Kowabunga

How many people remember the TV documentary "Scared Straight" from the '70s? It was meant to scare kids into good behavior, and show them that "crime doesn't pay." Looks like a Missouri State Senator wants to take it a step further by requiring all 9th graders to tour a correctional facility before entering the 10th grade. From FoxNews:

Sen. Tim Green, D-St. Louis, has introduced a bill requiring public school ninth-graders tour a state correctional center before they start their sophomore year, the Columbia Tribune reported.

The tactic, meant to scare kids into good behavior, would start in the 2009-2010 school year. Principals and superintendents who do not comply would face being fired.

The goal is to "show them that crime doesn't pay," Green said. "We have a lot of forks in the road in our lives. One bad decision can ruin a young person's entire life.

There are two problems that I can see.

First, good behavior in children needs to be instilled by the parents. If parents are not teaching their children the difference between right and wrong, then making them tour correctional facilities is not going to be much, if any, help.

Second, the films and television programs being pumped out of Hollywood today is one of "Yes, crime pays. Big." I am talking about films like Cloony's remake of Ocean Eleven; then there is Bandits and The Whole Nine Yards to name a few films. Then there is the series Kingpin that depicts a Mexican drug cartel.

As long as Hollywood continues to pump out films and TV programs like these, it becomes even more important, even critical, for parents to be fully involved in the upbringing of their children, in order to counter the messages coming out of Hollywood, as well as have an impact on reducing crime in America.