Today is the 138th birthday of the activist and role model Helen Keller. We seemed to learn a lot about her when we were kids and then her lessons seem to fall out of style as we grow older. The truth is, her lessons are important for all ages, but most important for adults as we are the ones that can put those concepts into action. I have included some quotes of hers below that resonate with me, I suggest you do some investigating and find some that do the same for you. The world is a better place because she was in it and still feels the loss that she has left.
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NAME: Helen Keller
OCCUPATION: Educator, Journalist
BIRTH DATE: June 27, 1880
DEATH DATE: June 1, 1968
EDUCATION: Radcliffe College, Horace Mann School for the Deaf, Wright-Humason School for the Deaf, Cambridge School for Young Ladies
PLACE OF BIRTH: Tuscumbia, Alabama
PLACE OF DEATH: Easton, Connecticut
PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM: 1964
FRENCH LEGON OF HONOR
NATIONAL WOMENS HALL OF FAME: 1973
BEST KNOWN FOR: American educator Helen Keller overcame the adversity of being blind and deaf to become one of the 20th century’s leading humanitarians, as well as co-founder of the ACLU.
Helen Keller was the first of two daughters born to Arthur H. Keller and Katherine Adams Keller. She also had two older stepbrothers. Keller’s father had proudly served as an officer in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. The family was not particularly wealthy and earned income from their cotton plantation. Later, Arthur became the editor of a weekly local newspaper, the North Alabamian.
Keller was born with her senses of sight and hearing, and started speaking when she was just 6 months old. She started walking at the age of 1.
What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.
In 1882, however, Keller contracted an illness—called “brain fever” by the family doctor—that produced a high body temperature. The true nature of the illness remains a mystery today, though some experts believe it might have been scarlet fever or meningitis. Within a few days after the fever broke, Keller’s mother noticed that her daughter didn’t show any reaction when the dinner bell was rung, or when a hand was waved in front of her face. Keller had lost both her sight and hearing. She was just 19 months old.
As Keller grew into childhood, she developed a limited method of communication with her companion, Martha Washington, the young daughter of the family cook. The two had created a type of sign language, and by the time Keller was 7, they had invented more than 60 signs to communicate with each other. But Keller had become very wild and unruly during this time. She would kick and scream when angry, and giggle uncontrollably when happy. She tormented Martha and inflicted raging tantrums on her parents. Many family relatives felt she should be institutionalized.
When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.
Looking for answers and inspiration, in 1886, Keller’s mother came across a travelogue by Charles Dickens, American Notes. She read of the successful education of another deaf and blind child, Laura Bridgman, and soon dispatched Keller and her father to Baltimore, Maryland to see specialist Dr. J. Julian Chisolm. After examining Keller, Chisolm recommended that she see Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, who was working with deaf children at the time. Bell met with Keller and her parents, and suggested that they travel to the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston, Massachusetts. There, the family met with the school’s director, Michael Anaganos. He suggested Helen work with one of the institute’s most recent graduates, Anne Sullivan. And so began a 49-year relationship between teacher and pupil.
On March 3, 1887, Sullivan went to Keller’s home in Alabama and immediately went to work. She began by teaching six year-old Helen finger spelling, starting with the word “doll,” to help Keller understand the gift of a doll she had brought along. Other words would follow. At first, Keller was curious, 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 hand. Sullivan kept working at it, forcing Helen to go 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 for a time, so that Keller could concentrate only on Sullivan’s instruction. They moved to a cottage on the plantation.
The most pathetic person in the world is some one who has sight but no vision.
In a dramatic struggle, Sullivan taught Keller the word “water”; she helped her make the connection between the object and the letters by taking Keller out to the water pump, and placing Keller’s hand under the spout. While Sullivan moved the lever to flush cool water over Keller’s hand, she spelled out the word w-a-t-e-r on Helen’s other hand. Keller understood and repeated the word in Sullivan’s hand. She then pounded the ground, demanding to know its “letter name.” Sullivan followed her, spelling out the word into her hand. Keller moved to other objects with Sullivan in tow. By nightfall, she had learned 30 words.
In 1890, Keller began speech classes at the Horace Mann School for the Deaf in Boston. She would toil for 25 years to learn to speak so that others could understand her. From 1894 to 1896, she attended the Wright-Humason School for the Deaf in New York City. There, she worked on improving her communication skills and studied regular academic subjects.
What I’m looking for is not out there, it is in me.
Around this time, Keller became determined to attend college. In 1896, she attended the Cambridge School for Young Ladies, a preparatory school 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 so impressed with Keller’s talent, drive and determination that he agreed to pay for her to attend Radcliffe College. There, she was accompanied by Sullivan, who sat by her side to interpret lectures and texts.
By this time, Keller had mastered several methods of communication, including touch-lip reading, Braille, speech, typing and finger-spelling. With the help of Sullivan and Sullivan’s future husband, John Macy, Keller wrote her first book, The Story of My Life. It covered her transformation from childhood to 21-year-old college student. Keller graduated, cum laude, from Radcliffe in 1904, at the age of 24.
