I hadn’t realized, as a child that I listened so continuously I couldn’t sort my own voice out of the cacophony of sounds. Mr. Smith, the ninth grade music teacher at Hershey High School, knew it rather quickly, though. Children from the Hershey area rural schools, such as the one I attended in Union Deposit, transferred to Hershey …

I learned to listen as elementary student in the Union Deposit three-room schoolhouse during the 1940s. First and second grades were taught in one room, third through fifth grades in a second room, and sixth through eighth grades in a third room. Each classroom had its own teacher. I had five different teachers during eight …

I was expected to LISTEN – as a child, that is, to behave, to obey. To obey not just my parents, but other adults. LISTENING meant fulfilling expectations of grown-ups in terms of chores and homework, doing what I was told to do and respecting the persons who told me to do it. I was …