Some One

 I loved the first grade at my Catholic school in the Bronx.  We had no kindergarten in my school, so I began with the first grade, to which my mother or sister walked me.  Why did I love the first grade?  Not because I loved school.  I was an average student.  My intellectual curiosity was not classroom based.  It was Sister Mary Phillip.  She was so very small.  She did not tower over us tiny kids.  But more importantly, she treated us boys, each as a person.  We were not "the kids," or "first graders,"  or "the class" or "everybody."  Sister did not assume we were all the same cookie cutter children.  We were each unique, with our own personal history and our own pace and way of learning.  I still try to practice this today.  When I start a zoom talk, I try not to say, "Hello everybody," because the listener is not an "everybody."  The listener is alone in front of their computer, with a silent hope that someone will recognize them as a person.  My blogs are not written for "everybody."  A blog is written for you.