In 1905, Sullivan married John Macy, an instructor at Harvard University, a social critic and a prominent socialist. After the marriage, Sullivan continued to be Keller’s guide and mentor. When Keller went to live with the Macys, they both initially gave Keller their undivided attention. Gradually, however, Anne and John became distant to each other, as Anne’s devotion to Keller continued unabated. After several years, they separated, though were never divorced.
While they were saying it couldn’t be done, it was done.
After college, Keller set out to learn more about the world and how she could help improve the lives of others. News of her story spread beyond Massachusetts and New England. She became a well-known celebrity and lecturer by sharing her experiences with audiences, and working on behalf of others living with disabilities. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, Keller tackled social and political issues, including women’s suffrage, pacifism and birth control. She testified before Congress, strongly advocating to improve the welfare of blind people. In 1915, along with renowned city planner George Kessler, she co-founded Helen Keller International to combat the causes and consequences of blindness and malnutrition. In 1920, she helped found the American Civil Liberties Union.
When the American Federation for the Blind was established in 1921, Keller had an effective national outlet for her efforts. She became a member in 1924, and participated in many campaigns to raise awareness, money and support for the blind. She also joined other organizations dedicated to helping those less fortunate, including the Permanent Blind War Relief Fund (later called the American Braille Press).
Until the great mass of the people shall be filled with the sense of responsibility for each others welfare, social justice can never be attained.
Soon after she graduated from college, Keller became a member of the Socialist Party, most likely due in part to her friendship with John Macy. Between 1909 and 1921, she wrote several articles about socialism and supported Eugene Debs, a Socialist 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 time that Keller first experienced public prejudice about 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 newspaper, the Brooklyn Eagle, wrote that her “mistakes sprung out of the manifest limitations of her development.”
In 1936, Keller’s beloved teacher and devoted companion, Anne Sullivan, died. She had experienced health problems for several years and, in 1932, lost her eyesight completely. A young woman named Polly Thomson, who had begun working as a secretary for Keller and Sullivan in 1914, became Keller’s constant companion upon Sullivan’s death.
There is beauty in everything, even in silence and darkness.
In 1946, Keller was appointed counselor of international relations for the American Foundation of Overseas Blind. Between 1946 and 1957, she traveled to 35 countries on five continents. In 1955, at age 75, Keller embarked on the longest and most grueling trip of her life: a 40,000-mile, five-month trek across Asia. Through her many speeches and appearances, she brought inspiration and encouragement to millions of people.
Keller’s autobiography, The Story of My Life, was used as 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 Duke as Keller and Anne Bancroft as Sullivan. The two actresses also performed those roles in the 1962 award-winning film version of the play.
Keller suffered a series of strokes in 1961, and spent the remaining years of her life at her home in Connecticut. 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 election to the Women’s Hall of Fame in 1965. She also received honorary doctoral degrees from Temple University and Harvard University and from the universities of Glasgow, Scotland; Berlin, Germany; Delhi, India; and Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. Additionally, she was named an Honorary Fellow of the Educational Institute of Scotland.
Keller died in her sleep on June 1, 1968, just a few weeks before her 88th birthday. During her remarkable life, Keller stood as a powerful example of how determination, hard work, and imagination can allow an individual to triumph over adversity. By overcoming difficult conditions with a great deal of persistence, she grew into a respected and world-renowned activist who labored for the betterment of others.
Author of books:
The Story of My Life (1902, memoir)
Optimism: An Essay (1903)
The Spirit of Easter (1904)
Our Duties to the Blind (1904, pamphlet)
The World I Live In (1908)
The Practice of Optimism (1909)
The Song of the Stone Wall (1910, poetry)
The Miracle of Life (1910)
Out of the Dark: Essays, Letters, and Addresses on Physical and Social Vision (1913)
My Religion (1927)
Midstream: My Later Life (1929)
We Bereaved (1929)
Double Blossoms (1931, anthology)
Peace at Eventide (1932)
Helen Keller in Scotland: A Personal Record Written By Herself (1933)
Helen Keller’s Journal (1938, memoir)
Let Us Have Faith (1940)
Teacher: Anne Sullivan Macy: A Tribute by the Foster Child of Her Mind (1955)
The Open Door (1957)
Appears on postage stamps:
USA, Scott #1824 (15 cents, with Anne Sullivan, issued 27-Jun-1980)
Source: Helen Keller – Educator, Journalist – Biography.com
Source: Helen Keller – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Source: See Helen Keller and the Leaders She Inspired | TIME
Source: Helen Keller
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It's Words To Live By July on my instagram account!
I will be posting a quote that I love every day for the month of July.
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NAME: Cyndi Lauper
NAME: Helen Keller
It's Words To Live By July on my instagram account!
I will be posting a quote that I love every day for the month of July.
