CURRENT EVENTS

Lesson of the Day: ‘America’s Mothers Are in Crisis’

A New York Times series examines the effect of the pandemic on working mothers in America. In this lesson, students will explore the crisis facing women and then create their own portraits of mothers during the pandemic.

By Jeremy Engle

Feb. 12, 2021

Lesson Overview

Featured Article: “America’s Mothers Are in Crisis” by Jessica Grose

In the introduction to a series on how America’s working mothers are navigating the coronavirus pandemic, Jessica Grose writes:

The pandemic has touched every group of Americans, and millions are suffering, hungry and grieving. But many mothers in particular get no space or time to recover.

The impact is not just about mothers’ fate as workers, though the economic fallout of these pandemic years might have lifelong consequences. The pandemic is also a mental health crisis for mothers that fervently needs to be addressed, or at the very least acknowledged.

To address this complex and pressing crisis, The New York Times created a multimedia report that lays out exactly what mothers are facing and what needs to be done to support them. The project’s interactive design is supported by playful illustrations, glaring statistics and a special kind of audio feature: Times editors set up a hotline for mothers to call in and scream it out.

In this lesson, you will explore the unprecedented crisis facing women and mothers — the burdens, frustrations, stresses and daily realities — as well as possible solutions and methods of support. In a Going Further activity, we invite you to do your own reporting to create a portrait of mothers in your community living through the pandemic.

Warm Up

The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted all of our lives — young and old alike. How are your parents and guardians coping with the crisis?

Take a few moments to reflect on the past year from your parents’ point of view: How have their work and home lives shifted? How have their parenting roles and responsibilities changed? Are they running impromptu home schools, supervising remote schooling or caring for sick, isolated or aging relatives? What new challenges have emerged? How has the last year affected their mental, physical and emotional health?

Next, brainstorm a list of words, images and phrases to describe your parents’ experience during the Covid crisis: Stressed. Stretched. Overwhelmed. Persevering. Heroic. The weight of the world on their shoulders.

Then if you can stand in your parents’ shoes for a moment, what do you imagine they would say if they were asked by The Times to capture their experience of parenting during this moment in one sentence?

Afterward, if you feel comfortable, share your writing with a partner. Then reflect together: What words, ideas and themes do you see in common? Did this activity help you see your parents in a different light?

Questions for Writing and Discussion

Scroll through the overview of the series. Then answer questions 1-3:

1. Analyze a quote: For the series, The Times created the “Primal Scream Line,” and readers were invited to call in and leave any kind of message, even if it was just to yell — whatever helped them to vent. Scroll through the entire article and listen to the dozen or so messages left by mothers. (Be sure to click “unmute” to hear the audio.)

Then respond to the following prompts:

• What do you notice? What kinds of words, phrases and images do the mothers use to express their experience during Covid? What feelings and emotions come through?

• What do you wonder? What questions do you have about being a working mom during the pandemic?

• Which quote stands out to you most and why?

• What portrait of mothers during the pandemic emerges? Write a catchy headline that captures the main idea of the collection of audio quotes.

Next, compare the messages left by mothers on the Primal Scream Line with your thoughts and writing from the warm up exercise. What is similar and what is different?

2. Analyze a statistic: Scroll through the article again and look at the statistics interspersed throughout, like “4,637,000: The number of payroll jobs lost by women in the U.S. since the pandemic began.” Choose one stat that stands out to you, and explain both its significance and why you chose it. (Please note that the statistics for each section rotate, so make sure to scroll through and watch them all.)

3. Analyze a photo: Look through the photos featured in the article and select one photo that strikes you. Then answer these questions:

• What is going on in this picture?

• What do you see that makes you say that?

• What more can you find?

• What does the image make you think or feel? What does it illustrate about the crisis facing working mothers?

Now read the introductory article and answer questions 4-8:

4. The article begins with the story of a group of mothers who had gathered in a park in New Jersey this past September. What does the story illustrate about mothers during the pandemic? Why is screaming and the need to scream so prevalent in this multimedia report?

5. Ms. Grose writes that “the pandemic is also a mental health crisis for mothers that fervently needs to be addressed.” What is the connection for mothers between mental health and the pandemic? Give three examples from the article.

6. Betsey Stevenson, an economist at the University of Michigan, says that “Covid took a crowbar into gender gaps and pried them open.” What are some possible long-term effects of the pandemic on mothers and their children?

7. Media Literacy. Why do you think The Times created this project as an interactive series rather than a traditional news report? Do you think it is effective? Why or why not? Why was it important for the series’ writers and producers to let mothers know they are being listened to?

8. What did you learn from these two articles? What was most memorable, striking, surprising or affecting? Does the series change your perspective on what your parents have been going through during the pandemic? What questions do you still have about parenting and mothering during this health crisis?

Going Further

Option 1: Read about the lives of three mothers.

In “Three American Mothers, On the Brink,” another piece in the series, Jessica Bennett profiles three women in three different parts of the country.

