What was so incredible about helen keller

Учебник Spotlight 9. Student Book. Страница 133

Culture Corner — Уголок культуры

1. Which part(s) of the body do we need for the five senses below? — Какие части тела нам необходимы для нижеперечисленных чувств.

Imagine you don’t have one of these senses. How would your life be different to how it is now? Tell the class. — Представьте себе, что у вас нет одного из этих чувств. Как бы отличалась ваша жизнь от той, которая у вас есть сейчас? Расскажите классу.

2. What do you know about Helen Keller? Why was her life «an inspiration»? Listen, read and check. — Что вы знаете о Хелен Келлер? Почему ее жизнь «источник вдохновения»? Послушайте, прочитайте и проверьте.

Imagine a person who couldn’t see or hear but despite this, they could still write, read and make friends. They also went to university, wrote many books, travelled all over the world and met 12 US presidents. What an amazing person that would be! Incredibly, a person like this really existed! Her name was Helen Keller. She was from Alabama in the USA and she was both blind and deaf.

When Helen was only 1 year old, she had a terrible illness which left her unable to see or hear. Over the next few years, Helen would often scream and be very badly behaved. When she was 7, Helen’s family admitted that they needed help and they found a tutor for her, Anne Sullivan.

Anne, who had very poor eyesight herself, was very strict with Helen. She started to teach her to spell out words with her hands, such as ‘doll’ and ‘cake’ but Helen didn’t really understand what the words meant. Then, one morning, Anne tried something new. She held Helen’s hand under some water and spelled ‘W-A-T-E-R’ into her other hand. That day, Helen learned 30 words!

From then on, Helen progressed rapidly. She learnt to read Braille and to type with both a Braille and an ordinary typewriter. She also learnt to understand what her teacher was saying by feeling her mouth when she spoke.

When Helen was 20, she went to university, where she began to write her first book, ‘The Story of My Life’. She graduated in 1904, becoming the first deaf-blind person to get a degree.

Helen wrote a lot of books and essays, gave lectures around the world and worked hard to raise money for and improve the living conditions of the blind. All in all, Helen’s life was an incredible inspiration.

Представьте себе человека, который не может видеть или слышать, но несмотря на это, может писать, читать и заводить друзей. А также пойти в университет, написать много книг, путешествовать по всему миру и встретиться с 12 президентами США. Какой бы это был удивительный человек! Невероятно, такой человек действительно существовал! Ее звали Хелен Келлер. Она была из Алабамы, США, и она была слепой и глухой.

Когда Хелен было всего 1 год, у неё была ужасная болезнь, из-за которой она больше не смогла видеть или слышать. В течение следующих нескольких лет Хелен часто кричала и вела себя очень плохо. Когда ей было 7 лет, семья Хелен признала, что им нужна помощь, и они нашли для неё репетитора, Энн Салливан.

Энн, у которой было очень плохое зрение, была очень строга с Хелен. Она начала учить её произносить слова руками, например, «куколка» и «кекс», но Хелен не понимала, что означают эти слова. Затем, однажды утром, Энн попробовала кое-что новое. Она держала руку Хелен под водой и написала В-О-Д-А на ее другой руке. В тот день Хелен выучила 30 слов!

С тех пор Хелен быстро прогрессировала. Она научилась читать шрифт Брайля и печатать с помощью шрифта Брайля и на обычной печатной машинке. Она также научилась понимать, что говорил её учитель, чувствуя ее губы, когда она говорила. (На самом деле Хелен прикладывала руку к горлу учителя и по тактильным ощущениям воспринимала слова, которые та произносит).

Когда Хелен было 20 лет, она поступила в университет, где начала писать свою первую книгу «История моей жизни». Она окончила университет в 1904 году, став первым слепо-глухим человеком, получившим научную степень.

Хелен написала много книг и эссе, читала лекции по всему миру и усердно работала, чтобы собрать деньги и улучшить условия жизни слепых. В общем, жизнь Хелен была невероятным источником вдохновения (Ее еще называли «Сотворившая чудо»).

