Philip Pullman in the New Yorker: Literature and morality
I highly recommend this article from a recent New Yorker about Philip Pullman, the author of the His Dark Materials trilogy. Among other ideas, he proposes that literature is perhaps our best guide for learning how to live in the world.
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/051226fa_fact
An excerpt:
The scene, Pullman said, shows that “we can learn what’s good and what’s bad, what’s generous and unselfish, what’s cruel and mean, from fiction”… As Pullman once put it in a newspaper column, ” ‘Thou shalt not’ might reach the head, but it takes ‘Once upon a time’ to reach the heart.”
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There are actually studies on the best way to teach morality, and they have found that literature (stories, really) is a key component. Along with a sense of community and ritual.