Unstopping the ears...

The Old Testament prophet Isaiah looked forward to a time when the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. In later life my father suffered from hearing loss; and a couple of years ago I realised that it was happening to me, too.

It was while teaching in school one day that I addressed a girl as Kayleigh. She wasn’t Kayleigh, she explained gently, but Katie. This and similar incidents showed that I wasn’t hearing the ‘t’ sound. I saw my GP, was referred to Audiology, diagnosed as a “textbook case of age-related hearing loss” and given hearing aids. They’re great, but don’t solve every problem, especially not in busy classrooms. Another occasion, when a girl had to repeat the same thing to me three times, finally convinced me that it was time to lay down my whiteboard marker.

Mind you, perhaps there are compensations. I once met someone who had been taught by the late, great and profoundly deaf Professor William Barclay, Church of Scotland minister, one-time Professor of Divinity at the University of Glasgow and, in his day, popular writer and broadcaster who had a reputation for turning his hearing aid off when writing. He recalled Barclay’s words to his students: I would remind you that I wear a hearing aid – and I’m not obliged to listen to rubbish!

I still cope with tutoring pupils individually, and with most other situations, so please don’t let anyone feel that they need to shout slowly or wave their arms for me to understand them – not yet, anyway. I’m certainly not despondent – in Heaven, after all, my ears will be unstopped…

Brian