I didn’t hear about Helen Keller. I suppose Helen’s life was an incredible inspiration because she became the first blind-deaf woman who learnt how to speak, read and write. She got a degree at university, wrote many books and had a full-quality life. — Я не слышал о Хелен Келлер. Я полагаю, жизнь Хелен была невероятным источником вдохновением, потому что она стала первой слепо-глухой женщиной, которая научилась говорить, читать и писать. Она получила степень в университете, написала много книг и имела полноценную жизнь.

3. What do the following numbers/dates refer to? — К чему относятся перечисленные числа/даты?

4. Read and answer the questions (1-6). — Прочитайте и ответьте на вопросы 1-6.

5. Try to explain the words in bold in the text from the context they are found in e.g. tutor = teacher. Check in the Word List. — Попытайтесь объяснить слова, выделенные жирным шрифтом в тексте, исходя из контекста, в котором они находятся, например: тьютор = учитель. Сверьтесь со словарем.

6. Write a short summary of the text. Read it to the class. — Напишите краткое содержание текста. Прочитайте его классу.

Helen Keller was an amazing person who despite being blind and deaf could learn how to read, write, make friends and even graduated from university and wrote many books. Helen Keller was from Alabama, USA. At the age of 1 year, she had a terrible illness that left her unable to see or hear. Helen’s childhood was very difficult. Her disability didn’t allow her to communicate with others. So she was angry and behave badly. When she was 7, Helen’s parents found a tutor for her, Anne Sullivan. She managed to teach Helen to communicate with sign language, read and write. It was incredible but Helen became the first blind and deaf person who could achieve great results in studying. Helen could even get a university degree and write many books about her experience. She also held an active social life and inspired many people with her example.

Хелен Келлер была удивительным человеком, и несмотря на то, что была слепой и глухой, смогла научиться читать, писать, завести друзей и даже окончила университет и написала много книг. Хелен Келлер была из Алабамы, США. В возрасте 1 года у нее была ужасная болезнь, из-за которой она не смогла ни видеть, ни слышать. Детство Хелен было очень тяжелым. Ее инвалидность не позволяла ей общаться с другими. Поэтому она злилась и плохо себя вела. Когда ей было 7 лет, родители Хелен нашли для нее тьютора, Энн Салливан. Ей удалось научить Хелен общаться на языке жестов, читать и писать. Это было невероятно, но Хелен стала первым слепым и глухим человеком, который смог добиться больших результатов в учебе. Хелен смогла даже получить университетский диплом и написать много книг о своем опыте. Также она вела активную общественную жизнь и вдохновляла многих своим примером.

7. Portfolio: Find information about a famous person from your country who inspires you and write a short biography of them. You can include: date/place of birth, childhood, what famous for and why, achievements, date of death (if from past) & your own ideas & attitudes.

There are a lot of people in Russia who inspire me with their experience. Valentin Dikul is one of those people. The story of his life is more like a movie in which a man overcomes many difficulties and wins. The Dikul is considered a man of legend. His name that symbolizes the greatest willpower and an unbreakable spirit is known to many people around the world. It was willpower that helped him not only to overcome his terrible injury, but also to start helping people by creating a unique treatment system.

Valentin Dikul was born in 1948 in Kaunas, Republic of Lithuania, USSR. He was born premature, and no one believed the boy would survive. Valentine lost his parents when he was a child, and he got into an orphanage. From that moment on, fighting for life became the norm for Valentine. The only joy in the boy’s life was the circus. Valentin often came to the circus to watch artists’ performances. At the age of 9, Valentine began to learn juggling, acrobatics, wrestling and weightlifting in the circus. At the age of 15, he joined the circus troupe as an air gymnast. During one of the performances, the steel support cross beam suddenly broke. Valentine fell from a height of 13 meters and got more than ten fractures, including a compression fracture of the spine and a cranial injury. Valentin spent more than a week in intensive care. The doctors’ verdict — even if he lives, he won’t walk, he’s disabled. Realizing the doctors’ verdict, Valentine decided for himself that he wouldn’t give up, he would fight for life, would walk again, and then would return to normal life.

While he was at the hospital, Dikul began do exercises. He lifted various objects, stretched a rubber harness, rolled from back to stomach, trained muscles of back, chest, and arms. Valentin also began to study human body structure, muscle anatomy, and biomechanics. Doctors and friends persuaded the artist to stop torturing himself, not to waste time and energy on useless training. However, Valentine did not give up. He even developed a special simulator, which his friends made and installed above his bed, and exhausted himself daily with training. After eight months, Valentine Dikul was released from the hospital with a disability. As long as he could only travel in a wheelchair.

