The Student: Helen Keller

Many deaf or blind people are born lacking one of their senses and never have a knowledge of what it is to miss either their hearing or their sight. Helen Keller, on the other hand, was born with all five of her senses functioning normally.

Born in Tuscumbia, Alabama in 1880 to Colonel Arthur and Kate Adams Keller, Helen was a normal little girl. Her father was even the editor of the local paper! However, it would be Helen who had the power to bring silence to the house when, in 1882, 19 month-old Helen fell ill.

The illness was described by doctors at the time as "an acute congestion of the stomach and the brain," but is now believed to have been scarlet fever, or possibly meningitis. The illness left Helen, less than two years old, without her hearing or her sight.

In the days following her illness, those around Helen found it impossible to communicate with her. In fact, she had but one friend: the six year-old daughter of the family's cook. The little girl's name was Martha Washington.

Together, the young pair developed a rudimentary sign language, and this was Helen's first connection to the world as a deaf-blind person. It is believed that it was this language development that contributed to Helen's ability to learn to communicate (with the help of Anne Sullivan) later on in her life.

This early friendship opened doors for Helen Keller.

Apart from Martha Washington, however, Helen was mostly isolated from other people and she had no other friends or playmates.

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Helen was the child of loving parents who simply didn't know how they could help her. In 1886, when Helen was six years old, her mother sought the advice of an ear, nose and throat doctor named Dr. J. Julian Chisolm. Unable to help, he put the family in touch with Alexander Graham Bell, who at the time was working with deaf children.

In turn, Bell directed the family to seek help from the Perkin's Institute for the Blind: the same school at which Miss Anne Sullivan had studied!

It was the head of the Perkins Institute, Michael Anaganos, who asked Anne Sullivan to become Helen's teacher.

Helen was seven years old when Anne Sullivan came into her life. Spoiled and prone to tantrums, by this point the child was unsocialized and virtually feral. Her parents had struggled to communicate with and to discipline a deaf-blind child for six years and Anne Sullivan was their last hope.

The bond that would eventually form between Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan was far from immediate. Annie insisted on discipline and Helen resisted her with violent tantrums. Eventually the pair moved to the Keller's garden house, where the real work would begin.

Anne Sullivan forced Helen Keller into a routine that the child had formerly never known. The teacher insisted that they sit at the table to eat their food, that they eat from plates and with forks. She demanded obedience from Helen.

The teacher who would become known as The Miracle Worker began to introduce to Helen Keller the fact that things had names. Using a system of letters formed with her fingers, she began to introduce Helen to the world around her.

Still, Helen resisted.

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Just when both Helen and Anne Sullivan were ready to give up, a breakthrough occurred. Though Annie knew that Helen Keller was a very bright child who truly wanted to learn, she had struggled to reach her young pupil.

Then, one day, the pair stood at the water pump in the garden. Anne Sullivan allowed the water to pour over Helen's hand, and signed "w-a-t-e-r" into her hand again and again. Suddenly, a look of recognition came over Helen's face, and she formed the letters back to her teacher. Yes! She understood!

After that, Helen would rush around, asking Annie what things were. The water had been the key that had unlocked the world to Helen Keller. Finally, she was able to communicate!

There came a time when Helen discovered that those around her spoke using their mouths. With her hand on Anne Sullivan's face, Helen realized that others didn't communicate the way she spoke with her Teacher.

Wanting to be like the others, Helen asked Anne Sullivan to teach her to talk with her mouth!

Anne Sullivan used the Tadoma method to teach Helen how to speak. Helen would place her hand on Teacher's face, one finger on Annie's nose, one on her mouth and the thumb at the larynx, and Anne Sullivan would speak. In this way, Helen was able to determine where the sounds were made and to mimic them.

Yes, Helen Keller learned to speak! See the video below for a demonstration by Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan.

Anne Sullivan taught Helen how to read Braille, a system of raised bumps which allow blind persons to feel the letters and to read with their fingertips. With this, Helen was able to attend the Perkins Institute for the blind (her teacher's school) and then went on to New York to attend Wright-Humason School for the Deaf and Horace Mann School for the Deaf.

Later, she would return with Anne Sullivan to Massachusetts, where she would attend the Cambridge School for Young Ladies before attending Radcliffe in 1900.

Anne Sullivan was with her every step of the way, and Helen earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1904. She was the first deaf-blind person to earn such a degree.

Helen Keller was a remarkable woman who actively supported causes about which she felt strongly. She was a radical socialist, an advocate of birth control and women's suffragist and a pacifist. Helen Keller even helped in the foundation of the American Civil Liberties Union (the ACLU).

Beginning at the age of 11, Helen Keller also became a writer. Though there was some question that her first story might have been plagiarized, it was determined that any such act had been unintentional on her part.

When Helen was 22 years old, John Macy (the husband of Anne Sullivan Macy), assisted her with completing her autobiography, The Story of My Life.

Helen published a total of twelve books and several articles over the course of her lifetime.

Though some say that Helen Keller was manipulated by her teacher, Anne Sullivan, I see a remarkable, strong woman who had the courage to become a part of a world that was entirely foreign to her. Helen learned not only to sign, but also to speak with her voice. She attended speaking engagements, graduated from college and did many things that women in her day did not do, regardless of ability or disability.

This was a remarkable woman who touched many lives and hearts. In writing this lens and an accompanying lens about her teacher I couldn't help but cry the tears of the touched spirit.

What an extraordinary woman!