I really do hate writing essays.
Lately I've been reading a lot about Helen Keller and her relationship with her teacher Annie Sullivan.
The concept of learning and teaching languages has always been very interesting to me. But it's not only the new methods of teaching that makes this particular story so interesting. So many elements tie together to tell the story of Helen and Annie. Annie's past as an blind abandoned Irish girl in the poorhouse, which comes back to torment her all through her life plays a huge role in how she acts towards other people of her "disability". Also the conflict between Annie and the Kellers upon her initial arrival and her eventual friendship with Helen is a strong factor in the development of this both these women's education. There's also the point of language, the most obvious obstacle to overcome. These things and more are everything that make the story of Helen Keller such an amazing tale.
Anne Sullivan and her little brother Jimmy found themselves in the Massachusettes almshouse after their widowered father abandoned them in 1876. The poorhouse was an over-crowded building full of rats, dying babies and women with "diseases you're not supposed to talk about". The children had no toys or friends so for entertainment they played in the "deadhouse": The room where they kept corpses until they could be buried. Shortly after her brother died from his tubercular hip, Annie was told of a school for the blind that she could attend in Boston.
At the age of fourteen she was transferred to the Perkins Institution (during which time she had several surgeries on her eyes) but because of her five years in the alsmhouse, she found herself to be very different from the 'Sheltered, virginal girls" at the school. Nevertheless she managed to graduate and, at the young age of twenty, she reccieved a call from Dr. M Anagnos about the Keller family whose daughter was deaf-mute and blind after surviving a terrible fever in infancy and needed a governess. Though she wasn't sure how to be a teacher, she familiarized herself with the works of doctors working with deaf-blind students before her and decided to take the challenge.
When she arrived at the Keller house, she was appalled to see that seven-year-old Helen was more a demon-child than anything else. Eating off of everyone's plate at dinner, and her stubborn defiance of anyone who tried to manage her, it seemed Annie Sullivan had finally met her match.
For two weeks, Annie lived with Helen in a small annex where she worked with Helen to try to get her into the habit of a human-like-lifestyle.
After several hours of patiently making it clear that breakfast would not come until Helen got dressed. Or that the only way to get anything was to be respectful of her teacher and accept the fact that she was stuck here and the only way to get out was to bend to learn to trust Annie. Finally Miss Sullivan was gaining access to Helen's dark, silent world.
But the ever-present problem of how to pull little Helen back to the light was a constant burden on Annie's mind. Day after day she would give helen a treat and spell into her hand C-A-K-E and even though Helen would spell back, she had no concept that CAKE was the thing's name. Annie and Helen played the game over and over with a wide array of things. B-E-D. M-I-L-K. M-U-G. Annie would spell with her hands, and Helen would spell it back. It wasn't until after weeks of struggle, Annie finally got through to Helen.
W-A-T-E-R, she pushed the handle of the pump and cold water spouted onto Helen's hands. W-A-T-E-R. Helen's face dawned comprehension and she spelled back smiling. W-A-T-E-R. She touched the ground and held out her hand to Annie hardly staying still to "hear" the name before moving on to touch the next thing and hold her hand out for the answer.
Helen could finally identify the world around her. M-O-T-H-E-R. T-E-A-C-H-E-R. O-U-T-S-I-D-E. But she still had many miles to go on the long road to full comprehension.
Even though she had come so far in the month or so that Annie had initially worked with her, Helen and her teacher stayed together for many years. Helen was constantly learning. How to put sentences together, how to "read" with her hands, how life in general worked.
It's just amazing to me how many obstacles were overcome to give us this wonderful new advance in teaching language to someone so seemeingly unreachable. Not only that, but Annie opened the door to Helen Keller's life and so many after her. How drastically two lives can be changed just by living and learning from each other. How two children to whom fate had given such disasterous childhoods could grow up to overcome all odds and still be known one hundred years after their lifetimes.
The concept of learning and teaching languages has always been very interesting to me. But it's not only the new methods of teaching that makes this particular story so interesting. So many elements tie together to tell the story of Helen and Annie. Annie's past as an blind abandoned Irish girl in the poorhouse, which comes back to torment her all through her life plays a huge role in how she acts towards other people of her "disability". Also the conflict between Annie and the Kellers upon her initial arrival and her eventual friendship with Helen is a strong factor in the development of this both these women's education. There's also the point of language, the most obvious obstacle to overcome. These things and more are everything that make the story of Helen Keller such an amazing tale.
Anne Sullivan and her little brother Jimmy found themselves in the Massachusettes almshouse after their widowered father abandoned them in 1876. The poorhouse was an over-crowded building full of rats, dying babies and women with "diseases you're not supposed to talk about". The children had no toys or friends so for entertainment they played in the "deadhouse": The room where they kept corpses until they could be buried. Shortly after her brother died from his tubercular hip, Annie was told of a school for the blind that she could attend in Boston.
At the age of fourteen she was transferred to the Perkins Institution (during which time she had several surgeries on her eyes) but because of her five years in the alsmhouse, she found herself to be very different from the 'Sheltered, virginal girls" at the school. Nevertheless she managed to graduate and, at the young age of twenty, she reccieved a call from Dr. M Anagnos about the Keller family whose daughter was deaf-mute and blind after surviving a terrible fever in infancy and needed a governess. Though she wasn't sure how to be a teacher, she familiarized herself with the works of doctors working with deaf-blind students before her and decided to take the challenge.
When she arrived at the Keller house, she was appalled to see that seven-year-old Helen was more a demon-child than anything else. Eating off of everyone's plate at dinner, and her stubborn defiance of anyone who tried to manage her, it seemed Annie Sullivan had finally met her match.
For two weeks, Annie lived with Helen in a small annex where she worked with Helen to try to get her into the habit of a human-like-lifestyle.
After several hours of patiently making it clear that breakfast would not come until Helen got dressed. Or that the only way to get anything was to be respectful of her teacher and accept the fact that she was stuck here and the only way to get out was to bend to learn to trust Annie. Finally Miss Sullivan was gaining access to Helen's dark, silent world.
But the ever-present problem of how to pull little Helen back to the light was a constant burden on Annie's mind. Day after day she would give helen a treat and spell into her hand C-A-K-E and even though Helen would spell back, she had no concept that CAKE was the thing's name. Annie and Helen played the game over and over with a wide array of things. B-E-D. M-I-L-K. M-U-G. Annie would spell with her hands, and Helen would spell it back. It wasn't until after weeks of struggle, Annie finally got through to Helen.
W-A-T-E-R, she pushed the handle of the pump and cold water spouted onto Helen's hands. W-A-T-E-R. Helen's face dawned comprehension and she spelled back smiling. W-A-T-E-R. She touched the ground and held out her hand to Annie hardly staying still to "hear" the name before moving on to touch the next thing and hold her hand out for the answer.
Helen could finally identify the world around her. M-O-T-H-E-R. T-E-A-C-H-E-R. O-U-T-S-I-D-E. But she still had many miles to go on the long road to full comprehension.
Even though she had come so far in the month or so that Annie had initially worked with her, Helen and her teacher stayed together for many years. Helen was constantly learning. How to put sentences together, how to "read" with her hands, how life in general worked.
It's just amazing to me how many obstacles were overcome to give us this wonderful new advance in teaching language to someone so seemeingly unreachable. Not only that, but Annie opened the door to Helen Keller's life and so many after her. How drastically two lives can be changed just by living and learning from each other. How two children to whom fate had given such disasterous childhoods could grow up to overcome all odds and still be known one hundred years after their lifetimes.
posted by Mabreg at 11:37 AM
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