At the far end of Islington Road in Newton, Massachusetts, lives a little girl near and dear to the neighborhood. Two-year-old Samantha Savitz is 1, but she loves to talk to anyone who knows sign language. And her whole personality changes when it's someone who can 2 with her.
Her desire for communication has been 3 obvious to everyone in the neighborhood. Whenever Sam tries to be neighborly, they 4 themselves lost for words. So they need to 5 more than a basic conversation with the child in the community.
Unfortunately, this isn't something you can 6 with ease. You'd need the whole community to learn sign language 7 for a little 2-year-old girl. You can't 8 neighbors to do that. You can only appreciate them when they do.
On their own, Sam's neighbors got together, 9 an instructor, and are now fully 10 an American Sign Language class. Even the parents of deaf children don't 11 to learn sign language. Now Sam has a whole 12 to communicate with her.
And this level of inclusion will almost certainly guarantee a happier, more 13 Sam. Her parents says there aren't words in any language to express their 14. In fact, they're already seeing a 15 in their daughter. "The first thing she says to us is 'friend'", said her mother, "I think your heart would 16 just as mine did."
Sometimes it feels like America is losing its 17 of community — but then you hear about a place like this where it takes a whole village to 18 a child. Now the village is alive and is here to 19 us that what makes a "good neighborhood" is nothing more than good 20.
