Cosby's talk inspires city educators

Though arguably a fashion disaster, Bill Cosby was undeniably an oratorical success when he spoke at the Sadie Mossell Tanner Alexander University of Pennsylvania Partnership School yesterday.

Clad in tapered leg warm-up pants and Birkenstocks with socks, Cosby addressed an audience of students in Penn's Graduate School of Education, teachers and administrators from the Sadie Alexander school as well as those from William C. Bryant, Henry C. Lea and Alexander Wilson elementary schools -- Penn's three partnership schools in West Philadelphia.

"He was inspirational for the new incoming teachers and the teachers who have been on the battlefield for years," Wilson teacher Lorraine Wilkinson said.

In his characteristically comedic manner, Cosby spoke about the role teachers play in their students' lives.

"You have to give them respect... and they will give it back," Cosby said. "For God's sake, erase all stereotyping from your brain. If a child doesn't do well, it's not because of the color of his skin,... because of his gender."

Throughout his two-hour speech, Cosby's words of wisdom were met with nods and smiles of understanding from audience members.

He related his first day in the classroom when one kid in the back of the class said, "Why we gotta know this shit?"

"And it was then that I realized how difficult it was going to be," Cosby said. "I wanted to be a teacher who could stand in front of people and know everything he needs to know."

But he conceded that today's schools are different from the ones he attended and at which he taught.

Cosby said that when he was in school and a child missed a day of class, the teacher "came to your house, knocked on your door."

Cosby was born and raised in the Philadelphia projects. He describes the city as "a place where I was rejected and accepted," and his roots keep him coming back to the city.

He addressed the need for quality teachers to stay in troubled schools.

"How many idiots are running the school system?" he asked the audience. "If you see those idiots, then you've got a job."

But he never said it would be an easy one, noting the language barrier between students and teachers as a new obstacle in the classroom.

"In my day... [the kids] spoke English.... Now you have 'bonics."

If you are good, "you don't have a color.... It's what you will mean to them, and that's 'good person.'"

Still, "nobody said you can solve it all in the little bit of time you have with a child," he continued.

One woman in the audience asked for suggestions on how to reach students who hate math.

"Make them the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse," he said.

"Ask them, 'Do you like PlayStation?'" And tell them that the guy who invented it, 'He knew algebra, and he bought his mom a big new house and put servants in it.'"

Those in attendance yesterday were pleased with Cosby's talk.

Teachers "share so many of these emotions with him," GSE Dean Susan Fuhrman said. "There's a mix of humor and real emotion."

Cosby previously spoke at the University in June 2002 as part of a benefit that raised $1 million dollars for the Puente-Forchic Scholarship, which is awarded to teachers who commit themselves to teaching in Philadelphia's school system.

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