Write a research paper examining any connections you find between the article(s) on Sapiens and your ethnography.

Write a research paper examining any connections you find between the article(s) on Sapiens and your ethnography.For a final discussion you are invited to address one of the following topics with one original post and two replies. I need help with just the replies!!!! Option 1: Drawing upon one or two articles from the Sapiens Coronavirus Coverage Collection … Consider how health, illness, and care-giving are being shaped by the interplay of local and global forces, focusing on a particular setting by analyzing a specific cultural example, such as a particular community, at a particular location and/or at a particular point in time. Some questions you may consider: How are people in the Sapiens article(s) that you selected above (as insiders or outsiders to social structures of power and privilege) adapting to changes, negotiating daily hardships, and navigating the unequal impacts of the pandemic with their bodies, minds, and voices? What role does gender play, directly or indirectly? While the article may not explicitly address this, you can make observations about people featured in images and text: how do they meet or challenge expectations/norms or how they express/perform gender. How do people exert agency, find support, or wield power amidst chaotic, harsh, or unprecedented circumstances that are (for the most part) outside their control? Do you see any common threads between your ethnography and the Sapiens article(s)? Remember: Refer specifically to the assigned readings and video in your posts. Your initial post should be minimum 300 (max 500) words in length. Post at least two substantive responses to classmates (min 100 words). HERE ARE THE 2 THAT I NEED RESPONSES TO: 1. In the article The Nightmare of Pandemic era Elementary teachers in the US working during Covid, focuses on teachers K-12 and how they struggled prior to the pandemic but now their previous struggles have increased and there have been more added on. Some problems teachers are having to teach students at many different academic levels because learning gaps are expanding even further. Elementary school teachers report they need to address nine different academic levels when it used to be two to three academic levels (Wangsness Willemsen, L., & Cohen, E.L, 2022). To teach these different levels they need to have several different lesson plans, but they don’t have the support, time and resources to make this work. Teachers also report with the covid-19 pandemic they face the lack of help in the classroom with social workers, because the social workers are covering in classes, also the teachers’ classes are full of sick kids because the nurses’ offices are full, so kids are staying in classrooms. With the lack of resources for the classroom they have even used field trip funds to expand online math extension of curriculum for the students. Lack of resources was shown in the book Lissa when Layla was trying to find medical resources to care for all the sick people let alone the injured Egyptians during the revolution (Hamdy, S., Nye, C., Bao, S., & Brewer, C.,2017). Another issue teachers are dealing with more is the students’ behavioral issues such as self-control, social gaps and problems with cooperation and problem solving. The teachers report being up all night worrying about having an increased number of students with anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts at such a young age (Wangsness Willemsen, L., & Cohen, E.L, 2022). Many more students are facing food insecurities as well which can lead to more behavioral problems. In one study done among university students in New Mexico showed that basic need insecurities showed significant increase in anxiety, depression and poor health (Coakley, K.E., et al., 2022). The article specifically mentions one female fifth grade teacher named Rachel, the pictures in the article depict only female teachers which in general more teachers teaching elementary students are females. (Wangsness Willemsen, L., & Cohen, E.L, 2022). In a teacher program at midwestern university they are working on increasing recruitment, training and retention of make elementary school teachers (Sanatullova-Allison, E., 2010). The teachers also said they are optimistic that all of these issues will improve eventually. References Coakley, K.E., Cargas, S., Walsh-Dilley, M., & Mechler, H. (2022). Basic Needs Insecurities are Associated with Anxiety, Depression and Poor Health among University Students in the state of New Mexico. Journal of Community Health, 47(3), 454-463. Hamdy, S., Nye, C., Bao, S., & Brewer, C. (2017). Lissa: A story about medical Promise, friendship, and revolution. University of Toronto Press. Sanatullova-Allison, E. (2010). Experiences Unique to Males in a Predominately Female Elementary Teacher Education Program. International Journal of Diversity in Organizations, Communities and Nations, 10(4), 179-192. Wangsness Willemsen, L., & Cohen, E.L. (2022, August 24). The nightmare of pandemic-era teaching. Sapiens. 2. I have chosen to focus on an article from the Sapiens Coronavirus Coverage Collection. The article titled “Unmasked: Illustrating COVID-19 in Okoboji” was written by Emily Mendenhall and Aaron Gronstal. Okoboji is a tourist town in northwest Iowa. The collab between an anthropologist and a comic artist brings to life the cultural squabbles and social complexities of the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic (Mendenhall and Gronstal Unmasked: Illustrating covid-19 in Okoboji) Okoboji is a tourist town that is responsible for most of the town’s income. During the pandemic when everything shut down, the community had a very “Kumbaya” attitude towards the situation; very much let’s come together and fight this! The positivity didn’t take long to turn to frustration when the town was losing out on its income. There was no real strict masking or stay-at-home policy like other states implemented. When the town started to feel financially hurt, they quickly re-opened all their shops and restaurants, despite the warnings. Through the author’s in-depth research with the locals, there was an understanding that the town shouldn’t fear the virus because God was going to protect them. If they believed in God, somehow the virus wouldn’t touch them. Some even wished the virus would spread to increase immunity. The pandemic changed the dynamic of families as people were losing their jobs and children were no longer going to school. Many people faced the financial burdens that were placed on them as parents were forced to quit their jobs due to school being let out. This added to the stress and daily hardships that families weren’t prepared to face. “In July of 2020, Gov. Reynolds mandated public schools reopen, with students expected to be in-person for at least half their schooling. Without any policy guidance about public health regulations, local debates over masking became heated. One high school principal who posted to his personal Facebook page about why he chose to wear a mask in support of public health received a shocking amount of backlash from parents. Some parents threatened to withdraw their children and home-school them.” (Mendenhall and Gronstal Unmasked: Illustrating covid-19 in Okoboji) This pandemic shook the entire town as families continued to struggle with the burdens of no assistance for childcare and the many lives that were lost due to this horrific virus. The community felt as if they were invincible until many of their own slowly started to die. One by one the reasons for denial set in and even though people were dying, people within the community blamed it on other co-morbidities. The overall understanding amongst the community that “God” will protect them turned into “Well maybe there’s some truth behind this” and only the vulnerable should stay home. Thankfully over 80% of older residents became vaccinated as of May 18th, 2021. Hopefully, Okoboji will learn from their strengths and weaknesses if we’re ever faced with a life-altering pandemic like this again. Citations: Mendenhall, Emily, and Aaron Gronstal. “Unmasked: Illustrating Covid-19 in Okoboji.” SAPIENS, 9 Aug. 2022, www.sapiens.org/culture/covid-19-okoboji/.

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