Helen Keller’s Miracle
Imagine what life would be like if you could not see or hear. Imagine you did not know any way to communicate with other people. Imagine being shut inside a confusing world with no way to ask for help. Helen Keller lived in such a world. When she was 19 months old, she became very ill. The disease left her blind and deaf. But in the spring of 1887, a special teacher came to work with Helen. The progress they made together came to be known as Helen Keller’s “miracle.”
Helen as a child
Helen Keller grew up in Tuscumbia, Alabama. She was a smart, loving child. But she also misbehaved a lot. Her parents felt so bad that she couldn’t see or hear that they didn’t teach her proper behavior. Helen also acted naughty when she couldn’t communicate with others. She wandered around the table, grabbing food from other people’s plates. One time she locked her mother in a cupboard. She bit and scratched people.
Anne Sullivan
When Helen was about 7 years old, Anne Sullivan came to live with and teach Helen. Sullivan knew she had to be strict with her naughty student. For example, she would not let Helen eat until Helen sat properly, with her napkin on her lap. At first Helen rebelled, fighting her teacher for hours. Anne Sullivan took Helen to a little cottage on the family’s property so she could teach her without the family’s interference. In just two weeks, Sullivan taught her much about how to behave. However, when they returned to the family house, Helen continued to throw tantrums occasionally.
The miracle
One day, during a tantrum, Anne Sullivan made Helen come out to the yard. While she pumped water into Helen’s hand, she spelled out “w-a-t-e-r” using a special hand alphabet. And then the miracle happened. Suddenly Helen understood. She understood that what her teacher was spelling stood for actual water. She realized words had meaning. Sullivan had been working with Helen for only a month. That day alone she learned about 30 words.
A new world
Anne Sullivan opened up Helen Keller’s world when she taught Helen to communicate through the hand, or manual, alphabet. A blind and deaf person can “read” words by feeling the hand of the other person. The person spells out words in the palm of the blind and deaf person’s hand. It is very close to the sign-language alphabet that deaf people use to communicate by sight.
The world opens up
Anne Sullivan taught Helen to experience nature by touch and smell. They had many of their classes outdoors. All of her life, Helen loved nature and outdoor activities. Helen learned to speak by feeling how Sullivan’s mouth moved when she spoke. She learned to read and write French, German, Greek and Latin in Braille. She even learned to play chess. Throughout her life, Helen traveled, speaking and raising money for causes such as the American Foundation for the Blind, women’s right to vote, peace and ending poverty. She also worked to change laws so that people with disabilities could go to school and have jobs like other people.
World travels
Between 1946 and 1957, Helen traveled to 35 countries, meeting leaders such as Winston Churchill of Great Britain and Golda Meir of Israel. She visited blinded and wounded soldiers during World War II. She met other famous people and received honorary degrees from several universities. Helen died at her home in Connecticut in 1968 at age 87.