Babies welcome in my class!

by Orr Shalit

Re this news item (or here, in English):

This is so wrong.

Mothers to very young babies must be given the choice to bring their babies with them to their workplace, or to the college where they study. Obviously, if the baby starts screaming, they should step outside until the baby is quiet again.

What other possibilities are there? Not study? That’s one solution (I know a lot of very smart moms who chose that). Wait with the babies until after the career goals are met (say, age 38)? Another solution. Put a 6 week old baby in a nursery? A solution. I don’t think anybody can honestly say that there is a perfect solution for mothers. Taking a baby to work or university is also not a perfect solution, but in my opinion this solution should be accepted (not to say, encouraged) by society as a legitimate one.

Normally, a baby (especially a young, nursing baby that is held) can be very quiet for a rather long time; babies are much better behaved than the average student. Don’t worry: no one wants to hush a screaming baby and ruin everybody’s day while not being able to understand anything themselves.

If anybody feels that an occasional gurgle or murmur (or a completely silent breastfeeding mom) is disruptive to learning, perhaps they should carefuly check if that is really what is bothering them. I never heard of anyone with an annoying cough, or someone who wears short sleeves or shorter pants, or has an obnoxious attitude, or somebody who asks the instructor not to use Greek letters, etc., being asked not to enter classes because it is disruptive. Universities are about people, right? It’s nice that there’s all kinds of people of various kinds and sizes, enjoy it!