Thank Goodness for Little Ears

"Here, Mrs. Stone," a student said nonchalantly as she handed me the telephone handset. (It was the office calling.)

I had divided my students into reading partners to reread this week's story selection together while I sat with 3 students to provide extra help and instruction. The indistinct murmuring of 23 little reading voices easily drowned out the telephone's ring. And even the satellite handset which I placed near my reading table was inaudible to me.

My first instinct was to ask her why she had brought the telephone to me. Then I heard it ring. I've no idea how long the caller had waited.

Teaching is full of challenges every day -- under any circumstance. To those of us with hearing loss, those challenges can seem larger-than-life. But sometimes, they're hardly noticeable, if at all -- like the telephone.

It used to be so simple.

Thank goodness for little ears whose perfect hearing can hear when my ears cannot.