Cardiovascular Reading Hospital S7th Ave. Ste 1070, Nurse Practitioner Helen

American educator Helen Keller overcame the adversity of being blind and deaf to become one of the 20th century's leading humanitarians, as well every bit co-founder of the ACLU.

Who Was Helen Keller?

Helen Keller was an American educator, advocate for the blind and deaf and co-founder of the ACLU. Stricken past an illness at the age of two, Keller was left blind and deafened. Beginning in 1887, Keller's teacher, Anne Sullivan, helped her brand tremendous progress with her ability to communicate, and Keller went on to college, graduating in 1904. During her lifetime, she received many honors in recognition of her accomplishments.

Early Life and Family unit

Keller was built-in on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, Alabama. Keller was the get-go of two daughters built-in to Arthur H. Keller and Katherine Adams Keller. Keller's father had served every bit an officer in the Confederate Army during the Civil State of war. She also had two older stepbrothers.

The family was non particularly wealthy and earned income from their cotton fiber plantation. After, Arthur became the editor of a weekly local newspaper, the Northward Alabamian.

Keller was born with her senses of sight and hearing, and started speaking when she was just half-dozen months old. She started walking at the age of 1.

Loss of Sight and Hearing

Keller lost both her sight and hearing at just 19 months quondam. In 1882, she contracted an illness — called "encephalon fever" by the family md — that produced a loftier trunk temperature. The true nature of the illness remains a mystery today, though some experts believe it might take been scarlet fever or meningitis.

Within a few days after the fever broke, Keller's mother noticed that her daughter didn't show whatsoever reaction when the dinner bell was rung, or when a hand was waved in forepart of her face.

Every bit Keller grew into childhood, she developed a express method of communication with her companion, Martha Washington, the immature daughter of the family unit cook. The two had created a type of sign language. By the time Keller was 7, they had invented more than than 60 signs to communicate with each other.

During this fourth dimension, Keller had also become very wild and unruly. She would boot and scream when angry, and giggle uncontrollably when happy. She tormented Martha and inflicted raging tantrums on her parents. Many family unit relatives felt she should be institutionalized.

Keller's Instructor, Anne Sullivan

Keller worked with her teacher Anne Sullivan for 49 years, from 1887 until Sullivan's death in 1936. In 1932, Sullivan experienced health problems and lost her eyesight completely. A young woman named Polly Thomson, who had begun working as a secretarial assistant for Keller and Sullivan in 1914, became Keller's abiding companion upon Sullivan'due south decease.

Looking for answers and inspiration, Keller'southward mother came across a travelogue by Charles Dickens, American Notes,in 1886. She read of the successful instruction of another deaf and blind child, Laura Bridgman, and shortly dispatched Keller and her begetter to Baltimore, Maryland to see specialist Dr. J. Julian Chisolm.

After examining Keller, Chisolm recommended that she run across Alexander Graham Bong, the inventor of the telephone, who was working with deaf children at the time. Bong met with Keller and her parents, and suggested that they travel to the Perkins Institute for the Bullheaded in Boston, Massachusetts.

Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan in 1888

Photo: Thaxter P. Spencer Family, New England Historic Genealogical Society [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

At that place, the family met with the school'southward manager, Michael Anaganos. He suggested Keller piece of work with one of the institute's most contempo graduates, Sullivan.

On March 3, 1887, Sullivan went to Keller'south abode in Alabama and immediately went to work. She began past teaching half dozen-year-onetime Keller finger spelling, starting with the word "doll," to help Keller understand the gift of a doll she had brought forth. Other words would follow.

At starting time, Keller was curious, and then defiant, refusing to cooperate with Sullivan's instruction. When Keller did cooperate, Sullivan could tell that she wasn't making the connection between the objects and the letters spelled out in her mitt. Sullivan kept working at it, forcing Keller to get through the regimen.

As Keller's frustration grew, the tantrums increased. Finally, Sullivan demanded that she and Keller be isolated from the rest of the family unit for a time, so that Keller could concentrate only on Sullivan's teaching. They moved to a cottage on the plantation.

In a dramatic struggle, Sullivan taught Keller the word "water"; she helped her make the connexion between the object and the messages by taking Keller out to the water pump, and placing Keller's hand nether the spout. While Sullivan moved the lever to flush cool h2o over Keller's hand, she spelled out the give-and-take w-a-t-e-r on Keller's other mitt. Keller understood and repeated the word in Sullivan'southward paw. She then pounded the ground, enervating to know its "letter name." Sullivan followed her, spelling out the word into her paw. Keller moved to other objects with Sullivan in tow. Past nightfall, she had learned 30 words.

In 1905, Sullivan married John Macy, an instructor at Harvard University, a social critic and a prominent socialist. Later on the marriage, Sullivan connected to be Keller'southward guide and mentor. When Keller went to alive with the Macys, they both initially gave Keller their undivided attention. Gradually, however, Anne and John became afar to each other, as Anne's devotion to Keller connected unabated. After several years, the couple separated, though were never divorced.

