I was speaking to parents at Hillview Middle School in Menlo Park, California, an affluent enclave in Silicon Valley. My talk was about virtue. I shared a longitudinal cohort study showing that conscientiousness—which includes traits such as honesty and self-control—predicts good outcomes in adulthood. A child’s character is a better predictor of health, wealth, and happiness 20 years down the road than the child’s grades or test scores or popularity. “The message from this research, and other studies like it, is that teaching honesty to kids should be our top priority as parents,” I said. Just then, a woman in the front row started waving her hand in the air. I pretended not to notice, since it wasn’t time yet for Q&A. “Grades and test scores are important, but teaching virtue and character is more important,” I continued. The woman was getting frantic, now waving both her hands in the air. I couldn’t go on ignoring her, so I called …