Last month, a video from 2020 went viral of Aqeel Dix, Ph.D., a health sciences professor at the HBCU, Lincoln University, in Pennsylvania, holding a student’s baby while he lectured.
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The professor posted the video, which shows him holding a student’s baby while facing the class and lecturing.
He captioned the post, “It Takes A Village… When my students need me, I’m there. A student came to me and said, Dr.Dix. I’m going to miss class. My reply was why…She then says I don’t have a babysitter. I said, yes, you do. Bring him to class. I’ll take care of him. I always say we, as educators are more than our title. I will never have a student miss class because they have no one to keep their kids. I will hold Dr.Dix daycare in the back of my class before I allow them to miss class. Days like this makes me fall in love with what I do. #melanineducatedkings #youngblackeducators #professorlife #blackeducatorsrock #BERFeature.”
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Dix told Yahoo Life that he had no knowledge of being recorded during the lecture and that he helped the student because it was the right thing to do, adding that he often helps all his parent-students out with special accommodations.
“I go above and beyond for all of them,” he said. “I[‘ve] bought groceries, I picked [a student] up when he was stranded on the side of the road with a flat tire. That’s just who I am. And so I understand the plight of single parents … they tackle school and work. It’s a lot to carry. It’s hard for someone who does not have children to take care of to go to school and be successful.”
Dix told the outlet that he hopes not to achieve fame through his acts of kindness but recognition for the importance of teachers’ role in the lives of millions.
“I don’t do things for clout or for accolades,” he noted. “This is who I am. But what I do hope people who saw this video understand is that teachers wear more than one hat. We have more than one role. And I want people to understand that teaching [is] one of the least respected professions, but we’re the most crucial. If there’s no teacher, you’ll have no doctor, no nurse, no lawyer.”
