As a child, I was an avid reader. A trip to the library was as exciting for me as any ride at an amusement park. I read about Helen Keller and filed her away in my memory as a hero. I was amazed at how much she accomplished with so many disabilities.
Although the world is full of suffering; it is full of overcoming it. Helen Keller
As an adult, I enjoy refreshing my memory on subjects that intrigued me in my youth; I recently reread a lot of material on Helen Keller, her struggles as a child, her mentor Anne Sullivan, and the life she chose to pursue as an adult. I had forgotten a lot of her amazing accomplishments. I developed a renewed respect for such an incredible woman. She overcame many disabilities and went on to live an accomplished life as a proficient public speaker and a gifted writer.
I am not afraid of storms for I am learning to sail my ship. Helen Keller
Among her endeavors, she graduated from Radcliffe College, lectured all over America, Europe, and Asia, met twelve U.S. presidents, dedicated forty years of her life to The American Foundation for the Blind, and wrote ten books. Helen Keller started her remarkable journey when at the age of nine, her parents hired Anne Sullivan to teach her. Ms. Sullivan’s techniques were innovative for the times. She had lived a difficult life herself, raised in an orphanage and was, what we would consider today, legally blind. With Anne Sullivan’s guidance, Helen learned to read, write, and comprehend the world and what was in it. They remained companions until Anne Sullivan died in the nineteen thirties.
Everything has it’s wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I am in, therein to be content. Helen Keller
Drawing on inspiration is a dynamic we as parents should never underestimate. By giving our child role models like Helen Keller to inspire him, we give him the hope that he too can accomplish anything he chooses, despite any disability. If we work with our child, as Anne Sullivan did with Helen, we can give him the tools he needs to accomplish great things, starting with learning the basics. Before Helen could write a book, she had to stand at the well and learn to associate water with the word spelled out in her hand. I can only guess the emotion that must have swept through her as she learned her first word and how to relate it to an object. The little girl that stood by the well was so excited about gaining knowledge of her first word, she learned thirty words that day.
Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved. Helen Keller
Helen Keller died in 1968, the same year I graduated high school. Through her desire for knowledge, despite the adversities she had to overcome, Helen proved to the world anything is possible. A valuable example any parent can use to motivate a child.
Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible. Helen Keller