David McGrath – Page 11

McGrath: Going on vacation in your mind by conjuring up trips past not a bad way to escape COVID-19 lockdown

August 7, 2020 at 2:49 p.m.

It was summertime near Grand Rapids, Michigan, and I was covered by a musty quilt, clutching the toy bow-and-arrow I'd received for my birthday. My brother, Kenneth, and I were...

McGrath: White Americans must shake off their entrenched views of race if the world is ever going to change

July 31, 2020 at 10:45 a.m.

I feel slightly traitorous, like a double agent relaying secrets, in writing about what some of my friends really think about the Black Lives Matter protests. One, for example, recently...

McGrath: Independence Day has a new meaning for a 21-year-old with keys to his first car and nothing but freedom ahead

July 1, 2020 at 5:17 p.m.

The weekend before Independence Day in 1971, I was 21, single and had just bought my first car, an olive green 1962 Oldsmobile Super 88. I gave the owner five...

Monica Fudacz, from left, with Marianne McGrath and Stephanie Dunne.

Late Evergreen Park science teacher Monica Fudacz shared gifts with students, friends and family

June 26, 2020 at 2:49 p.m.

Monica had beautiful hands. Her older sister, Marianne, my wife, and I thought it remarkable, in consideration of everything she put them through as a seamstress, a chef, phlebotomist, gardener,...

In a "Saturday Night Live" skit that aired Oct. 22, 2016, actor Tom Hanks jokingly speaks to America as "America's Dad."

McGrath: Defining what makes a good dad gets a little gray when I know the occasional selfish motives behind doing the right thing

June 19, 2020 at 12:19 p.m.

My son, Mike, recalls an episode on our vacation in Wisconsin that supposedly validated the World's Greatest Dad slogan on my coffee cup. He was wading alone in knee deep...

Columnist David McGrath argues that remote education couldn't be any worse than the way school used to be taught, and in some instances might be helping some students, particularly those with ADHD.

McGrath: Remote learning couldn’t be worse than the way school used to be, so why rush back to the classroom?

June 8, 2020 at 11:34 a.m.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker issued an executive order last week allowing in-person summer school to resume with COVID-19 restrictions in place. While many wonder if schools can ever return to pre-pandemic...

It's hard not to miss being able to go about freely without worrying about social distancing and face masks, but the price we pay for returning to this kind of life too soon could be more deaths, columnist David McGrath says.

McGrath: Yes, we’re all ready for life to return to normal, but what price are you willing to pay?

May 22, 2020 at 12:45 p.m.

Beginning with this Memorial Day, all those who will have died because of COVID-19 during the pandemic of 2020 ought to be added to the ranks of the military dead...

Demonstrators protest in Lansing, Michigan, during a rally organized by Michigan United for Liberty on May 14 to protest the coronavirus pandemic stay-at-home orders issued by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

McGrath: Putting ‘me’ first in age of coronavirus not only selfish but dangerous to all of us

May 15, 2020 at 11:47 a.m.

How would you like to see justice for all those drivers who cut in front of you without flashing a turn signal? How about the grocery shopper with the overflowing...

McGrath: Appreciating mom decades later

May 10, 2020 at 3:00 a.m.

Not until I became a parent myself did I fully appreciate what my mother did for her eight children. In the 1960s, parent/teacher conferences at St. Bernadette School in Evergreen...

McGrath: For all the parents learning to be ‘teachers’ on the fly, a bit of wisdom courtesy of Sister Killian

May 1, 2020 at 12:49 p.m.

With schools closed, parents are discovering how challenging it is to be their children's teacher. But there is a simple lesson I learned from my days in elementary school, which...

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