Awakened The Legend of Helen Keller : simplebooklet.com

THE LITTLE BRONCO HELEN ADAMS KELLER was born in Tuscumbia Alabama on June 27 1880 Her parents were Kate Adams Keller and Colonel Arthur Keller On her father s side she was descended from Colonel Alexander Spottswood a colonial governor of Virginia On her mother s side she was related to a number of prominent New England families Helen s father Arthur Keller was a captain in the Confederate army The family lost most of its wealth during the Civil War and lived modestly After the war Captain Keller edited a local newspaper the North Alabamian and in 1885 under the Cleveland administration he was appointed Marshal of North Alabama Helen was a happy healthy baby Arthur worked for a newspaper while Kate took care of the home and baby Helen She grew up on her family s large farm called Ivy Green Ivy Green was built in 1820 established by Helen s grandparents who came to Alabama from Virginia Helen s father then owned the house and raised his family there The plantation was called Ivy Green because English ivy grew on the part of the house Ivy Green is a simple white clapboard home design in typical Southern architecture Helen enjoyed the animals that the family owned including the horses dogs and chickens Her calmest happiest moments were with the family dogs Dogs were her source of joy and companionship all her life At the age of nineteen months Helen became very ill with a high fever leaving her totally deaf and blind Doctors at that time diagnosed it as brain fever 3 Experts today believe she suffered from scarlet fever or meningitis As Helen grew from infancy into childhood she became wild and unruly Helen worked on feeling her world according to her autobiography Story of My Life She also enjoyed the smells Helen realized that she was different and it was challenging to let others know what she needed However she easily became frustrated with her lack of communication which would lead to tantrums Her family gave her the nickname the little bronco due to her stubborn and unruly behavior and the tantrums she would have Not understanding the rules of etiquette Helen would eat from the plates of others and throw things to get her way Prior to meeting and learning from Anne Helen did use a primitive communication technique She had special motions she would use to indicate that she wanted her mom or her dad She used simple sign language with her companion Martha Washington and other family members which consisted of about sixty signs In addition to Martha and her family Helen also talks about her dog Belle prior to speaking She enjoyed the feeling of Belle s excitement Helen was considered a bright but spoiled and strong willed child Her parents eventually sought the advice of Alexander Graham Bell the inventor of the telephone and an authority on the deaf He suggested to Mr and Mrs Keller they should contact the Perkins Institution which in turn recommended Anne Sullivan as a teacher 4

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THE MIRACLE WORKER AS HELEN OFTEN remarked as an adult her life changed on March 3 1887 the day she met Anne Anne age twenty arrived at Ivy Green and began working ton socializing her wild stubborn student and teaching her by spelling out words in her hand Helen called this day her soul s birthday At the age of five Anne contracted an eye disease called Trachoma which severely damaged her sight Even at an early age Anne had a strong willed personality That is why she was chosen to travel to Tuscumbia Alabama to work with Helen and help her learn how to communicate Initially the finger spelling meant nothing to Helen She wanted to help Helen make associations between words and physical objects and worked hard with her rather stubborn and spoiled pupil Helen would hit pinched and kicked Anne and knocked out one of her teeth Anne believed that the key to reaching Helen was to teach her obedience and love She saw the need to discipline but not crush the spirit of her young charge Anne started with the techniques developed by Perkins s first director Samuel Gridley Howe when he worked with Laura Bridgman a deaf and blind student at Perkins 50 years earlier Anne began her task of teaching Helen by manually signing into the child s hand Anne had brought a doll that the children at Perkins had made for her to take to Helen By spelling d o l l into the child s hand she hoped to teach her to connect objects with letters At first Helen thought her teacher was playing a game Helen quickly learned to form the letters correctly and in the correct order but did not know she was spelling a word or even that words existed In the days that followed she learned to spell many more words in this uncomprehending way Within a week of her arrival she had gained permission to remove Helen from the main house and live alone with her in the nearby cottage They remained there for two weeks After isolating Helen from her family in order to better educate her Anne began working on teaching Helen how to communicate with the outside world 5 6

