Helen Adams Keller (June 27, 1880 - June 1, 1968) was an American handicapped educator. She was blinded and deafened by an accidental illness at an early age. Through the efforts of her mentor, Anne Sullivan, she was able to learn to speak, communicate with others, and receive an education. She graduated from Harvard University.
Biography
Change of Fate
Helen Keller was born healthy, but when she was 19 months old, she suffered from acute cerebral congestion that caused a high fever, and as a result of this illness, she became blind and deaf. This fateful predicament caused Helen Keller to become very irritable, and her father and mother were very worried about it. When Helen was six years old, with the assistance of her family doctor, her parents invited Mr. Sullivan of the Perkins School for the Blind to be Helen Keller's mentor.
Meeting a Mentor
Mr. Sullivan was a caring man who first understood Helen Keller's temperament and built a trusting relationship with her, and then patiently taught Helen Keller sign language so that she could communicate with others. He then taught Helen Keller how to use Braille and basic manners. After much training, her parents hired Mrs. Sarah Frewer of the Horace Mann School to teach her to speak when she was 10 years old, and Helen Keller eventually learned to speak. This was a very difficult task for someone who was blind and deaf. Under the tutelage of her parents and Mrs. Sullivan, Helen Keller changed her outlook on the world and began to work hard at her education.
Entering school
Helen Keller at Radcliffe College in 1904
In 1898, Helen Keller enrolled in The Cambridge School for Young Ladies in Massachusetts, and in the fall of 1900, she was admitted to Harvard University's Radcliffe College. This was incredible for someone who was blind and deaf. Finally, in 1904, Helen Keller received her Bachelor of Arts degree with honors and became the first deaf-blind person to graduate from an institution of higher learning. Ms. Sullivan stayed by Helen Keller's side for many years, writing textbooks and lessons on the palm of Helen Keller's hand so that she could understand them, and Helen Keller was grateful to her throughout her life.
Educating the public
Helen Keller formed the Helen Keller Foundation in 1924 and joined the American Foundation for the Blind as a consultant on national and international relations. She later addressed the annual convention of Lions International, where she asked Lions to be "warriors who assist the blind to overcome the darkness. And she said, "I am opening windows of opportunity for you; I am knocking at your door." In 1946, Helen Keller became the international relations counselor for the U.S. Global Foundation for the Blind and began traveling the world, visiting 35 countries. She fought to build schools for the blind around the world and often visited patients in hospitals, sharing her experiences with them to give them the will to live. She also fought for the rights of the poor and the blacks, and advocated for world peace.
Helen Keller's legacy
Helen Keller was 87 years old. After her death, her strong will and outstanding contribution moved the world, and people all over the world carried out activities in her honor. Someone once said of her, "Helen Keller is the pride of mankind, a role model for us to follow, believing that the many who are deaf, dumb and blind with diseases can find light in the darkness.
Helen Keller Memorial Day
In 1971, the international board of directors of Lions Clubs International declared June 1 of every year as "Helen Keller Memorial Day" in honor of Helen Keller's indomitable spirit. On this day, Lions clubs around the world organize vision-related service activities.
Helen Keller died in her sleep on the afternoon of June 1, 1968, at the age of 87 years. Ms. Keller became deaf and blind at 18 months after birth, yet miraculously lived out her life.
Helen Keller was born in 1880 in a town called Tuscumbia in northern Alabama. When she was a year and a half old, a serious illness took away her sight and hearing, and then she lost her ability to speak. Yet it was in this dark and lonely world that she surprisingly learned to read and speak, and graduated with honors from Radcliffe College in the U.S., where she became a renowned writer and educator with a vast knowledge of five languages: English, French, German, Latin, and Greek. She traveled throughout the United States and the world to raise funds for schools for the blind, dedicating her life to the welfare and education of the blind. She won the praise of people all over the world and was honored by many governments.
The most important thing for a deaf-blind person to get out of the darkness and into the light is to learn to recognize words and read. And from learning to recognize words to learn to read, but also to pay more than ordinary people's perseverance. Helen is relying on her fingers to observe the teacher Miss Sullivan's lips, with the sense of touch to comprehend the flutter of her throat, the movement of the mouth and facial expression, which is often inaccurate. She had to practice over and over again to make herself able to pronounce a word or sentence, and Helen never gave in to failure.
In the 14 years between Helen's education at the age of seven and her admission to Radcliffe College, she wrote a great many letters to relatives, friends and classmates, which were rich in content, either depicting what she had seen and heard on her travels, or pouring out her own feelings, or in some cases retelling a story she had just heard. When she was studying at the university, many of the textbooks were not available in Braille, and she had to rely on others to spell out the contents of the books in her hand, so she spent much more time than the other students in studying for her assignments. While other students were out playing and singing, she was spending a lot of time trying to prepare for class.
Helen's ability to come out of the darkness and reach such high academic achievements, in addition to relying on her own tenacity, is inseparable from her teacher Sullivan's teaching. She said "my teacher Anne Mansfield Sullivan came to my home this day, is the most important day of my life", "she made my spirit liberated". It was her teacher who taught her to recognize words, to know that everything has a name, and to know what an abstract term like "love" means. After Helen was crippled by a disease at an early age, she became ignorant and perverse, almost a hopeless waste, but later she became a cultured college student, which is really a miracle. It can be said that half of this miracle was created by Helen's teacher, Anne Sullivan, the fruit of her noble dedication and scientific education methods. Miss Sullivan does not care to teach Helen what, always with a very good story, or a poem to speak clearly, her educational experience is very rich, educational methods are also different, she never locked Helen in the room for rigid, injected classroom education.
Helen overcame the mental anguish caused by her physical handicaps with tenacity and perseverance. She loved life, rode horses, skied, played chess, enjoyed theater performances, and loved to visit museums and places of interest and gain knowledge from them. At the age of 21, she published her debut novel, The Story of My Life, in collaboration with her teacher. Over the next 60 years she ****wrote 14 books.