“Character cannot be developed in ease and quite. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.”Hellen A. Keller
Keller’s Chilhood
Hellen
Adams Keller was born on June 27, 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama. Her parents were
Arthur H. Keller and Katherine Adams Keller. Hellen was the first of two
daughters; her father served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War and
then became the editor of the North Alabamian newspaper. After two years Hellen
contracted a wear illness called scarlet fever or meningitis, which consisted
in a high body temperature and unfortunely let her blind and deaf for the rest
of her life. Hellen’s childhood was quite hard, she was almost seven years old
when started to behave in a wild way; she used to kick, scream and make
tantrums on her parents, she was frustrated because of her condition. With the
time, she developed a method of communication using more than 60 sings Hellen
and her companion, Martha Washington, the young daughter of the family cook,
could communicated each other. (helenkeller)
Education
around Keller
But
even being blind and deaf, nothing could stop Hellen’s desires of keep forward
in life, with her parents’ help she could find an adequate teacher for her. Of
course, was not easy to find it, they went to different institutions before met
Anne Sullivan, a recent graduate student from the Perkins Institute for the
Blind in Boston, Massachusetts. Anne Sullivan immediately started to work with
Hellen, she began by teaching Hellen finger spelling. At the beginning Hellen
was curious, but then she got frustrate and stopped cooperating. Time later she
started cooperating and Sullivan noticed that she was not making connection
between the objects and the letters spelled out in her hand, and decided to
move away from the family in order to make Hellen focus in her instructions,
making at the time a big progress on her. In 1890, Hellen began speech classes at
the Horace Mann School for the Deaf in Boston. From 1894 to 1896, she attended
the Wright-Humason School for the Deaf in New York City.
Contribution to the society
Then in 1896, she attended the Cambridge school for
Ladies where Keller began to meet famous and influential people. One of them
was Henry H. Rogers, who agreed to pay for her to attend to Radcliff College.
(famouspeople)
By that time, Keller mastered several methods of
communications; touch-lips reading, Braille, speech, typing and finger
spelling. Then, with the help of Sullivan and her future husband, John Macy,
she wrote her first book, The Story of My Life. Keller later graduated from
Radcliff in 1904, at the age of 24. Next year, her instructress married John
Macy, an instructor of Harvard University. Anne and John became distant to each
other and after couple of years, they separated. Keller was very active inside
the society; she always tried to help the others. In 1920, she helped found the
American Civil Liberties Union. In 1924, she became a member of the American
Federation for the Blind. She also joined to other organizations dedicated to
helping those less fortunate. Was in 1936, when her beloved teacher and devote
companion, Anne Sullivan, died. After that year, Keller was appointed counselor
of international relations for the American Foundation of Overseas Blind,
traveling to 35 countries and through her speeches and appearances, she brought
inspiration to many people. During her lifetime, Keller received many honors and
recognitions for her accomplishments; The Theodore Roosevelt Distinguished
Service Medal in 1936, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964, and many
others.
Finally, Keller died on June 1, 1968. But this amazing
woman shows us the power of having faith in ourselves and keeps forward no
matter the obstacles that life could bring to us; we never have to give up! She
fought against her condition and never showed weakness, instead of that, she
showed optimism and perseverance.
By: Stefany Reyes
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