When his television program hit the airwaves in the 1980s, Bill Cosby wasn?t just playing a TV doctor; he was also a doctor off-screen. While not actually a medical doctor like alter-ego Cliff Huxtable, Cosby earned a Ph.D. in education from the University of Massachusetts in 1977.
So Tuesday morning, when he brought laughs and a message to three Baltimore City elementary schools, he came with genuine credentials.
“You have a principal here who is putting in long hours and is a hard-working person,” Cosby said to parents on hand, of principal Havanah Kenlaw at Westside Elementary. “And at the top of her wish list is that more of you would come to the school.
“Bring your friends, bring your family,” Cosby added. “Get involved.”
The comedian-actor-activist continually stressed the need for love, protection and teaching at home. He referred to the kids seated all around him as “God?s children” and “God?s garden,” and said they “have brains and they work when they are nurtured, when they are nurtured with confidence and when they are told it is all right to make a mistake.”
Cosby also said children have to be shown that there is more in the world than what is in their neighborhood.
Coppin State University president Stanley Battle said Cosby pitched the idea of going to three schools before the start of the year in a phone call earlier the summer and even picked the schools himself.
“He had worked with us, and Morgan State last year and called me out of the blue asking if this is something we would be interested in,” Battle said. Coppin State sponsored the three-school event.
Cosby made previous stops at Rosemont Elementary/Middle and Robert Coleman Elementary, as part of his “I Can Achieve” campaign. After the program at Westside, the kids practically tackled the entertainer, who they know from “Cosby Show” re-runs, with hugs.
“I thought he was great,” said Maullen Mack, 10, who came with her mother Constance. “He talked about children and the future.”
