Humor will not be tolerated!! -Portia

FauxRaiden wrote:Argh, is there a way to multiquote on this board? I wanted to reply to a number of different quotes but don't know how to do it. Oh well.

Well, from the Full Reply page, the recent posts on the topic are listed underneath. Clicking on the quote button from those will copy/quote the whole reply into your current reply, and you can do it multiple times to include different comments. Did that make sense?

Also, you can just copy and paste sections and add the html to make it a quote if you're having issues, but that's more cumbersome.

Yeah that makes sense. My experience with other forums has had a multi-quote button on the message. I didn't think to look at it in the editing mode.

ahem. wrote:Well, from the Full Reply page, the recent posts on the topic are listed underneath. Clicking on the quote button from those will copy/quote the whole reply into your current reply, and you can do it multiple times to include different comments. Did that make sense?

Awesome. Learn something new every day.

I've had several classes where a classmate brought his/her baby to class regularly. [shrug] Didn't bother anyone in class. But I think that was largely due to the fact that we were in upper division classes. We all knew each other really well. The teachers all knew us really well. The subject matter was such that a random squawk from a baby wasn't disruptive. And the parents were really good about taking their babies out when they started to cry.

I could see how it could be really distracting in a math or science class where more focus is needed to learn a specific principle. I was in Ancient Near Eastern Studies classes where we were discussing readings or discussing our translations of the Bible. We often tangented and got distracted without babies present, so it wasn't a huge deal to have a baby there. [shrug]

The OP is in a similar situation as I was. She's in upper division classes, so she probably knows her classmates really well and her teachers probably know her very well. Also, she's in art classes. Not math or science. I don't think the same level of concentration and intense focus applies here.

I think it's important that we take into consideration the specific circumstances, classes, etc. So for Laser Jock's classes, perhaps it wouldn't be acceptable. In fact, it wouldn't, since it specifically says on the syllabi for his classes that you shouldn't. I've never seen a policy like that on any of my syllabi. I think it really comes down to the subject, department, teacher, classmates. And her question was based on the idea that she'd have cleared it with all of them first.

Laser Jock wrote:This may be digressing a bit from the current trend of this discussion, but several departments on campus apparently have policies that specifically ask students not to bring children to class at all (nothing to do with breastfeeding or not). At least, statements like the following are very common in the syllabi for math and physics classes:

Children in the Classroom

The serious study of the physical and mathematical sciences requires uninterrupted concentration and focus in the classroom. Having small children in class is often a distraction that degrades the educational experience for the entire class. Please make other arrangements for child care rather than bringing children to class with you. If there are extenuating circumstances, please talk with your instructor in advance.

I understand that in general, people here are strongly in favor of bringing children to class, but I really think there's a decent argument against bringing small children to class. And apparently so do quite a few professors at BYU.

(This particular statement was taken from here, but a phrase search will turn up other nearly identical examples as well.)

I'd be interested to see whether these policies are more common in departments which are heavily male, especially with regard to the number of faculty members (not just the number of students).

Dragon Lady wrote:I could see how it could be really distracting in a math or science class where more focus is needed to learn a specific principle.

Eh, I've had physics classes and literature classes and I don't buy this explanation. If anything, I'd say the reverse is true—in a literature class, you're more likely to be graded on the pet theories of your professor, so it's more important to pay attention to what they're saying in class, while in a math or physics class, you're more likely to be graded on some sort of experimental Truth, which is information that you can acquire from a variety of sources. (Of course, you could argue that you still don't need to bring a child to a physics or math class, because breastfeeding mother could miss that class without much trouble, but would do well not to miss a literature lecture.)

I think that policy for physics classes is a relatively recent invention. I've never had it in the syllabus for a class I took, but it was starting to show up for some of the classes that I TA-ed near the end of my BYU years. And I can remember a few guys in my upper-level physics classes bringing their babies with them sometimes, and the babies were never very distracting (they were usually asleep) and nobody ever complained. At least not that I heard about, and I probably would have heard about it.

I remember one girl brought her baby to my history of math class once. That's actually the only baby I remember seeing in a class, to be honest. The baby was adorable, and I wasted most of my time making faces at the baby instead of listening to the professor. Distraction? Yes. Saying I was distracted doesn't mean I'm a baby hater. Her little giggle was just to cute to not play with her! I'm glad they have that policy, in that regard. I don't think the particular class makes a big difference.

BTW, I tried to chime in to this post earlier but the internet hated me that day. The thing is, to me the worst part of being a mom is that you are going to miss things for a good year to five years. Lots of things. You will be out in the hall when you should be in church, you will be pacing the floor when all of your friends are eating lunch together, you will be sitting at home while your husband does something nursing babies can't go to. That's life. It sucks, but that's what you signed up for when you had a baby, whether you like it or not. While I am not going to personally kick people out from class when they have kids, I am grateful for those that consider other people enough to keep the babies out of class. It is distracting for others, and you won't get very much from the class anyway. Trust me, I've tried to bring the kids along and still make things work.

TheAnswerIs42 wrote: The thing is, to me the worst part of being a mom is that you are going to miss things for a good year to five years. Lots of things. You will be out in the hall when you should be in church, you will be pacing the floor when all of your friends are eating lunch together, you will be sitting at home while your husband does something nursing babies can't go to. That's life. It sucks, but that's what you signed up for when you had a baby, whether you like it or not. While I am not going to personally kick people out from class when they have kids, I am grateful for those that consider other people enough to keep the babies out of class. It is distracting for others, and you won't get very much from the class anyway. Trust me, I've tried to bring the kids along and still make things work.

Amen.

I think I'm a terrible mormon for not being too keen on having kids for this very reason. But comparatively speaking, you miss out on more than 5 years, at least if you think about being able to easily travel, date, etc.