When a student at Georgia Gwinnett College couldn't find a replacement babysitter in time for her anatomy and physiology class earlier this month, she did what student-parents sometimes have to do – she brought her child to class with her.
Ramata Sissoko Cisse, an assistant professor of biology for anatomy and physiology, had scheduled an important lecture for that day. It focused on the integumentary system — the organ system comprised of the skin, hair, nails and glands. For Cisse, the lecture went beyond biology.
Cisse said she wanted her student to focus on the meaning of the lecture, a task often difficult in a three-hour class, but made even more challenging when notetaking has to be balanced with holding a child.
So Cisse told the student to hand her the child. She would hold him so that the student could just pay attention. 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 think about the baby."
"I wanted the student to have a little break."
Cisse carried the child for the entirety of the lecture, fashioning a sling out of a white lab jacket to hold him on her back, freeing her hands to write on the whiteboard. The child fell asleep almost immediately, Cisse said.
