Thanx,
Ericka

Steve Morris was not a typical child. But when you're nine years old, the desire to be typical is very strong. Steve was born in Saginaw, Michigan. When he was very young, his folks moved to Detroit, to a little apartment on Hastings Street.

Of all the people and things Steve has since forgotten and remembered from those early years, one woman stands out in his mind. One woman encouraged him and gave him the courage to be extraordinary. Steve's elementary school teacher, Mrs. Beneduci.

Of course, Mrs. Beneduci was a wise person. She realized that mere words to a nine-year-old, might not carry much weight. So instead, with the unwitting aid of a little gray mouse she seized upon a particular opportunity, and from that day on Steve knew his greatest pride, the calling of a life.

It happened in a tiny grade school classroom in Detroit ... Mrs. Beneduci called her class to order. "Come now, Jesse! Annette! Settle down, people ... we're going to open with history today..." The little ones squirmed in their seats, suppressing the nervous giggles of infant inmates wishing to be sprung.

"I know you'd rather be outside playing," said Mrs. Beneduci. "It's a lovely day. But if you learn nothing in life, all you'll ever know how to do is play!"

The teacher gave a sympathetic half-smile. Young Steve Morris was quiet.

"Amy," asked Mrs. Beneduci, "who was Abraham Lincoln?"

Amy stared at her desk. "Uh... he, uh, had a beard."

The class collapsed with laughter. "Steve Morris?" said the teacher. "Same question."

"He was the 16th President of the United States," came the answer. Solidly. Without hesitation.

The class was silent once more. Steve's problem was not the answers. He had them all. In fact, Steve Morris also had a rather remarkable gift. But asnwers to questions would mean nothing in themselves, unless Steve could be made to realize just how important that gift really was.

"All right," Mrs. Beneduci continued. "Abraham Lincoln was our 16th President. He was President during the Civil War --" Then she stopped, as though she were listening to something.

"What's that?" asked the teacher, half to herself. "Who's making that noise?" The puzzled classmates looked at each other. Steve sat quietly.

"I hear something like scratching... it's very faint," said Mrs. Beneduci. "It sounds.... it sounds like a mouse!"

The little girls screamed. Some stood on their chairs with the speed of ascending lightning.

"Calm down, everyone," said the teacher. "It's nothing to get excited about. Steve, will you help me find the poor little creature?"

Steve sat straight upright in his chair, brightening considerably."OK," he said, "Now everybody be quiet!"

In the sudden stillness Steve cocked his head, hesitated for a moment and pointed slowly to the wastebasket.

"He's right over there!" said Steve proudly. "I can hear him!"

And so he was, a frightened little gray mouse that had been rummaging beneath the wastepaper, hoping to go undiscovered. But he had been discovered by little Steve Morris, whom nature had given a remarkable pair of ears in compensation for having denied him eyes since birth. So the class settled back to business. And the little gray mouse became a mascot. In the heart of small, unsighted Steve, a pride was born...and that pride is with him still. After the incident, Mrs. Beneduci would continue to encourage the talent that the whole world now knows and respects, and she always reminded Steve of the little gray mouse that once made its home in the wastebasket... by accident??

In time, the marvelous ears of Steve Morris gave popular music something to be proud of.... a singer-composer-musician- producer with five grammys, seventeen gold singles, four gold albums, and four platinum records. For once upon a time, a little gray mouse roared... gave a small boy confidence in what nature had given him. And Steve Morris, from the time he was ten... for his gifted ears... was never known as anything else...but little Stevie Wonder.

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