When Father Gerald Kleba was pastor of the former St. Bridget of Erin Parish in north St. Louis, he celebrated a Mass in June to honor all the graduates in the parish.

A woman asked him if that would include the children who graduated kindergarten.

“I thought, ‘Oh, come on, everyone graduates kindergarten,’” Father Kleba said. “And she said, ‘Do you know how much my ancestors, our ancestors, suffered and got tarred and feathered because they learned how to read?’”