Last update: February 12, 2015
For sure you will like the story of Helen Keller. Have you ever heard of it? Helen was born in the late XNUMXth century in a small town in Alabama, in the United States. Shortly after she turned one, she became seriously ill, so much so that she was dying for several weeks (today's doctors believe Helen may have fallen ill with Meningitis or Scarlet Fever). Everyone thought she was going to die, but she miraculously healed her.
Happiness didn't last long. Because of her illness, Helen became completely deaf and blind. The family was full of questions. What could be done for a child she could neither hear nor see? How could the barriers of a world of darkness and silence be broken? What fate would she have met if she could not count on two senses so important?
The child was restless. All she did was scream and throw tantrums. The screams and desperate cries followed one day after another.
The good thing is that his parents had no intention of giving up. They approached Alexander Graham Bell (the inventor of the telephone), who devised various activities for deaf youth. Bell advised Helen's parents to contact the Perkins Institute for the Blind, in Watertown, Massachusetts. And there, Helen met what would be her light for the next 49 years: Anne Sullivan.
One teacher, one world
Sullivan was barely 20, but frustration-proof willpower. The new educator was willing to take Helen out of the impenetrable world she was trapped in. With immense patience, the new teacher first committed herself to helping the child to keep her temper under control, for this reason she decided that she should be isolated from the family.. He took her to live with him in a small house where he taught her the rules of the discipline.
Then he taught her the first words through hand gestures. With her palms he simulated a wave and Helen understood that this movement was referring to water. Thus began the wonderful process of discovering the world. The most significant thing is that Anna and Helen managed to break the great barrier of incommunicability that separated them.
It was more difficult to teach the child to speak. The teacher resorted to the Tadoma method. That is, the child had to touch the lips of the people who were talking to her or their neck to feel the vibrations. Anne Sullivan spelled these sounds in the palm of her hand and so the little girl learned the manual alphabet. Then the teacher taught her to read and write with the system braille. And this is how Helen learned French, German, Greek and Latin.
Helen Keller's journey was truly amazing. Not only was she the first deaf-blind person to obtain a university degree (with honors), but she also became a writer and the most in-demand speaker of her time.. His autobiographical work, The story of my life, was one of the best sellers. Together with Anne, Helen visited more than 39 countries and became friends with Charles Chaplin and Mark Twain. President Lyndon Johnson awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Helen Keller was also involved on the political front and fought relentlessly to improve the conditions of blind people in her country and in the world.. He died in peace and serenity at the age of 88. One of the most famous phrases of him is: "Either life is an adventure to be lived boldly or it is nothing".
An unthinkable thing for a child who seemed condemned to silence.
Photo per gentle concessione di Mikasi – Via Flickr.
