Then, as now, much of the news about kids was troubling-random killings, unsafe schoolyards, bizarre family killings in once placid suburbs.
Difficult questions deserve thoughtful responses.
And this was the second aim of the series-especially with the live forum moderated by John Hockenberry, then a correspondent for ABC Television. Now a reporter with NBC's Dateline, Hockenberry is a former National Public Radio correspondant and host of NPR's Talk of the Nation. For two hours, with the help of the live audience assembled in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Hockenberry guided forum participants as they grappled for solutions to the most pressing problems then faced by children. Today, regrettably, many of the problems covered in this series remain. Award-winning reporters researched, reported, and produced the five half hour documentaries.