Mary Grogan, third grade teacher at St. Alphonsus School, Greendale, asked her students to write an essay, “Why my Catholic education is important to me.” Following are some of the responses, along with an essay on the same topic that Grogan wrote.

My Catholic school is named St. Alphonsus and its really great for three reasons. St. Als is great because you have good teachers, good students and good friends. You get to pray all day and the church decorations are always very beautiful. The priests are so nice. I think I want to be a nun. All Catholic schools are great.  – Tabitha Wagner

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I have nine reasons you should go to St. Alphonsus School. Because we learn cursive and read the Bible and learn about saints and unity, empathy, justice and patience and we have a birthday party for Jesus and read about God and (the) priest comes up to your classroom and you go to Mass every Wednesday! The last reason is you can pray whenever.

Patience means to wait for something. Justice means to do something nice. Unity means to work together! Empathy means you can understand someone else’s feelings. I am glad my parents send me to a Catholic school! – Brayden Alivio

My Catholic school’s name is St. Alphonsus. It is an awesome school. My three favorite things about my school are: Girl Scouts, going to Mass and choir. In Girl Scouts we learn about being a sister to every Girl Scout. We also do fun experiments! For example, we made oobleck and sang Christmas carols to nuns at a nursing home.

My second thing is Mass. At Mass, we get Communion. There is a children’s liturgy at Sunday Mass. They play instruments that we get to play, too! Choir is fun because we sing at Sunday Masses. There is a Christmas concert every year! Adults and youth choir sing. Some songs the adult choir sings and some songs the youth choir sings. Those are only some of my favorite things about my Catholic school. There are many more. – Kelsey Ryan[su_pullquote align=”right”]See related essay by teacher, Mary Grogan.[/su_pullquote]

My Catholic school is named St. Alphonsus. I’m going to tell you how great it is. There are so many reasons to go to a Catholic school but three are my favorite. My first reason is you get to learn about Jesus and God. When you learn about Jesus and God, you feel good and not bad. My second reason to go to a Catholic school is you get to receive Jesus in the Eucharist. You feel good and happy inside.

My third reason is you can pray all day. If you can pray all day where there is something bothering you, you can pray. That is why you should go to a Catholic school. – Lizzie Paz

My Catholic school’s name is St. Alphonsus. I like a lot of things but I am just going to write three things. I like that we get to learn cursive. I like writing. The next thing I like is we get to pray all day I like to pray! The last thing is taking the bread and wine. I like it because Jesus comes into your soul and then I feel great! I am happy I went to Catholic schools! -Samuel Olson

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I go to a Catholic school. The name of my Catholic school is St. Alphonsus. My Catholic school is great for three reasons. The Fun Run Fundraiser, cursive handwriting and Boy Scouts.

We had a Fun Run Fundraiser in September. In the Fun Run, we got to run 35 laps around the gym. We would have done it outside, but it was raining. In our school, we get to learn cursive. We need to learn cursive to practice our signature.

The Boy Scouts in our Troop are very brave. Last year (2016) we went to Ross Lodge on a camping trip. I learned how to use a pocket knife safely there and my dad caught a very rare bird attracted to light called “Snipe.”

My Catholic school is the best. I am so happy my parents sent me here. – Alejandro Muño

My Catholic school is named St. Alphonsus and it’s fun for three reasons. Reason number one: You can talk about God as much as you want.

Reason number two: The buddy program is cool. The choir program is awesome. I like my Catholic school. – Teagan Barnes

My Catholic school is named St. Alphonsus and it’s really great for three reasons. St. Al’s is great because there are not a lot of bullies and we get to learn about Jesus and God.

My first reason for liking my Catholic school is there are not a lot of bullies. I know that because I’ve never seen anyone get hurt or called mean names before.

My second reason is we get to learn cursive. Some schools are not teaching cursive because they think a computer is faster, but I am happy that I get to write in cursive!

And my last reason is that we get to learn about Jesus and God. At a public school, you can’t talk about Jesus and God.

I am very happy to be in a Catholic school. – Elena Sommer

I go to a good Catholic school. It’s called St. Alphonsus. In my school, there are great friends and teachers.

There’s a church and we get to play games while we learn. The people you make friends with last 11 years, because St. Alphonsus goes from 3K to eighth grade.

Every Wednesday we go to Mass. We also have Mass on Sunday. Maybe you should go to Mass on Sunday. It’s at 9 to 10 a.m. and when we learn, we play games and listen to songs. There are more things about St. Alphonsus like Girl/Boy Scouts, cursive, after school programs and great fundraisers.

This is my Catholic school and I’m very happy to be here. – Keeley Gertz