By Amy L. Alexander

In “About Our Children,” a two hour-long town hall style talk program broadcast Sunday, September 20, we beheld an unusually calm discussion of a perpetually hot topic—the welter of social, economic, moral, and educational challenges affecting parents and children in America. Broadcast on MSNBC, a cable network infamous for high-volume political rhetoric, “About Our Children” boasted an impressive pedigree.

Yet oddly, the program failed to provide much in the way of innovative solutions or creative sparks: Little of what aired was aimed specifically at viewers under age twenty years-old, and any parent tuning in seeking genuine tips or resources for better dealing with their own children probably came away disappointed.

I tuned in for two reasons: to see if I would learn anything new about raising children in these tough economic times, and because Alvin F. Poussaint, M.D. was one of the featured panelists: Starting in 1997, Dr. Poussaint and I spent several years working together on a nonfiction book about African Americans and mental health. Thus, I was confident that his involvement would ensure a high level of both useful information and a civil tone.

I was half right: Dr. Poussaint, as anticipated, was clear and eloquent about the need for all parents to be “nurturing, and loving” at all times to their children, as well as patient and firm, when it comes to disciplining them without spankings.

But did I learn anything new that I can use from the entire broadcast? Or glean any tips, resources, or tactics that I will now put into play with raising my two school-aged African-American children? Ummm, no.

On the other hand, I shouldn’t be so self-centered: Undoubtedly, some viewers found portions of the program enlightening, and maybe even gained validation for methods they already use, or (at the least) heard language and ideas that will encourage them to reach out to their children’s teachers, or pay more attention to their children’s inner-lives. The program’s signal achievement was its impassioned entreaty for increased parental involvement in children’s lives—not exactly a radical theme, but one that I believe we cannot hear often enough.

Produced by MSNBC and the Independent Women’s Forum, a low-key, center-right Washington, D.C. think tank, “About Our Children” was co-hosted by Bill Cosby, and Michelle Bernard, chief of the women’s forum. It featured several panels’ worth of community activists, educators and, other experts on children and economics, children and health, and children and education, including Michelle Rhee, Superintendent of the District of Columbia’s public schools, David Hayes-Bautista, M.D., of UCLA’s Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at its School of Medicine; and Derrell Bradford, Deputy Director of Excellent Education for Everyone, a New Jersey-based school-choice (aka charter school) advocacy group.

Conducted before a live audience at Howard University, the program was augmented with pre-recorded videotaped segments featuring “real people” describing and showing how they overcame challenging childhoods to become thoughtful, determined parents.

These pre-taped segments, while poignant, effectively sucked the air out of the on-site conversations that took place at Howard. And combined with a high number of commercial breaks, the overall effect was an annoyingly choppy presentation that only skimmed the surface of a deeply complex social conundrum—how to educate children in America (particularly children in low-income households), keep them safe, and imbue them with important life-skills and values to allow them safe passage to productive adulthood.

As had been the case with CNN’s multi-part series, “Black in America,” and “Black in America 2,” the cable network format typically does not lend itself well to thoughtful discussions of complicated topics. MSNBC’s attempt with “About Our Children” was apparently to improve upon the tired, overly-dramatic docu-drama style of most cable news examinations of pressing social issues. But strangely, the inclusion of a live audience did little in this case to inform the discussions. The several hundred Howard students, faculty and local residents who comprised the audience during the broadcast sat stoically through out the majority of the program, as if they had been cautioned beforehand to remain silent until the Question and Answer segment that closed out the broadcast.

Undoubtedly, Bernard, Cosby and the MSNBC producers had the best of intentions. Yet they sabotaged any opportunities to convey tangible, hands-on information by a curious emphasis on quantity over quality. By rushing the dozen panelists through too-short segments, and “throwing” to commercials just as on-site speakers were closing in on relevant points, viewers were left with a collection of dramatic images from the filmed segments, and sound-bites from the panelists that came off as canned and sterile.

Even the usually antic comedic actor Paul Rodriguez—a somewhat unorthodox choice for a panelist—failed to light a creative spark during the proceedings, although he did raise the salient point that blacks and Latinos in America have more in common than they do in difference. In Los Angeles especially, “We’ve been there with you [blacks] since the very beginning,” Rodriguez said, referring to the education and economic ground shared by generations of black and brown residents in the Golden State, and in particular, in terms of fighting for civil rights.

The marquee appeal of Bill Cosby seemed more a distraction, in the end, than an informational boon.

“I’m just the draw,” Cosby said early in the broadcast. Sporting dark shades and an avuncular air, Cosby opened the program by beseeching parents, “Your children need you. Your children’s teachers need you.”

True, and well-said. But it would have been more effective to have aired a forum that emphasized the experiences and advice from real, every day, walking-around-trying-to-make-a-living parents over commercial breaks and media-savvy “experts.”

Amy L. Alexander is a writer. Her next book, Minority Opinion: A Story of Race, Media and Reinvention, will be released in 2010 by Beacon Press.