Day: July 14, 2016

On
Kevin Wondrash, Catholic Herald Staff

Fort Atkinson teacher retires after 42 years

pat bries retires
Pat Bries, fifth grade teacher at St. Joseph School in Fort Atkinson, hands out Turkish Delights to some of her students. Bries is retiring after 42 years at the school. (Catholic Herald photo/Kevin Wondrash)

FORT ATKINSON — As Pat Bries completed her fourth, and final, decade teaching fifth graders — bringing the total to more than 600 — her classroom displayed her career, both the past and the present.

A Smartboard has long replaced the chalkboard, but signs with the cursive alphabet still adorned the classroom.

Bries said the handwriting style is still needed in the real world, “I don’t think it’s on the way out yet.”

Her desk displayed small school pictures of every student she taught since the school started having the photos taken more than 20 years ago, while her current students listened to her read to them from an eBook reader.

The book was Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck, a book she has read to all of her classes toward the end of the school year.

Bries reads it because one of the book’s main characters has a “strong sense of right and wrong” and her soon-to-be-departing fifth graders are “going into middle school now and they realize that life is not all black and white — there are a lot of shades of gray.”

Despite the school year and a teaching career of 42 years coming to an end, it was just a normal day in Pat Bries’ classroom located at the end of the hallway at St. Joseph School in Fort Atkinson.

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On
Julianne Nornberg

Maintaining a spiritual life during summer

Everyday Faith column by Julianne Nornberg

I sat down in the midst of my children today and did Morning Prayer aloud.

Never mind that it was already 10:30 a.m. Never mind that the two little ones were giggling and grabbing markers from each other at the kitchen table.

Never mind that the older ones still needed to empty the dishwasher and take out the recycling and I still needed to start the laundry.

Never mind that we needed to pack a lunch for our day of running errands and playing at the park.

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On
Jean Mueller

Navigating a complicated health system

Q I am trying to be an advocate for my mother who has some health issues and I feel as though we are getting lost in this complicated health care system.

I have permission to be with her during the frequent visits to the numerous specialists she must see. It seems when I bring up a concern, all we get is another series of tests, a trial for a different medication, or a referral to yet another specialist.

My mother does not want to keep seeing new physicians and repeating the same information all over again. She does not understand all of this “fussing” and would just like to be comfortable.

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On
Kim Wadas, Wisconsin Catholic Conference

Surge in voter turnout needs to continue

On Independence Day, I saw many in the Badger State wearing red, white, and blue. Like some of you, I “liked” statements on social media asserting national pride and joined in singing patriotic songs at Mass.

These celebrations affirm our democracy and recognize those who have protected our founding freedoms.

Importance of elections

However after reviewing past election results, I was reminded that everyone enjoys the celebration, but many people don’t like the planning. Elections are how we as citizens plan our government.

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On
Tony Magliano

‘I was a stranger and you welcomed me’

Over 37 years-ago when Annunciation House — a sanctuary and home of hospitality that has served over 100,000 refugees, homeless poor, and undocumented workers — was started in El Paso, Texas, founding director Ruben Garcia and a few friends wanted to place themselves among the poor, to see where the poor would lead them. He said, “They took us to the undocumented — the most vulnerable.”

Garcia explained to me that since the undocumented have no legal status in the United States, they are forced to take undesirable, poorly paid jobs, which offer no benefits. Unlike poor U.S. citizens, undocumented workers and their families cannot receive food stamps, Medicaid, or housing assistance. They are at the lowest rung of American life.

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On
Bishop Robert Barron

Aquinas and the art of public debate

There is, in many quarters, increasing concern about the hyper-charged political correctness that has gripped our campuses and other forums of public conversation.

Even great works of literature and philosophy — from Huckleberry Finn and Heart of Darkness to, believe it or not, Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason — are now regularly accompanied by “trigger warnings” that alert prospective readers to the racism, sexism, homophobia, or classism contained therein.

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On
Chris Lee

Aquinas and the art of public debate

There is, in many quarters, increasing concern about the hyper-charged political correctness that has gripped our campuses and other forums of public conversation.

Even great works of literature and philosophy — from Huckleberry Finn and Heart of Darkness to, believe it or not, Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason — are now regularly accompanied by “trigger warnings” that alert prospective readers to the racism, sexism, homophobia, or classism contained therein.

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On
Larry Wipperfurth

Don’t take guns away from law-abiding citizens

To the editor:

After reading Mary Uhler’s editorial in the June 30 issue of The Catholic Herald, I felt a need to respond. The term “common sense gun control” has been a familiar headline in the news lately, but when you read further (as in Mary Uhler’s editorial), it’s just another attack of the Second Amendment.

In one paragraph, Mary says, “I’m not calling for a ban on gun ownership,” while just one paragraph later the heading reads, “Do civilians really need assault weapons?” She goes on to quote a Dallas area bishop who calls for a ban on all semi-automatic rifles. Just think if this logic was used against the First Amendment — kind of scary, right?

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