A student at Georgia Gwinnett College faced a dilemma earlier this month. She couldn’t find a babysitter for her anatomy and physiology class, so she had no choice but to bring her child with her.
Ramata Sissoko Cisse, an assistant professor of biology for anatomy and physiology, was teaching an important lecture that day. It was about the integumentary system—the organ system that includes the skin, hair, nails, and glands. But for Cisse, the lecture was more than just biology.
Cisse wanted her student to concentrate on the lesson, which was hard enough in a three-hour class, but even harder when she had to hold a child and take notes at the same time.
So Cisse offered to take the child from her. She would hold him so that the student could focus. Cisse, a mother of three, said she raised her children at the same time she attended graduate school.
“I just wanted her to be a student, a normal young student in the class,” Cisse said. “I didn’t want her to worry about the baby.”
“I wanted the student to have a little break.”
Cisse carried the child for the whole lecture, making a sling out of a white lab jacket to hold him on her back, leaving her hands free to write on the whiteboard. The child fell asleep right away.
Cisse said that everyone has compassion in them, but sometimes it needs a little push.
“I think the job of an educator is to give you confidence in yourself, to trust yourself, and to bring out the best in you,” Cisse said. “So my job is to show them you already have it; you have what it takes to contribute to the world.”
Cisse also shared that the child also helped her with the lecture. When it was time to feed the child, Cisse used the opportunity to explain metabolism.
“The mom gave me the milk, but it was kind of cold. So I told the mommy to warm it a little bit to be his body temperature. And they said, ‘Why does it have to be warm?’, and I said it has to be his body temperature so that when he drinks the milk, he’s not using too much energy to warm up the milk.”
“Energy is very important. The baby needs to grow. The taking, anabolism, and the breaking, catabolism, of nutrients coming into your body.”
Cisse also mentioned the nervous system’s ability to remember, especially in a baby’s brain.
“I told them that everything I’m telling you now, he can hear me. He may not understand what I’m saying, but one day he can grow up and be like, ‘I heard this before!’”
Cisse said the baby would nod when she went over an important fact, as if he agreed with the lecture.
One of the students took a photo of the pair, which Cisse’s daughter posted on Twitter, where it went viral.
Viral moments are, by nature, short-lived. Cisse said that, while she has the spotlight, she wants to share a simple message with students.
“I want to make sure young people understand that we are here for them. We are here to support, nurture, guide, love, inspire, and teach. We are here for that. So I don’t want them to give up on us. We’re here. We take them very seriously.”
