Biography Adams Keller

At the age of nineteen months, Keller transferred the disease allegedly, scarlet fever; The examining pediatrician classified the disorder as “inflammation of the brain”, as a result of which he was completely lost and vision. In those years, work with similar children had just begun. When Helen reached the age of seven, her parents decided to find the teacher for the daughter of the teacher.

The director of the perkins school for the blind sent them a young specialist Ann Sullivan. Sullivan managed to find an approach to the girl, which was a significant breakthrough in special pedagogy. After graduating from secondary education in several schools, Keller entered the Radcliffe College, where she received a bachelor's degree. In the future, she lived with her unchanged companion Sullivan until the death of the latter.

During the years of study, Helen began to support socialism and joined the Socialist Party in the year. Keller wrote more than a dozen books telling about her experience. Keller became a noticeable philanthropist and activist. She supported the training funds and socialization of disabled people, was an active figure in the American Union for the Protection of Civil Freedom.

For her merits in the year, Lindon Johnson awarded her presidential freedom medal. In addition, Keller became the object of mass culture, where her image was popularized by William Gibson in the play “Creeping a Miracle”. The origin of Helen Adams Keller was born in the city of Taskambia, the administrative center of the Kolbert district. Here her parents owned plantation.

Helen Father was also engaged in the publishing house: for ten years he owned the North Alabamian newspaper. The family, which was quite prosperous in the past, suffered significant damage and lived relatively modestly after the confederation in the Civil War. According to the memoirs of Helen, her parents for a long time could not choose her suitable name. The father suggested calling her Mildred Campbell in honor of one of the great -grandmothers, but her mother wanted to give her daughter the name Helen Everett.

Kate thought that the name Helen means “light”: she wanted the life of the newborn daughter to be filled with light. Arthur lost his wife’s desires, but on the way to church he forgot the name chosen by her. Remembering that the girl was called Helen, he called the priest the name Helen Adams. Arthur was his grandson. One of the Swiss ancestors Helen was the first teacher of the deaf in Zurich and published a book about their training.

Alexander was a relative of the author of “utopia” Thomas Mora. Anne was the daughter of Alexander Athletum, the governor of the colonial Virginia from the year. The athletes came from a noble English family and was a distant relative of the king of Scotland Robert II. In addition, Mary was a second cousin Robert Lee. Arthur Keller was married twice. His first wife Sarah Rosser died in the year.

Keller had two sons from her: James and William. At Kate Adams, who was twenty years younger than him, Arthur married in the year. Kate was the daughter of a soldier Charles Adams and Lucy Everett. Kate quickly got along with the younger stepson William, but her relationship with James remained tense. Helen became the first child of Arthur and Kate Keller.

In the year, they had a second daughter Mildred Campbell. The third child, the son of Philip, was born in the year. The couple lived together to the death of Arthur in the year. Kate passed away in the year. Childhood in the first years Helen was born a healthy child. To her first birthday, she began to walk. She had excellent vision: she easily found pins that fell on the floor.

According to Kate Keller, her daughter at the age of six months was able to utter a few words. She told the household “tea, tea, tea” and asked: “What are you doing? In particular, she remembered the word “water” and could pronounce it, albeit with significant distortions: as “wa-va”. At the age of 19 months, Helen suffered a serious illness that the examining pediatrician classified as “inflammation of the brain”.

Modern doctors suggest that it was actually scarlet, rubella or meningitis. The pediatrician considered that the life of the child is in danger, and was pleasantly surprised when the girl managed to recover. But the happiness of the parents did not last long: after the recovery, Helen completely lost his hearing and vision. The first years of Helen took place in a personal attachment, known as the Green Pain, where her family lived.

The house was built by Grandfather Helen in the year. Before starting work with the teacher, Helen was not able to communicate with home, but could express her desires with gestures. So, she portrayed how slices were cut when she wanted bread. If the girl wanted ice cream to be served for lunch, she showed how to turn the handle of ice cream. Despite the lack of vision and hearing, Helen in childhood was distinguished by a violent and cheerful character.

