No fluke – American U. Prof says has right to nurse child in front of class
Students who complain create hostile work environment, she says
College journalists are always looking for the big story. So when Adrienne Pine, a militant medical anthropologist at the American University in Washington, D.C. opted to nurse her child in front of class, the buzz around campus caught the attention of the student newspaper (the Eagle).
An article by Scott Jaschik of Inside Higher Education is an intriguing example of what happens when young journalists, a feminist instructor, and social media collide:
Adrienne Pine didn’t want student journalists at American University to write an article about how she had breast-fed her sick infant on the first day of classes this semester. And when she became concerned that The Eagle, the newspaper there, was going to proceed, the assistant professor of anthropology decided she should be the one to tell the story.
In e-mail messages and personal discussions with Pine, the student journalists at The Eagle told Pine that “[r]umors about the incident are already spreading through the student body,” and that there was an obligation to tell readers what happened. In her essay, Pine objected to calling breast-feeding an “incident” and said that publicizing her action would create a hostile workplace for her.
Shocked at how a class full of young students might be distracted from their lessons by a breast-feeding professor, Pine proceeded to write about the challenges of campus lactation. Pine notes that her on-line article has been well received. However, not all students are content with having the classroom converted to a nursery:
When students filled out their course evaluations, Wolf-Wendel said that several students commented on her “bravery” for breast-feeding in class, but several also expressed their discomfort.
The Eagle’s editor has not decided if he will proceed with the story:
Zach C. Cohen, editor in chief of The Eagle, said that the newspaper started looking into the first day of Pine’s course after hearing about the breast-feeding from students who were there. American’s campus is small enough, he said, that many people have been talking about the class. He said no decision has been made on whether the newspaper will run an article. “We’re collecting all of the facts, and we’ll make a decision once we have all the facts,” he said.
Hopefully, Cohen’s team will report on Pine’s actions. Students and parents, who pay tuition for focused instruction in distraction-free environments, have the right to be fully informed.
Unusually public discussion of breast-feeding while teaching (Inside Higher Ed | News)
Comments
Note how she uses a common leftist idea in her attempt to quash criticism. If the student newspaper writes about the event, it creates a “hostile environment.” In other words, saying something about her (something that is true ) that she doesn’t like should be barred because it creates a hostile environment. Oh, the left is for free speech, as long as it’s not “hate speech” or causes someone to be offended.
Notice how frequently when leftists are criticized their response is that the other side is trying to stifle their voices. No one is shutting them up, someone is saying what they don’t like, and by the left this is an attempt to quash dissent. Revelatory, isn’t it?
did she share with everyone?
wheres our fair share?
there thats my progressiveness crap for the day.
The “did you bring enough gum for everyone” standard?
Ha! Just like Mr. Hand in Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
“Topless math professor teaches about binary number systems.”
Maybe that would get some English and Journalism majors interested enough in math that they could switch majors, graduate and move out of their parents home.
I don’t understand the problem here. If she’s comfortable bearing her breast for a baby why should it offend someone else?
We make far too big a deal of mammary glands.
What other glands should she be parading in class?
And if she’s comfortable teaching fully nude, why should that offend? If not about what she’s comfortable doing, it’s about the students learning comfortably.
I’m also a medical anthropologist and a psychiatrist. In our (U.S.) culture, it is not normative for a woman to breast feed her baby publicly. So, o.k., a woman may have to do that occasionally just out of necessity. I accept that. But for a woman to breast feed her baby when she is, front and center, teaching a course, is not just NOT a necessity (she could have pumped extra milk for her husband or S.O. to feed the infant), she is making a political statement and engaging in advocacy.
The students at American University are paying between $1250 and $1350 PER CREDIT HOUR (I looked it up) for their classes. Does anyone want to maintain that Professor Pine could devote her full time to teaching her students who are paying top dollar (or someone is) to have her teach them when, at the same time, she is breast feeding?
The students should be outraged!
I was once a nursing mother. Also I was once a college professor. Never tried to combine them. Nursing a child while trying to teach a class seems to me to be abuse of the child. The mother should be paying attention to the child while she is nursing.
Sounds normal for The American University staff though. I suspect the quiet pressure on The Eagle to drop the article is very high.
What she was doing had little to do with infant nutrition and everything to do with politics. When she decided to make a political statement, she opened herself up to political criticism. As soon as she saw the political ramifications, she tried to remove the act from the political and back to infant nutrition.
Sorry. Not going to work.
My wife and I have our first daughter at six months old. My wife has been avoiding formula like the plague…not because it’s inherently bad, but because it just doesn’t convey the same benefits. So this does mean occasionally that there’s public need, or perhaps at a friend’s house.
But then, that’s what the unfancy cover is for. Around her neck, down to her waist. Hides EVERYTHING. Which…this prof could totally have done. It’s not like they’re a well-hidden product or anything.
All of this just means that she pulled it off to get a rise out of the class. Mission accomplished, I’d say. It’s the police entrapment of academia.
[…] The media manipulations also impact student newspapers, as I discuss in College Insurrection. A professor who decided to be the talk of campus by nursing her infant in front of class was slated to be the focal point of a student newspaper report. She used all the classic liberal whines to try and get them to NOT run the story, including the claim of a “hostile work environment”. The story is here: No fluke – American U. Prof says has right to nurse child in front of class […]
She must be quite a multitasker.