Coronavirus homeschooling with 7 kids: how a news editor gets it done

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Female-founded startups lay off staff, farmworkers need as much support as grocery store employees during the coronavirus crisis, and a mom of seven shares what it’s like to run her own homeschool. Have a productive Monday.

– Schoolhouse rock. As virtual school picked up steam across the country last week, I thought of a former colleague of mine—Jennifer Radcliffe, an assistant city editor at the Houston Chronicle.

When I worked with her in 2016, Jennifer had five kids. Now, she has seven—a “half dozen daughters and one son,” as she calls them. A wry presence on Twitter, she’s been sharing the day-to-day frustrations of preparing her own dining-room schoolhouse, ages 2 to 13. (Her biggest gripe? The different websites and passwords to keep track of for every kid’s class.)

I asked Jennifer if she would tell me more about her experience with virtual learning, childcare, and work. Do teachers give assignments that are possible for her family to complete, or are schools mostly thinking about families with one or two kids when building virtual curricula? Where in the house is each student doing their work for the day?

She kindly took the time to answer some questions over email. (Email, because, “There’s just not enough quiet spaces for all the things that need to be done in the same window of the day.”)

The students—Atticus, Auden, Zadie, Daisy, Thea, Veda, and Cora—are now on their second week of online classes, while Jennifer continues to head into the newsroom (with journalists considered essential workers) and her husband works from home. With virtual gymnastics lessons, kindergarten art projects, and a dining room table covered in laptops and schoolwork, everyone is adapting.

But the challenges specific to a family of nine during this time are all relative, Jennifer points out. “I feel bad sometimes for families with just one child right now because, while they have less to juggle, those kids can sometimes be a bit lonely,” she says.

“In reality, my everyday life was busy and somewhat unmanageable. And now I’ve traded prepping lunches, rushing to school and waiting in carpool lines for this new, hopefully temporary, reality of overseeing academics at home,” she says.

Read on for more about what it’s like to run a family classroom from home: Fortune

Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES

- Turning point. Could the coronavirus pandemic be as pivotal a turning point for gender roles as World War II? Some economists say yes, predicting that more fathers will become primary caregivers, especially in the many families where women work in health care. CNN

- Startup stumbles. Female-founded startups, like most businesses, are feeling the sting of the coronavirus crisis. ClassPass, founded by Payal Kadakia, laid off or furloughed more than half its employees. The Wing, led by CEO Audrey Gelman, laid off its entire spaces staff and laid off or furloughed about half its corporate staff. The co-working company says "95% of revenue disappeared overnight."

- Farmworkers on the front lines. We've heard a lot about grocery store workers putting themselves at risk during this crisis, but other workers throughout the food supply chain are also essential—and unprotected. Mónica Ramírez, founder of Justice for Migrant Women, and Meena Harris write about how we should support farmworkers right now. Fortune

- Streaming Monday. Quibi, the long-awaited short-form video service led by CEO Meg Whitman, launches today; Whitman and Jeffrey Katzenberg opted not to delay the launch because of the crisis. Chrissy Teigen's Chrissy's Court and Queen Latifah’s When the Streetlights Go On are among the 50 shows available to watch now. New York Times

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

- Education at risk. In the just-signed coronavirus relief package is a provision that would allow Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to temporarily waive the federal requirement that schools provide support allowing students with special needs to receive an equal education. Parents are worried: New York Times

- Those we've lost. A note for some of those who the coronavirus has taken from us so far: Lorena Borjas, the mother of a trans Latinx community. April Dunn, a 33-year-old disability rights activist. Hilda Churchill, a 108-year-old British woman—the oldest known victim of the disease in the U.K.—who survived the Spanish flu in 1918. AIDS researcher Gita Ramjee. Brooklyn high school principal Dez-Ann Romain. Fashion designer Jenny Polanco. Actress and author Patricia Bosworth. The New York Times is recording deaths from the coronavirus in a special section "Those We've Lost."

- First lady chat. As Sophie Grégoire Trudeau recovers from COVID-19, Melania Trump is checking in on her fellow first lady. Trump called Trudeau to wish her "good health" and to "convey the importance" of “strong economic ties” between the United States and Canada. Vanity Fair