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THE LIVING WORD ON APRIL 5 1887 less than a month after her arrival in Tuscumbia Anne sought to resolve the confusion her pupil was having between the nouns mug and milk which Helen confused with the verb drink At a plain black well pump one of the world s great miracles took place Anne finger spelled the word water on one of Helen s hands as she ran water over her student s other hand Helen finally made her first major breakthrough connecting the concept of sign language with the objects around her Quickly she stopped and touched the earth and demanded its letter name and by nightfall she had learned 30 words Thanks to Anne s instruction Helen learned nearly 600 words most of her multiplication tables and how to read Braille within a matter of months From that breakthrough moment Helen s world continued to expand Helen wrote of the days that followed I did nothing but explore with my hands and learn the name of every object that I touched and the more I handled things and learned their names and uses the more joyous and confident grew my sense of kinship with the rest of the world Anne fingerspelled to her constantly and coached her in the give and take of conversation Many people believe that Helen s love of language great articulation and grace as a writer and public speaker was built upon this foundation As the cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled into the other the word water first slowly then rapidly I stood still my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten a thrill of returning thought and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me I knew then that w a t e r meant the wonderful cool something that was f lowing over my hand That living word awakened my soul gave it light hope joy set it free There were barriers still it is true but barriers that could in time be swept away 8

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LIFE AFTER WATER NEWS OF ANNE S success with Helen spread and the Perkins school wrote a report about their progress as a team Perkins deafblind program teaches students from ages 3 22 incorporating a philosophy of total communication basically whatever is necessary to facilitate learning Helen became a celebrity In May of 1888 Anne decided that Helen could benefit from the Perkins School s program and the two spent time there off and on throughout Helen s adolescence They also sought aid for Helen s speech at the Wight Humason School in New York City she began a slow process of learning to speak under Sarah Fuller of the Horace Mann School for the Deaf also in Boston She also learned to lip read by placing her fingers on the lips and throat of the speaker while the words were simultaneously spelled out for her Helen attended Perkins School for the Blind for four years Helen studied French arithmetic geography and other subjects She especially enjoyed the library of embossed books and the tactile museum s collection of bird and animal specimens In the fall of 1891 Helen wrote a story she called The Frost King Soon it was published in the Perkins alumni magazine It was later discovered Helen s story was similar to a previously published story Helen had read the original many months earlier and recreated the story from her memory believing it was her own creation The accusation of plagiarism was extremely wounding to the 11 year old girl and her teacher and in 1892 Helen and Anne left Perkins and did not return Fortunately Helen later forgave Perkins for her unhappy experience 10

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GRADUATING COLLEGE HELEN THEN ATTENDED Cambridge School for Young Ladies to prepare for Radcliffe College Attending Cambridge School was the first time she had been educated alongside seeing and hearing pupils Still aged just sixteen she took and passed with flying colors the entrance exams for Radcliffe College the female annex to Harvard University It was at this point her fame began to spread Helen did not receive any special treatment The exams she took were the same as those taken by other potential college entrants Helen was put at a distinct disadvantage as she was not given any extra time to complete the exams While sighted pupils could read the questions and answer them immediately Helen had to wait to have the questions read to her before providing her answers In just ten years Helen went from being illiterate and only able to communicate with an extremely small circle of people to passing the entrance exams for an Ivy League college This is pretty impressive for someone with no sight and hearing impairments so it is not surprising that some people were skeptical about her achievements It is tempting to ask whether the same questions would have been asked had she not been both deaf and blind Helen was an avid reader and follower of politics and world events Among her favorite books were philosophy texts and volumes of poetry Helen enjoyed studying history and economics as well as foreign languages including French Latin and German In 1904 Helen graduated cum laude from Radcliffe Helen was also the first person with deafblindness to earn a bachelor of arts degree Later Helen was the first woman to be awarded an honorary degree from Harvard University 11 12

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SHARING HER STORIES DURING HER JUNIOR year at Radcliffe Helen Helen saw herself as a writer first and foremost Helen wrote numerous articles for national magazines on the prevention of blindness and the education and special problems of the blind She wrote over 475 essays faith blindness prevention birth control the rise of fascism in Europe and atomic energy Having developed skills never approached by any similarly disabled person Helen began to write of blindness a subject then taboo in women s magazines because of the relationship of many cases to venereal disease Edward W Bok accepted her articles for the Ladies Home Journal and other major magazines The Century McClure s and The Atlantic Monthly produced her first book The Story of My Life still in print in over fifty languages Helen published four other books of her personal experiences as well as a volume on religion one on contemporary social problems and a biography of Anne her passport listed her profession as author Through the medium of the typewritten word Helen communicated with Americans and ultimately with thousands across the globe Helen became the first person who is deafblind to write a book Her autobiography The Story of My Life was the first of 14 books she wrote in her lifetime Helen wrote of her life in several books including Optimism 1903 The World I Live In 1908 My Religion 1927 Helen Keller s Journal 1938 and The Open Door 1957 If I write what my soul thinks it will be visible and the words will be its body 13 15

