Why that photo of a professor holding a baby has gone completely viral
This week, one professor made major, major headlines. 67-year-old Sydney Engelberg, an organizational behavior professor at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, noticed that one of his students brought her baby to class. The baby started crying, and his student attempted to leave the class to quiet the child down. Instead of letting her leave class, Professor Engelberg did something completely unexpected and amazing. He took the child from his student, calmed it down, and continued teaching the lesson. While cradling the baby. Um, did we mention how amazing that is? It’s amazing.
A student in class took a photo for proof and posted it on Facebook. It’s no wonder it’s made its way around the web —it’s tremendously touching. In it, you can see an impassioned instructor holding a tiny baby in blue footie PJs so his student could concentrate — like it’s no big deal.
The photo ended up on Imgur, where it’s gathered over 1 MILLION views. And Professor Engelberg’s family is surprised in the best way. “He’s gotten love letters,” Engelberg’s wife tells Yahoo Parenting. According to Yahoo, people on the Internet are celebrating the photo, honoring the professor and his decision to “stand by their students who are mothers, and do what it takes so that they can study while raising families.”
On Imgur, there are almost a thousand comments. Here are just a few:
Best of all, Engelberg doesn’t even see what the fuss is all about. His daughter told Buzzfeed News that the action was “so natural for him.” She says, “The way he sees the concept of getting education is not only learning the dry facts that you need to learn in class, but also learning values. And that’s the very important message that my dad wants to endow to the world.”
Besides how darling the photo is, it’s also so inspiring. It’s not just a photo of a teacher with a baby —it’s a photo of a teacher who believes it’s perfectly normal to help his student any way he can. And that’s so incredible.
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