Helen Keller was 1 ½ years old when she became seriously ill, modern day drs feel she probably had scarlet fever or meningitis. Due to her illness she lost her sight and hearing. She became a blind, deaf, mute. People say she was out of control as a child. She threw constant temper fits, ate like a savage, terrorized the house by throwing things and screaming – her family thought she was a monster who needed to be institutionalized.
Helen’s mother – Kate – sought help for her daughter and ended up consulting Alexander Graham Bell for direction. We know Bell invented the telephone but he considered his true vocation to be teaching deaf children. Through Bell’s advice the Keller’s ended up hiring Anne Sullivan to be Helen’s teacher.
At the age of 6, Helen became Ms. Sullivan’s first student. Anne taught Helen how to finger spell but Helen had no idea what was happening. Yet, a month later the “miracle” occurred. Helen wrote of this moment later, “As someone was drawing water my teacher placed my hand under the spout. As the cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled into the other the word water, first slowly, then rapidly. I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten, a thrill of returning thought, and somehow
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