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HELPING THE BLIND IN 1918 BRAILLE was established as the single writing system in the United States for people who were blind due in part to the advocacy of Helen Before this it was necessary to memorize several different writing systems She was a very eloquent and influential proponent for this writing system In 1924 Helen joined the newly formed American Foundation staff for the Blind as an adviser and fund raiser Helen worked for the American Foundation for the Blind for more than 40 years Until her passing she worked unceasingly to improve the lives of people with disabilities George Kessler and Helen worked together forming an American branch of the Permanent Relief War Fund called the Permanent Blind Relief War Fund for Soldiers and Sailors of the Allies incorporated in New York in 1919 with Helen and Cora Parsons Kessler as trustees In the 1920s the organization began serving blind civilians and military personnel and began printing texts in Braille a writing system for the Blind that uses raised dots Working with the military prompted the 1925 name change to the American Braille Press for War and Civilian Blind Under this name the organization was one of the leading publishers of Braille texts and it was responsible for the first talking book 1937 When the AFB established a branch for the overseas blind in 1977 it was renamed the Helen Keller International Helen Keller International is one of the oldest international nonprofit organizations working to prevent blindness and fight malnutrition 15

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ANNE SULLIVAN S DEATH HELEN AND ANNE S friendship blossomed for many years Anne continued to help Helen with translation for over fifty years until her death Anne is often referred to as the Miracle Worker for her lifetime dedication patience and love to a half wild southern child trapped in a world of darkness Mark Twain dubbed her the name the miracle worker By the late 1920s Anne had lost most of her vision She experienced chronic pain in her right eye which was removed to improve her health Anne visited Scotland hoping to restore some of her strength When Anne became ill her grateful and beloved student was present at her bedside holding her hand as she passed away Helen remembers Anne was filled with wonder when she considered the immeasurable contrast between the two lives which became connected Anne was a role model mentor friend and mother figure to Helen Anne died on October 20 1936 at her home in Forest Hills New York It was a period of illness related to heart problems that lead Anne to her faith She shared her home with Helen and her friend Polly Thomson until her death Keep on beginning and failing Each time you fail start all over again and you will grow stronger until you have accomplished a purpose not the one you began with perhaps but one you ll be glad to remember Anne Sullivan

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HELEN S DEATH AND LEGACY IN 1961 HELEN had a stroke and that was the last time she made public appearances She lived quietly at Arcan Ridge her home in Westport Connecticut one of the four main places she lived during her lifetime On June 1 1968 Helen died peacefully in her sleep a few weeks before her 88th birthday at Arcan Ridge her beloved home in Connecticut Helen played a significant role in improving the welfare of blind people She inspires people with disabilities because she was persistent One way Helen showed persistence when she learned letters words and sentences Helen Keller taught everyone never to give up nothing is impossible go after your dreams and that your destiny is in your hands On June 5 1968 Helen s memorial service in the National Cathedral More than 1 200 mourners attended her funeral and the choral music was performed by the choir of Perkins School for the Blind Her ashes are interred next to Anne Sullivan marked with a braille plaque that is frequently worn down and replaced More than thirty years after her death Helen regularly appears on lists of the world s most influential and inspirational people In 1999 she was on the Time Magazine 100 list of the most important figures of the 20th century Helen s life was full of overcoming challenges Even though every aspect of her life was full of obstacles due to her disabilities she overcame it all She was the first deaf blind person to earn a bachelor s degree Helen published fourteen books and more than 475 speeches and essays She was a political and social activist She was a supporter of women s right to vote and their right to birth control In 1964 she was awarded the presidential medal of freedom Helen was one of the leading humanitarians of the 20th century 21 22

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Although the world is full of suffering it is full also of the overcoming of it Helen Keller Helen Adams Keller s life story is filled with obstacles Helen was an American author disability rights advocate political activist and lecturer Ever since she was nineteen months old Helen has been blind and deaf Through every obstacle Helen has endured she has overcome and gone the extra mile thanks to her determination and the help of her teacher mentor and longtime friend Anne Sullivan Helen s life transform the day after she learned the meaning and object behind the words she was learning From learning how to read braille learning to speak and being the first deaf and blind college graduate and more Helen never let anything stand in her way During her lifetime she received many honors in recognition of her accomplishments Learn about the incredible story of Helen Keller and how she is still an inspiration to everyone especially people with disabilities Helen showed the world how people with disabilities can do just as much as valuable members of society Through Helen s struggles and hardships that she overcame she shows everyone that they can do anything they put their mind to Helen Keller is the perfect example to show everyone never to give up and to go the extra mile no matter how old you are and whether you have a disability or not

Awakened The Legend of Helen Keller

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