Read this excerpt that details the pandemic routine of one of those mothers, Dekeda Brown, 41, who lives in Olney, Md., and is married with two daughters, 11 and 15:

Dekeda was sitting at her dining room table — her “war room,” as she calls it — with two laptops open, typing like a court stenographer. In her left ear, she was listening in on a conference call for work; in her right was the voice of her 15-year-old daughter’s special education teacher, giving a math lesson. Leilani, who has severe nonvocal autism and sensory processing disorder — meaning, she cannot speak words, needs help with most daily tasks and finds everyday stimuli excruciating — communicates with the teacher by touch-screen.

It was late afternoon, and Dekeda’s husband, Derrick, 46, had just walked in the door from work. He is a building engineer at a medical office. He waved hello, called up the stairs to London, 11, and made his usual beeline to the fridge.

Dekeda opened her mouth to remind him to wash his hands, but he began motioning toward the computer. “The teacher called on Leilani!” he said.

Quickly, Dekeda unmuted the computer and apologized, then helped her daughter type her answer into the screen. Moments later, she heard a pause in her other ear. It was from her boss. “What do you think, Dekeda?”

“This went on for an hour,” Dekeda said, of the toggling back and forth, trying not to mix up the mute buttons, apologizing to each party. “At the end, I retreated to my bedroom and cried.”

How does this in-depth profile of Dekeda’s life add to your understanding, or change your perspective gained from the rest of the series? Which lines, moments or quotes stand out, are most affecting or memorable? What connections can you make between Dekeda’s current life and the issues working mothers are facing around the country?

If you have time, you can read the entire article before responding to the questions above about any of the women profiled.

Option 2: Explore possible solutions.

In “Working Moms Are Struggling. Here’s What Would Help.,” another piece in the series, Claire Cain Miller writes that mothers need support now more than ever — in the form of government policies, employer assistance or partners who share in more of the work. Here are a few excerpts:

How employers could help

Offer part-time schedules or unpaid leaves. In the United States, it’s unusual for white-collar employers to offer part-time schedules — and they pay disproportionately less when they do. But European countries with laws requiring that workers be able to go part time have been better able to keep women in the work force.

Pay for child care. At this point in the pandemic, mothers don’t just need time; they need money. They could use it in the way that best suits their family — for child care, tutoring or to support themselves during an unpaid leave. But few companies have paid for child care.

How government could help

The United States is the only rich country without paid family leave, and one of few without subsidized child care. If it had those policies in place pre-pandemic, parents’ lives during lockdown would have been much easier.

In Sweden, for example, new parents get 16 months of paid leave to use until their child is 8, so some have been drawing on it during the pandemic. Parents also have four months of paid leave to take care of sick children up to age 12, which the government allowed people to use when schools were closed during the pandemic. In many European countries, child care centers are publicly funded, so there was no doubt they would still be available when it was safe to reopen.

How individuals could help

Men, do your part. While mothers and fathers have both increased the amount of time they spend on child care during the pandemic, the share they each do hasn’t changed all that much. There are concrete ways men could do more: Work in the common area of the home and give the separate home office, if you have one, to the woman. Take over an entire child-related task, like coordinating pediatric care, communicating with the school or planning a virtual birthday party. Get the children out of the house.

Ms. Goldstein’s advice for women: “Whatever the biggest gendered problem is in your life, make it a man’s problem. When men start to feel these disruptions and stressors the same way women do, that’s when we’ll start seeing real systemic change for the better.”

Read the entire article, then tell us what you think: What is your opinion of these solutions? Which do you think are most pressing or practical? What other ideas do you have to address the current crisis?

For more ideas and solutions, you can read “Let’s Hear It for Sabbaticals, Subsidies and Nanny Reimbursement,” which provides eight examples of governments and companies around the world that have come up with effective ways to support working parents.

Option 3: Interview a mother in your life.

Imagine you have been hired to create a new article for this series. Who would you profile and why? What questions would you ask? How can you help peers and the public understand and appreciate the lives, hardships and resiliency of mothers navigating the daily grind during the pandemic?

Using text, audio, photos and/or video, tell the story of a mother navigating the coronavirus pandemic. You can choose to spotlight your own mother, someone in your extended family or another mother in your school or community. Remember to ask permission if you plan to record or share the person’s name publicly or with your class.

First, brainstorm in advance a list of questions you could ask in order to learn about their experiences, like: What was your life like before the pandemic? What is your daily life like now? What are the particular challenges of being a mom at this time? How has the pandemic affected your mental, physical and emotional health? What would you like others to know about being a mom during the pandemic? How could others — employers, the government and fathers — help mothers during this crisis?

During your interview, be sure to record your conversation or take good notes. Additionally, remember to build trust with your interviewee, even if you already know her, and save the more personal or challenging questions for the end. (For more interviewing tips, watch the five-minute video “Four Tips for an Effective Interview” by StoryCorps or read “Interview Tips Sheet” by What Kids Can Do.)

After your interview, think about how best to showcase what you learned, whether through a short video, an article for your school paper, a podcast or a photo essay.

If you are working as part of a class doing this as a project, you might bring your stories together when everyone is done and publish them somehow, whether on a school website or via social media, or by printing them and hanging them in a public place.

Food for thought- Mother’s juggle so much- it is okay to give yourself a pass every now and then!

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/12/learning/lesson-of-the-day-americas-mothers-are-in-crisis.html