Mother's Day Memories

As many of you already know, this year our tenth graders participated in an interview project called Mother’s Day 2020 Memories. While the students initially balked, asking why they needed to interview the same person they had been quarantined with since the pandemic forced them home two months earlier, what emerged were some very interesting and heartfelt perspectives from the moms (and a sister) who had suddenly and unexpectedly been reunited with their children since Covid-19 struck.

From their homes in Canada to New Jersey, and all the way to Brazil, mothers with diverse backgrounds and occupations talk, laugh, and cry with their sons about their happy memories from the past, their frustrations and concerns now, their hopes for the future, their ubiquitous love for their children and the gratitude they now find in unexpected places.

Some of the interviews went so well that I acted upon my instincts as a former journalist and sent them to Vermont Public Radio senior reporter Nina Keck, who agreed and persuaded the station to use two of them for a story on VPR’s The Frequency. It should be available on the vpr.org site tomorrow at 7:30 am, so please take a look. Skip ahead to 6:30 to hear the interviews featured on the Frequency.

The tenth graders have compiled all of their interviews on a Google Site that they created for their final project. Please check it out.

To all the moms and family members who participated, thank you again. It’s been a great experience for the students and it was fascinating for me to learn so much more about the people behind the young men and women I am fortunate enough to work with every day.