New teacher lays down the law -- and picks up the books

Published: 2006-03-01

CHICAGO (CNS) -- Russ Fee traded the courtroom for the classroom and he couldn't be happier. Fee, a former civil rights and employment attorney, gave up 27 years of practicing law to work with young people. Today he's a third-grade teacher at St. Bruno School in Chicago. "I feel better about what happens in a single day in the classroom than I ever did during my years in law," Fee said. "The children are enthusiastic, unafraid even with all the problems that occur in their lives." The decision to change careers was not a quick one, but Fee said he knew in his heart that the practice of law no longer gave him a sense of accomplishment. "There were several reasons for my about-face," he told The Catholic New World, newspaper of the Chicago Archdiocese. "I had become too brittle, too competitive, too self-absorbed. I was involved in the adversarial system and became disillusioned with what I had accomplished as a lawyer. I wasn't achieving what I had intended. I was racing through life instead of strolling."

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