need to hear about positive values at home, church, and throughout the community. He was concerned about the lack of values in the young people he was seeing in his courtroom. He shared this information with Joe Herron, an Executive of CSX Railroad.