The girl was friends with her peer, daughter of the black servant Marta Washington. Together, the children loved to be naughty. At the same time, Helen was anger due to what was different from other people: she quickly realized that others used their mouths for communication.The girl tried to repeat the movements of their lips, but each time her attempts did not bring any success.

Because of this, she fell into hysteria, kicked a nanny and broke everything around. Over the years, Helen’s parents doubted the possibility of teaching their daughter and were inclined to decide to send her to a shelter for the disabled. The school, where they wanted to arrange Helen, consisted of two buildings - for the blind and for the deaf. Nevertheless, children with both deviations were accepted there.

Bridzhman also lost vision and hearing in infancy, but was able to adapt in society thanks to her teacher Samuel Haui. Nevertheless, the hopes seemed to the Keller still ghostly: Haui had already died, and his unique experience seemed to die with him. When Helen was six years old, her father heard about the eminent Okulist in Baltimore, who was engaged in complex eye diseases. Together, Keller went to Baltimore, but the doctor was powerless to return her eyes to the girl.

He advised the family to seek advice to Alexander Grayam Bella. Bell, in turn, recommended the director of the perkins school for the blind Michael Ananos, who could choose the teacher of the teacher. Arthur Keller immediately wrote to him. To do this, Keller had to overcome his distrust of the north of schools inherent in the Southerners. A positive answer came in the summer of the year, but Anne Sullivan came only in March of the next.

The start of work with Sullivan Sullivan arrived at the Keller House in March. Subsequently, Helen wrote: "I am filled with amazement when I think about the immense contrast between the two lives connected by this day." Sullivan herself had weak vision and graduated from Perkins school for the blind. She spent her childhood in the shelter of the city of Tuksbury. Upon arrival at the Celler’s house, she was appointed a salary of $ 25.

To instill in the student an understanding of the rules of conduct, Sullivan asked to allocate a separate room to them. Keller gave for this purpose a small extension at the house. Sullivan did not make a discount on the disability of the child: she immediately began to “talk” with Helen with whole sentences. Each letter of the English alphabet had an appropriate equivalent in this language.

Thus, the teacher, when communicating with the ward, used not primitive figurative symbols, but ordinary alphabet. Helen already on the first day established a connection between the signal and receiving the subject and was able to reproduce this signal.

Despite this, the girl did not understand that the movements of Sullivan denote abstract words. The transition from simple repetition to awareness passed at Helen at one moment - when she gained water. Suddenly, she realized that the teacher’s special touches indicate a liquid. This dramatic scene subsequently gained wide fame in American society. At the same time, Helen took a lot of time to understand some nuances of the language.

So, at first she did not understand the difference between nouns and verbs. Also, according to Sullivan, special difficulty caused her student distinguishing between the concepts of Mug mug, Milk milk and drink drink. To convey her thought to the interlocutor, Helen used imitative movements. After the first understanding, Helen began to move rapidly in learning.

About a month later, she understood the difference between nouns and verbs, and after another 19 days she began to form proposals. Among her first phrases was the Baby Eat no child, there is no child when the sister did not want to accept the candy donated to her, and then Baby Teeth No, Baby Eat No, there is no teeth, there is no child. After 11 days, Helen discovered newborn puppies and, feeling them, “said”: Eyes Shut, Sleep no eyes closed, there is no dream.

Then it came to her an understanding of Very's adverb, and she wrote with the help of a tactile alphabet: Baby Small, Puppy Very Small child is small, the puppy is very small. Three months after the start of training, Keller managed to independently write a letter to her friend using the Braille font. She was carried away by reading so much that "contrary to the prohibition, he drags a book printed by Braille alphabet in the evening to secretly read it under the blanket." By the end of July, Helen learned to write with a pencil to explain with people who do not know Brail.