A small town had a choir of nine singers, and they were out of tune and out of time. Three weeks before the choir festival, the old conductor retired. The town sent Ms. Ferro, a woman of forty.
On the first night she wrote on the board: "I am deaf. I will not hear you. You will have to watch me." Then she made them take off their shoes and stand on the wooden stage. She felt the beat through the floor, and she taught them to feel it too.
They learned to watch her hands. At the festival, four hundred people were in the hall. The pianist was ill, so the nine had no instrument. Ms. Ferro lifted her hands, and they sang. In the back row, twelve deaf children stood and waved their hands in the air.
