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Previous Selections of ‘Reading for Enjoyment’ Class • The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini • Dearest Friend (Biography of Abigail Adams) – Lynne Withey • Bobos in Paradise – David Brooks • The Secret Life of Bees – Sue Monk Kidd • Marie Antoinette: The Journey – Antonia Fraser • Age of Innocence – Edith Wharton • The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie – Muriel Spark • Girl with a Pearl Earring – Tracy Chevalier • Dorothy Day: A Radical Devotion – Robert Coles • Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone – J.K. Rowling • The Professor and the Madman – Simon Winchester • Bingo Night at the Fire Hall – Barbara Holland • Body and Soul – Frank Conroy • Bachelor Brothers' Bed and Breakfast – Bill Richardson • An American Childhood – Annie Dillard • The Color of Water – James McBride • Stones for Ibarra – Harriet Doerr • Mama Makes Up Her Mind – Bailey White • Pigs in Heaven – Barbara Kingsolver • Dakota – Kathleen Norris • Truman – David McCullough • The Remains of the Day – Kazup Ishuguro • Ladies of Missalonghi – Colleen McCullough • Turtle Moon – Alice Hoffman • All Around the Town – Mary Higgins Clark • A Life on the Road – Charles Kuralt • The Russians – Hedrick Smith • A Thief of Time – Tony Hillerman • The Education of Little Tree – Forrest Carter • Great American Short Stories – Wallace & Mary Stegner, Eds. • Stillwatch – Mary Higgins Clark • Fair and Tender Ladies – Lee Smith • Simon's Night – Jon Hassler • A Green Journey – Jon Hassler • A Family Album: The American Family in Literature and History – Government Publication • The Pearl – John Steinbeck • The Little Prince – Antoine St. Exupery
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“We read slowly, but discuss loudly and long,” says Associate Rita Holmberg about her class, “Reading for Enjoyment,” one of several offerings for senior citizens at the Roberta Kuhn Center , located in a renovated barn at Mt. Carmel . Since 1982, thousands of Dubuque area seniors have benefited from a full menu of courses, including among others, Aquatics, Art Appreciation, Computer for Beginners, French, Spanish, Quilting and Women in Scripture. Named for a former president of the congregation, Roberta Kuhn, BVM (Alberto), the Center is an educational gathering place for men and women 55 years and older, with no restrictions on religious, ethnic or economic background. In this welcoming and stimulating environment, the congregational mission of educating for life continues. Here, older students remain young amidst the excitement of discovering new interests and talents. As BVM Faith Lautz, 18-year art teacher and 12-year director at the Center notes, her most satisfying experiences have been “seeing students discover that they could do things they hadn't anticipated,” and watching them “blossom” into genuine artists. As the Center begins a 24th year, its current newsletter reaffirms original goals:
Judging from the response of local seniors, these goals are truly alive. In each session, one beginning in September and the other in February, approximately 400 students enroll in 25-30 courses.
This happens without any advertising other than the enthusiasm shared by current students and overheard recently when a woman exclaimed to her companion, “I just received the schedule of classes for the Roberta Kuhn Center . Do you want to go with me?” Regular students at the Center know that they need to enroll early, since some courses have number limits and occasionally have to be closed. Current director of the Center Kathryn (Kitty) Lawlor, BVM (John Laurian) points out, for example, that each aquatics class has only ten students and there is “a long waiting list” for admission; in art, quilting and other classes, the maximum enrollment is also reached quickly. All courses are offered free of charge except for those, like art and literature, in which materials are required, and aquatics, for which a small fee helps to maintain the pool. From the beginning, as Faith points outs, the Center was planned “as a thank you to the people of Dubuque, not as a money-making venture”; it was also conceived initially as a means of sharing the rich teaching experience of retired sisters at Mt. Carmel who have since been joined by others as teaching colleagues. Rita Holmberg, for instance, has offered her reading course for 18 years and usually attracts 20-25 per class. Their book list is both extensive and enticing and this fall will include The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. The white city is Chicago with its impressive white buildings erected for the Columbian Exposition in 1892, and the devil is an “educated, refined doctor who is a serial killer.” Who wouldn't be interested? Books for the course include both fiction and non-fiction, especially biography. While Rita sometimes suggests books, more often the choices come from the students. Someone's daughter in California , for example, says “Mother, you just have to read this book,” and it finds its way into the course. Many of the students in this class, as in other classes, are longtime members of the group who develop a strong bond with each other. Regretting the fact last spring that they wouldn't be seeing each other during the summer, students “had an ice cream bash at Culver's” to conclude the course.
The deep sense of community formed among students at the Center is frequently noted. Faith, for example, comments that “Some students were here when I came [late 1980s] and are still here. They are kind of a club.” Kitty, too, stresses connections among students: “They are always concerned about one another. They often call and check on others,” especially if there is an unexpected absence. And she adds, “The cribbage people go on camping trips together and attend tournaments in a group.” When the quilters and artists have exhibits, “the place is full,” says Faith. Over the years, students have also supported each other in illness and grieved the death of friends from their classes. Obituaries sometimes mention that a person attended classes at RKC and occasionally art pieces produced with Faith's encouragement have been displayed at the wake of a former student. Loyalty to each other and to their classes is a prominent characteristic of the seniors, underscoring the importance of companionship, along with the stimulation of keeping one's mind alive as one grows older. The role of the Roberta Kuhn Center in creating opportunities for both intellectual stimulation and meaningful relationships among seniors was recognized in April 2005 with an announcement from the Iowa Director of Elder Affairs: “Congratulations! Each year the Governor's Conference on Aging recognizes individuals or organizations that make a difference in the lives of older Iowans. You were selected as one of these ‘Shining Stars.'”
In the name of the congregation, Faith and Kitty accepted the award for which the Center had been nominated by Dolores Ulrich OSF, Director of Stonehill Franciscan Services in Dubuque . Though aging is inevitably marked by the denial, anxiety and fear mentioned by Helen Garvey, BVM in her article, “Spirituality and Aging,” (pp. 4-5), it is also enriched, as she stresses, by “close relationships and activities with meaning and purpose.” Both teachers and students at the Robert Kuhn Center vividly demonstrate this truth and proclaim with conviction: “I am older, but I choose life.” They are models for all of us.
About the author: Sara McAlpin, BVM (Philip Mary) is archivist at Clarke College , Dubuque and a member of the Communications Advisory Committee. Return
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