By Kathleen M. Muldoon
Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan
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Ah, June! A whole two months ahead with no school, no tests, no teachers. But is there a teacher, a special teacher, you’ve had this past school year who you’ll miss? I remember some summer vacations when I actually regretted the fact that I would no longer have a particular teacher, and I couldn’t imagine that the new teacher I’d have in the fall could be as good as the teacher I’d left behind. Before I ask about your favorite teachers, I want to tell you about one lady who I consider perhaps the greatest teacher of all time. No, I didn’t know her-she started teaching in 1887-but I’ve read all about her and wish I could have known her. Her name was Anne Sullivan.
Anne had a rough start in life. An illness had left her legally blind as a child, and when her mother died and her father abandoned Anne and her brother, they ended up in an orphanage. Anne was 10 years old. When it became evident that she wanted an education, she had two successful eye surgeries that restored her sight enough that she could attend a school for the blind, from which she graduated when she was 20. She had already made up her mind what she wanted to do. She wanted to teach blind children. Nothing could have prepared her for the challenge of her first student, however, a 7-year-old girl named Helen Keller.
Helen had been born deaf, mute, and blind. Can you imagine what it would be like to never have seen, heard, or spoken? Helen lived in a soundless, dark world she did not understand. Her parents had no idea how to reach her in that dark world. Consequently, Helen was a wild, totally undisciplined child who screeched, pulled out her hair, and banged her head to get attention. She ate with her hands.
If Helen’s wild, animal-like actions scared Anne, she didn’t show it. Instead, right after arriving at the Keller’s home in Alabama, Anne settled into the guest room and then began trying to teach the wild child. She started by spelling words into the palm of Helen’s hand and then touching the girl’s hand to the object she’d spelled. For example, she would spell water-w-a-t-e-r-and then put Helen’s hand under water. Anne did this over and over and over again, maybe a hundred times, maybe a thousand. One month after arriving, Anne succeeded in teaching Helen her first word. “I thought my heart would burst, it was so full of joy,” 21-year-old Anne wrote to a friend.
Anne was not only Helen’s teacher, she was her friend. She accompanied Helen to schools for the deaf and later to Radcliffe College. Throughout Helen’s time as a student, Anne sat beside her, patiently spelling into Helen’s hand whatever the teachers and professors were saying. She and Helen would eventually both work for the American Foundation for the Blind and on raising awareness for all those with disabilities.
Because of her extraordinary achievements in freeing Helen from her dark, silent world, people called Anne Sullivan “The Miracle Worker.” There was even a movie made with that title that tells the story of Anne’s teaching of Helen Keller. If you go to your library, the librarian can help you find one of the many biographies written on both these amazing women.
I didn’t present any of my teachers with the challenges Anne faced with young Helen. To me, though, it’s a minor miracle that one teacher taught me to like math and, perhaps even more miraculous, another taught me to like and accept myself.
What about you? Do you have a favorite teacher, one who has worked tiny miracles in your life? If so, Action readers would love to know! Share the story of your extraordinary teacher by emailing it to action@unitedspinal.org or mailing it to:
KIDS IN ACTION
United Spinal Association
75-20 Astoria Boulevard
ackson Heights, NY 11370-1177
Enjoy your summer without school, books, or teachers-but begin looking forward to the extraordinary teacher to whom you’ll be introduced in the fall.
Kathleen M. Muldoon is a children’s book author and writing instructor for the Institute of Children’s Literature. She lives in San Antonio, Texas.
