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Bill Cosby and Alvin Poussaint Call for More Child-Focused Parenting
In our exclusive interview, Bill Cosby and Alvin Poussaint explain their prescription for parents and what today’s children need to survive and thrive.
Come On, Parents!
Bill Cosby’s blunt, public calls for low-income African-Americans to stop neglecting their kids and start taking responsibility for the crime, absentee fathers and rising school dropout rates in their communities have prompted strong doses of both criticism and praise.
Some rebuke the entertainer known as “America’s favorite TV dad” for being harsh, even demeaning, to fellow African-Americans. Others openly thank him for addressing a crisis.
Cosby and his longtime collaborator, renowned psychiatrist Alvin Poussaint, M.D., detail that crisis in their recent book, Come on People: On the Path from Victims to Victors (Thomas Nelson, 2007), and point to better parenting as the main solution.
Despite focusing on the African-American community – “because we know it best,” the two men say – they insist that parents across all races and socioeconomic backgrounds should heed their call for more responsible, nurturing child-rearing.
“What we outline on parenting is what all parents should be doing, whether they’re middle class, upper-middle class, white, Native American and so on,” says Poussaint, a nationally recognized expert on child development and media’s effects on children. “Reading to your kids, loving, nurturing, discipline, nonviolent parenting, no physical punishment – it’s good information for any parent.”
The book’s call for low-income African-American parents to take a more active role in solving their problems – ranging from high rates of school suspensions and unemployment to violence and incarceration – has rankled some critics, who argue that more government and institutional support is needed to overcome decades of discrimination and poverty. The authors don’t deny this; they acknowledge the importance of social services, and the need for better health care and education programs. But real change needs to start with better parenting, they say.
Here, in our exclusive interview, Cosby and Poussaint explain their prescription for parents and what today’s children need to survive and thrive.
Come On, Parents!
Bill Cosby’s blunt, public calls for low-income African-Americans to stop neglecting their kids and start taking responsibility for the crime, absentee fathers and rising school dropout rates in their communities have prompted strong doses of both criticism and praise.
Some rebuke the entertainer known as “America’s favorite TV dad” for being harsh, even demeaning, to fellow African-Americans. Others openly thank him for addressing a crisis.
Cosby and his longtime collaborator, renowned psychiatrist Alvin Poussaint, M.D., detail that crisis in their recent book, Come on People: On the Path from Victims to Victors (Thomas Nelson, 2007), and point to better parenting as the main solution.
Despite focusing on the African-American community – “because we know it best,” the two men say – they insist that parents across all races and socioeconomic backgrounds should heed their call for more responsible, nurturing child-rearing.
“What we outline on parenting is what all parents should be doing, whether they’re middle class, upper-middle class, white, Native American and so on,” says Poussaint, a nationally recognized expert on child development and media’s effects on children. “Reading to your kids, loving, nurturing, discipline, nonviolent parenting, no physical punishment – it’s good information for any parent.”
The book’s call for low-income African-American parents to take a more active role in solving their problems – ranging from high rates of school suspensions and unemployment to violence and incarceration – has rankled some critics, who argue that more government and institutional support is needed to overcome decades of discrimination and poverty. The authors don’t deny this; they acknowledge the importance of social services, and the need for better health care and education programs. But real change needs to start with better parenting, they say.
Here, in our exclusive interview, Cosby and Poussaint explain their prescription for parents and what today’s children need to survive and thrive.
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