Students learn new perspective from soldier stationed in Iraq

By KATIE LEFEBVRE, Globe staff reporter
Jan. 25, 2007

A parent from the Diocese of Sioux City that is currently stationed in Iraq visited his son's class early in the school year and is now communicating back and forth with the students.

Capt. John Newmann is the father of Jack Newmann, a kindergarten student at Holy Cross School-St. Michael Center in Sioux City. He visited the class in September at the time of Jack's birthday.

During his visit, Capt. Newmann told the class that the children in Iraq like to play soccer, but do not have a lot of equipment. The kindergarten class sent a red, white and blue soccer ball back with Capt. Newman to give to a kindergarten class in Iraq. Each of the students "autographed" the soccer ball.

"I liked writing names on the soccerball and sending it because there are a lot of children there," said Jacob Gilreath.

The students learned a lot from Capt. Newmann's visit. They learned about what he is doing in Iraq and what life is like for the people there.

Joseph Bass learned that "some soldiers don't go to be in a war and some do."

"The kids asked questions," said Gail Poland, kindergarten teacher at Holy Cross-St. Michael Center. "One question they asked was 'has he shot anybody?'"

Capt. Newman told them that he has never had to use a weapon, except for practice, which he is very proud of, Poland pointed out. He also told them that there are a lot of people that do not use their weapons.

"When we were little we thought they just fighted, but they really help," said Lauren Sobaski, a kindergartener.

The students learned that the classrooms in Iraq are small. According to Poland, Capt. Newman goes to schools and helps fix them in various ways such as providing lighting as well as fresh water and air conditioning for classrooms.

"He does a lot of building of schools for the kids," said Poland.

Dominic Vaul said that he learned that the classrooms in Iraq do not have much lighting "so Mr. Newman goes and fixes their lights sometimes."

Capt. Newman has made many friends in Iraq and he enjoys the children there very much, mentioned Poland.

Since Capt. Newman's visit, the class has been sending him mail. They sent him a card for Halloween, Thanksgiving and New Year's. For Christmas the class sent him a package with pencils for the kindergarten class in Iraq and a "gingerbread cookie" made out of paper from each student.

"He responded with an e-mail each time," said Poland. "The one from Halloween said that he talked to the principal at a school and the average class size is 75 students per class. He was sharing those things with the kids."

At Thanksgiving, Capt. Newman responded with an e-mail telling the students about his Thanksgiving dinner and asked about what they ate.

"At Christmas, he said thank you for the gingerbread cookies. He wrote to remember the true meaning of Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus," said Poland.

Most recently they mailed a Valentine's Day card to him.

"We put little hearts in it for 'sending our hearts to you on Valentine's Day,'" said Poland.

Trevor Ritz likes communicating with Capt. Newmann because "when we send cards to him, he sends them back."

"We do this to make us proud and Mr. Newman happy," said Destini Schmit.

"It is very important to the students," said Poland. "It is important to Jack that we do this since his dad is over there. I think it helps relieve a lot of his anxiety to know that we are all being a part of his life. It is important for the students to know what is going on in the world. I think they are seeing it in a positive way as opposed to something totally negative."