I seem to be way too late for anyone to be interested, but I just wanted to put something out there when it comes to good fiction for kids. Most people here seem to be talking about books, so I wanted to mention a TV show—Avatar: The Last Airbender. It’s not perfectly rational (they play the “everything is connected” card a couple of times) but it’s really good about passing down smart morals. It both encourages altruism and discourages stupid ways of trying to be altruistic—characters like Sokka emphasize the importance of having a plan and being smart about your strategies. The most important thing, though, is that people learn from their mistakes in that show. Not in the sense of most cartoons, where they declare something like “In this episode, I learned that it is wrong to steal!” and then promptly forget about it the next episode, but in the sense of really questioning deeply held beliefs and prejudices. Plus it’s action-packed, fun, and interesting, and remains interesting even for adults.
I seem to be way too late for anyone to be interested, but I just wanted to put something out there when it comes to good fiction for kids. Most people here seem to be talking about books, so I wanted to mention a TV show—Avatar: The Last Airbender. It’s not perfectly rational (they play the “everything is connected” card a couple of times) but it’s really good about passing down smart morals. It both encourages altruism and discourages stupid ways of trying to be altruistic—characters like Sokka emphasize the importance of having a plan and being smart about your strategies. The most important thing, though, is that people learn from their mistakes in that show. Not in the sense of most cartoons, where they declare something like “In this episode, I learned that it is wrong to steal!” and then promptly forget about it the next episode, but in the sense of really questioning deeply held beliefs and prejudices. Plus it’s action-packed, fun, and interesting, and remains interesting even for adults.