Retorts: Violence, theater, hatred and Julie Andrews

Continued from page 3 also a lot of “kids’ inhumanity to kids,” in the form of cyberbullying, shaming and worse. I suspect very few of these incidents come from anyone watching someone else sing “Climb Every Mountain.”

We are steeped in violence and tribalism. Two of our most popular sports are football and stock car racing, and the snippets that appear on ESPN Sports Center often involve particularly forceful tackles and car crashes. The argument is that the “little sponges” that kids are will be influenced by certain dangerous images. But I ask in reply what kind of positive images are the parents giving to those same kids?

If a few minutes of play-acting in the multi-purpose room can give your kid a desire to annex Austria, you have bigger problems than a grade school play.

Climb your own mountain toward teaching your child about right and wrong, and how evil will always be in our world, and we must be brave enough to reject and resist it.

Jim Tortolano’s Retorts appears on Wednesdays and Saturdays.