Young people full of qualities we all can use

To the editor:

Quite timely now, with the Roman Catholic Church's World Youth Day and school right around the corner, is the topic of youths.

Having taught in the Nell Holcomb, Cape Girardeau and Jackson school districts, I can truly say the young people I've shared the past 10 years with are some of the brightest and most loving people alive. From them, I have learned such things as how to think creatively, laugh loudly and pray deeply. They have taught me patience, honesty, charity and hope. They have shown me what it means to live. And what I had to do for them was simple: just listen.

As a member of St. Mary's Cathedral and a teacher at Jackson High School, I encourage everyone -- parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, teachers, ministers, police officers, politicians -- to listen to the beauty that lives within our young people today. I urge everyone in Southeast Missouri to open their ears and hearts to young people as Pope John Paul II did this past week.

Let this year's school year be a time of learning for all of us.

TERRI FISHER-REED

Cape Girardeau