Difficulty Teaching Morality

            Teaching morality to children in cinema and other mediums can be a balancing act.  Morality involves the good, the bad, and the problematic gray areas. So what are parents to do? Some parents choose to only show things to their children that are upbeat and have no “dark moments” (Gretchen mention one of her family members did this with their little child.)  Others pick and choose what to show their children, and they avoid films with gray areas because they are too difficult for children to understand.  Plato wrote about how he felt about literature and media in general. He thought that it should be controlled and edited for the benefit of all: heroes shouldn’t have flaws, god’s shouldn’t be imperfect like humans, etc. He thought that stories should show examples of what you should do instead of what you shouldn’t do.

            While I believe that parents should try to always be good example to kids, I also think that parents should help kids learn about the gray areas. How else will they learn?  Don’t get me wrong, I think fairytales that have very straight forward morals, like the three little pigs or little red riding hood, are a wonderful tool to teach children with. But it isn’t the only kind of story that teaches.  I believe that stories that aren’t as straight forward are important to expand a child’s understanding.  Avoiding the “gray area” problem doesn’t make it go away, and it does protect children from it. Instead it just leaves them ignorant and defenseless.  “Peter and the Wolf” shows a boy who was able to grow up and realize that there is not just good and bad. The wolf didn’t eat the duck because he was the essence of pure evil. He ate the duck because he is a wolf and he was hungry.

            I believe that as a people, Americans have become polarized themselves.  People often think that they are right, making any other opinion absolutely wrong. Democrats believe that they are always right and Republicans are always wrong, and it goes the other way around.  People aren’t very good at compromising anymore.  We reached the financial cliff at the end of last year because democrats and republicans didn’t want to work together. They knew it was coming from a long way off, but only started dealing with it at the 11^th hour.  The common ground that all Americans use to have in common has disappeared.  Without knowing what is the common ground between all people, or if there is any at all, is what is tearing at this nation right now.  I’m sorry I ranted so long at this, but I think it is an extremely important root to the problems people face when choosing what their child should watch. How can they teach their children about the complexities of life and how to deal with them, if they as parents only know how to deal with black and white?  I think this is the biggest problem underlying what children are being shown.