Contents
=> Motherly Vocabulary
=> Word Origins: “Soccer Mom”
=> Mother’s Day Critical Thinking/Critical Guessing Warm-up Activity
=> Answers
=> ETs in Russia, the 100th Issue
=> In the Next Issues

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Motherly Vocabulary
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In the U.S. Mother’s Day falls on the second Sunday in May. And it has been so since the time of President Woodrow Wilson in 1914. But cultures have honored mothers and motherhood for eons. The Greeks and Romans had holidays for the mothers of the gods.

Here are some terms based on the mother idea. Learn about them by putting them into proper blanks in the sentences below.

A. soccer mom
B. motherly (adj.)
C. mother (adj.)
D. mother (n. somewhat vulgar)
E. mother (verb)
F. motherhood
G. mother-in-law

1. It’s thought that husbands do not always get along with their_______________.

2. Sometimes a sweet mom can show not only her own kids but other even strangers ____________ love.

3. Generally, a wife can’t stand it when her husband’s mom ____________ him too much. After all, he’s a grown man!

4. The little space ship was lost almost out of fuel and needed to return to the __________ ship for more.

5. Some studies suggest that woman who have experienced ____________ live longer than those who never have children.

6. She’s quite the ___________, organizing her kids’ days, chauffering them all over, and meeting with other mom’s at the local coffee shop to discuss decorations for a kid’s birthday party.

7. The last hill we climbed was a real ____________! It was much bigger than the others.

Answers below.

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Word Origins: “soccer mom”
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This is one of the newest Americanisms we’ve brought out in ETs in Russia. The soccer mom is a type that you often see in upper-middle-class America. A soccer mom drives her kid to soccer practice and to games: but that is just the origin of the term. She drives her kids (a soccer mom would never take public transport) in a big family car. She organizes everything for her kids; she wants the kids to be very involved. She is as much her children’s agent and manager as she is a mother. She drives them places, negotiates with adults on their behalf, and makes sure they are on time to numerous events. The soccer mom rarely has time for her own full-time job.

Wikepedia adds, “In general, the term ’soccer mom’ refers to the concept of American post-feminist motherhood as an amalgam of traditional values with modern feminism (1960s-1980s), though with modern conveniences such as the SUV and cell phone.”

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Mother’s Day Critical Thinking Activity
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The organization Save the Children has made an index about motherhood in various countries. That is, they have evaluated 110 countries and ranked them: which are best and worst for mothers?

Put students in groups. Tell them about the World Mother Index. Ask them to discuss and write down three things.

1. What criteria were used to judge what makes a country good for mothers and not so good? I’ll give you 2 examples of criteria to start. They took into account how many babies died within one year of being born. Makes sense, right? But some of the criteria were less salient: For instance, they also examined what percentage of women participated in government.

Your student groups will make list of the other things they believe were measured in the index.

2. The best three countries for mothers are actually found near each other geographically. The worst three are also very near each other. Give student groups time to discuss the issue; if they can’t name the top and bottom three countries they might be able to identify the regions. They should be more specific than Asia, Africa, Europe, or America.

(You may give the answers to questions 1 and 1 before asking the groups to discuss where these countries fit in…)

3. Russia, Britain, the U.S., Belarus, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Ukraine. Speculate and discuss.

All answers near the bottom.

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Answers to Motherly Vocabulary
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1. = G mother-in-laws
2. = B motherly (adj.)
3. = E mothers (verb) When you mother someone you fuss over them.
4. = C mother (adj.)
5. = F motherhood
6. = A soccer mom
7. = D mother (n. somewhat vulgar). Something big and difficult!

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Answers: Best and Worst Countries for Mothers
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1.
Criteria for the ranking system:
*lifetime risk of maternity mortality (i.e., were young mothers dying?)
*percent of women using modern contraception
*percent of births attended by skilled personnel
*percent of pregnant women with anemia
*adult femal literacy rate
*participation of women in national government
*infant mortality rate
*gross primary enrollment rate (number of kids in school?)
*percent of population with access to safe water
*percent of children under 5 suffering from malnutrition

2.
Top three countries for mothers: Denmark, Sweden, and Finland. So the area is Scandinavia. Scandinavian countries are good at taking care of their people, and especially of women. Note that these are not the richest countries, though they are well off.

Bottom three countries for mothers: Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali. These are the hot countries of inland western Africa. In these countries a mother is 28 times more likely to see her child die in its first year than in an average coutry. She is also 750 times more likely to die herself in childbirth.

3.
Other rankings (out of 110 countries)
10. US and UK (tied)
15. Belarus
20. Moldova (tied with Mexico)
25. Russia
26. Kazakhstan
28. Uzbekistan
29. Ukraine
30. Turkmenistan
68. Tajikistan

The complete index is available at as a .pdf file at www.savethechildren.org/mothers/report_2005/images/mothers_index_05.pdf

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ETs in Russia, 100th Issue and CD
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Describe in detail an ETs in Russia activity that you’ve exeriencedin class whethersuccessfulorunsuscessful and you can receive an audio cd Send to submissions to me.

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In the Next Issue
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#100: teacher and student descriptions of ETs in Russia activities in practice
#101: what have you done?

Copyright 2006 by Kevin McCaughey & I.M. Poosheesty