This Lecturer Taught A Maths Class While Holding His Student's Baby

Kindness costs nothing

When a student showed up to Nathan Alexander’s maths class with their baby girl, the lecturer wasn’t fazed. In fact, rather than watching his student struggle to take notes while rocking his daughter, Professor Alexander offered to hold the little one throughout the class.

Wayne Hayer took his his daughter Assata, to his lecture at Morehouse College in Atlanta, US, when he couldn’t find anyone to watch her. Hayer’s classmate, Nick Vaughn, posted a photo of Alexander teaching with the baby girl in a papoose on Twitter – and it went down a storm.

The tweet had more than 300,000 likes at the time of writing, and hundreds of people praised the teacher’s act of kindness and the father’s dedication to learning.

Student came to class today with his child due to no babysitter or anybody to watch her while he was in class.
My professor NATHAN ALEXANDER said “I’ll hold her so you can take good notes!” #HBCU #morehouse #Respect pic.twitter.com/oogIqetseS

— TheOriginal™ (@Original_Vaughn) March 1, 2019

Vaughn explained on Facebook that Prof Alexander spent the class holding five-month-old Assata, and carried on doing so as he stayed afterwards to help those with questions about the lecture.

“It was beautiful,” Vaughn told HuffPost UK. “But it didn’t seem like a huge achievement or big act, just simply something that had to be done.

“Dr Alexander didn’t have to allow Assata to stay in the class, but he did. And I feel like that is a testament more to what a great person he is and how well he was raised.”

Hayer told CNN he was nervous to attend class that day. “Morehouse is an all-male college and [having] a baby strapped to me would make all eyes be on me,” he said. But it turned out he didn’t need to worry at all. Baby Assata was perfectly well behaved and, towards the end of the lesson, she drifted off to sleep.

Many people on social media were touched by the story, and some even shared their own videos and stories of teachers they’d been privileged to work with.

This made me cry! This seemingly small gesture speaks volumes about the kind of person you must be. 💗

— Grab em by the Subpoenas ⚖️ (@jolenta) March 2, 2019

Takes a village...❤️ also kudos to the student who didn’t want to miss class even tho they had no babysitter. I firmly believe you get out of an education what you put in. This student wants to learn. This prof loves to teach. A winning killer combo! 👏👍

— Theresa Baxter (@turissabackstar) March 2, 2019

one of my very favorite professors at UC pic.twitter.com/NtabzsA03c

— Brittney Hahn (@brittneyhahn_) March 2, 2019

Yes! Teachers do that for their Ss. Memories from t/ summer in t/ Dominican Republic working w/ #TMA2018 (#TeacherMentorsAbroad) a colleague @sbruyns held the baby of one of the teachers at the conference so she could participate w/ her group. Gotta love leaders like this. pic.twitter.com/dv4U335TjC

— Cliff Kraeker (@kraekerc) March 2, 2019

Prof Alexander told local news site The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he’s “not an exception” among his peers: “We have teachers who assist students in similar ways every day.”

HumanKind is HuffPost’s celebration of kindness, featuring people who do incredible things for others or the planet – transforming lives through small but significant acts. Get involved by joining us on Facebook or telling us about the people who you think deserve recognition for their kind works. You can nominate them here or share your personal story by emailing natasha.hinde@huffpost.com.

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