As I look back, his movies were important to me as a child because they taught me something about morality. My generation grew up knowing there is a difference between right and wrong. Within a few years of the demise of The Roy Rogers Show on television in 1957, Hollywood began teaching the young generation morally confusing messages about anti-heroes, likeable outlaws, such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. More recently, a film like Pulp Fiction literally glamorize psychopaths, people who kill without emotion. We can see the ghastly result in children who walk into their schools with automatic weapons, killing fellow students and teachers for no reason.
Moral education is the training of heart and mind toward the good.
Children are not born with a knowledge of such virtues as honesty, compassion, courage and perseverance. If we want our children to possess the traits of character we most admire, we need to teach them, Bennett writes. Since Hollywood no longer is aiding in the moral education of our youth, parents and grandparents must seize the initiative to do so. First, we can discuss our own moral choices to do the right thing though it requires effort and discipline. Another way of teaching virtue is by tapping a wealth of written material once taught to students to help them develop character.