I liked the article on media literacy and character education in the summer issue of TECHNOS ("Character Education and Media Literacy: Finding Common Ground," by Scott Herrington and Cindy Emmans). It was right on the money and very topical, given that many states, including New Jersey, are embarking on adopting a character-education curriculum for their schools. Because of the often sordid and corrosive content of media, kids should understand the difference between "real" and "make believe" and that the images they see and the sounds they hear are part of a business designed to generate profits, not report the truth. TV, movies, and pop music are just the shadows on the wall ...