English
Review
Lesson: 45
2/13/2023
Corrie.S.P.
Writing assignment: 500 words on this theme: “Which were the key incidents that led her out of her ‘prison.'”
Helen Keller was an extraordinary woman. She could not see or hear. But she learned to read, to speak, to communicate and she even went to collage and graduated with high honors. But she was not always this strong woman. She was once a little girl who was frustrated and mad at the world. Stuck in a prison of darkness and lost. How was she set free?
She was a very smart person. As a child she spoke very early and waked as well. She got a sickness when she was almost two years old, and when she recovered, it left her blind and deaf. As she grew, she was still very intelligent, but she had a hard time communicating. She had simple commands memorized, push meant go, pull mean come. She learned to mime actions if she wanted things done and she had a playmate that got into mischief with her.
When she was six, her family took a trip to an eye doctor to see if anything could be done for Helen’s eyes. He could not do anything, but he sent them to another doctor. That doctor could not do anything either, but he suggested that her parents write to one more doctor who had an institute for children with disabilities. That doctor wrote back that he had found a teacher for Helen and he would send her to them.
Anne Sullivan was then name of the lady who taught Helen to communicate. She was known to Helen as Teacher. She was very patient and firm with Helen. When she first met Helen, the little girl was very violent and prone to tantrums. But eventually with a lot of work, Helen learned her first word: Water. After that she was released part of the way from her prison. She could know the names of things! She learned a lot of names and she said in her autobiography that the summer after she learned to “talk” was amazing as she learned a lot. She communicated through finger symbols that represented letters. The above image is of that sign language. It helped her the strongest I believe.
Another thing that happened to help her was that she learned to read. She learned braille. Braille is a system of raised dots that take the place of letters. With these words, she learned to create sentences and do school lessons. She loved school lessons very much. The only aspect of school that she did not like was Arithmetic. Below is a photo of the Braille alphabet.
The last thing that helped sent Helen Keller free was when she learned to talk. How could this happen you ask? A little girl who could not see lips moving or hear words?
She had heard about another girl like her who had learned to talk, and she wanted to do it herself. She knew other people communicated differently than she did. She learned by placing her hand on the throat, mouth and side of the nose of the person speaking. Teacher and the lady who helped her also told her how to move her tongue and form her mouth. She eventually learned to talk, but it was hard for people who don’t know her to understand. She said that her biggest regret and sadness in life was not being able to speak clearly.
Corrie.S.P.
Miraculus Homeschool 