Educational activity

In 1890, Keller began speech classes at the Horace Mann School for the Deaf in Boston. She would toil for 25 years to acquire to speak so that others could understand her.

From 1894 to 1896, Keller attended the Wright-Humason Schoolhouse for the Deaf in New York City. There, she worked on improving her communication skills and studied regular academic subjects.

Around this time, Keller became determined to attend college. In 1896, she attended the Cambridge Schoolhouse for Immature Ladies, a preparatory schoolhouse for women.

As her story became known to the general public, Keller began to meet famous and influential people. One of them was the writer Mark Twain, who was very impressed with her. They became friends. Twain introduced her to his friend Henry H. Rogers, a Standard Oil executive.

Rogers was and then impressed with Keller'due south talent, bulldoze and determination that he agreed to pay for her to nourish Radcliffe College. There, she was accompanied by Sullivan, who sat past her side to interpret lectures and texts. Past this time, Keller had mastered several methods of advice, including touch on-lip reading, Braille, speech, typing and finger-spelling.

Keller graduated, cum laude, from Radcliffe College in 1904, at the age of 24.

DOWNLOAD BIOGRAPHY'Due south HELEN KELLER FACT Carte du jour

'The Story of My Life'

With the assist of Sullivan and Macy, Sullivan'southward future married man, Keller wrote her first book, The Story of My Life. Published in 1905, the memoirs covered Keller's transformation from babyhood to 21-twelvemonth-old higher educatee.

Throughout the first half of the 20th century, Keller tackled social and political problems, including women'due south suffrage, pacifism, nascence control and socialism.

After college, Keller set out to larn more about the world and how she could help amend the lives of others. News of her story spread beyond Massachusetts and New England. Keller became a well-known celebrity and lecturer by sharing her experiences with audiences, and working on behalf of others living with disabilities. She testified before Congress, strongly advocating to amend the welfare of blind people.

In 1915, along with renowned urban center planner George Kessler, she co-founded Helen Keller International to gainsay the causes and consequences of blindness and malnutrition. In 1920, she helped plant the American Civil Liberties Union.

When the American Federation for the Bullheaded was established in 1921, Keller had an constructive national outlet for her efforts. She became a fellow member in 1924, and participated in many campaigns to raise sensation, money and back up for the blind. She also joined other organizations dedicated to helping those less fortunate, including the Permanent Blind State of war Relief Fund (later chosen the American Braille Press).

Soon after she graduated from higher, Keller became a member of the Socialist Party, most likely due in office to her friendship with John Macy. Betwixt 1909 and 1921, she wrote several manufactures well-nigh socialism and supported Eugene Debs, a Socialist Political party presidential candidate. Her series of essays on socialism, entitled "Out of the Dark," described her views on socialism and world affairs.

It was during this fourth dimension that Keller kickoff experienced public prejudice nigh her disabilities. For most of her life, the press had been overwhelmingly supportive of her, praising her courage and intelligence. But after she expressed her socialist views, some criticized her by calling attention to her disabilities. One paper, the Brooklyn Eagle, wrote that her "mistakes sprung out of the manifest limitations of her development."

In 1946, Keller was appointed counselor of international relations for the American Foundation of Overseas Blind. Betwixt 1946 and 1957, she traveled to 35 countries on five continents.

In 1955, at historic period 75, Keller embarked on the longest and about grueling trip of her life: a 40,000-mile, v-calendar month trek across Asia. Through her many speeches and appearances, she brought inspiration and encouragement to millions of people.

'The Miracle Worker' Movie

Keller's autobiography, The Story of My Life, was used equally the basis for 1957 television drama The Miracle Worker.

In 1959, the story was developed into a Broadway play of the same title, starring Patty Knuckles as Keller and Anne Bancroft as Sullivan. The two actresses as well performed those roles in the 1962 honour-winning film version of the play.

Awards and Honors

During her lifetime, she received many honors in recognition of her accomplishments, including the Theodore Roosevelt Distinguished Service Medal in 1936, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964, and ballot to the Women's Hall of Fame in 1965.

Keller as well received honorary doctoral degrees from Temple University and Harvard University and from the universities of Glasgow, Scotland; Berlin, Federal republic of germany; Delhi, India; and Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, S Africa. She was named an Honorary Fellow of the Educational Constitute of Scotland.

Death

Keller died in her sleep on June i, 1968, merely a few weeks before her 88th birthday. Keller suffered a series of strokes in 1961 and spent the remaining years of her life at her home in Connecticut.

During her remarkable life, Keller stood equally a powerful example of how determination, difficult work, and imagination can allow an individual to triumph over adversity. By overcoming hard conditions with a nifty deal of persistence, she grew into a respected and world-renowned activist who labored for the betterment of others.

kosovichfortand.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.biography.com/activist/helen-keller

Share this post