For the next five years, Valentine studied medical literature and trained six hours a day using his own method. Eventually, he did the impossible and learned to walk again. Moreover, he became a power juggler. The tricks Valentine performed are astonishing: he could hold a car on his back, juggle weights, unwrap a bar, hold a metal pyramid that weighs about a ton and much more. All this was done by a man who suffered a spinal fracture. And in 1988, a rehabilitation center was opened, which treated spinal injuries using the Valentine Dikul method. Today in Russia there are such centers in Moscow, Togliatti, and Irkutsk. The Dikul method is used by many rehabilitation doctors, both in Russia and abroad — Dikul centers are opened in the USA, Italy, Japan. The legendary artist himself constantly travels abroad with consultations, to train staff.

Throughout his life, Valentine Dikul has proved that the worst diseases are retreating from human courage. All you have to do is focus on the desire to live — and the worst disease will go away.

В России есть много людей, чей опыт вдохновляет меня. Валентин Дикуль – один из таких людей. Его история жизни больше похожа на фильм, в котором человек преодолевает множество трудностей и побеждает. Дикуля считают человеком-легендой, его имя, символизирующее величайшую силу воли и несгибаемый дух, известно многим людям во всем мире. Именно сила воли помогла ему не просто побороть страшное увечье, но и затем начать помогать людям, создав уникальную систему лечения.

Валентин Дикуль родился в 1948 году в Каунасе, Литовская Республика, СССР. Он родился недоношенным, и никто не верил, что мальчик выживет. Еще в раннем детстве Валентин потерял своих родителей и попал в детский дом. С этого момента борьба за жизнь стала для Валентина нормой. Единственной радостью в жизни мальчика был цирк. Валентин часто приходил в цирк, чтобы посмотреть на выступления артистов. В 9 лет Валентин начал учиться жонглированию, заниматься акробатикой, борьбой и тяжелой атлетикой в цирке. В 15 лет он вступил в цирковую труппу в качестве воздушного гимнаста. Во время одного из выступлений стальная опорная перекладина сломалась. Валентин упал с высоты 13 метров и получил более десяти переломов, включая компрессионный перелом позвоночника и черепно-мозговую травму. Более недели Валентин пробыл в реанимации. Вердикт – даже, если выживет, ходить не будет, полная инвалидность. Осознав приговор врачей, Валентин решил для себя, что он не сдастся, будет бороться за жизнь, снова начнет ходить, а затем вернется к нормальной жизни.

Находясь в больнице, Дикуль начал делать упражнения. Он поднимал различные предметы, растягивал резиновый жгут, перекатывался со спины на живот, тренировал мышцы спины, груди, рук. Также Валентин начал изучать строение человеческого тела, анатомию мышц, биомеханику. Врачи и друзья уговаривали артиста перестать мучать себя, не тратить время и силы на бесполезные тренировки. Однако, Валентин не сдавался. Он даже разработал специальный тренажер, который друзья сделали и установили над его кроватью, и ежедневно изнурял себя тренировками. Через восемь месяцев Валентина Дикуля выписали из больницы с инвалидностью. Пока он мог передвигаться только в инвалидной коляске.

В течение последующих пяти лет Валентин изучал медицинскую литературу и тренировался по 6 часов в день по собственной методике. В конце концов он совершил невозможное и заново научился ходить. Более того, он стал силовым жонглером. Трюки, которые выполнял Валентин, поражают воображение: он мог удерживать на спине автомобиль, жонглировал гирями, раскручивал штангу, удерживал металлическую пирамиду, которая весит около тонны и многое другое. Все это делал человек, который перенес перелом позвоночника. А в 1988 году открылся центр реабилитации, где проводилось лечение травм позвоночника по методу Валентина Дикуля. Сегодня в России такие центры есть в Москве, Тольятти и Иркутске. Метод Дикуля применяют многие врачи, занимающиеся реабилитацией, как в России, так и за рубежом – центры Дикуля открыты в США, Италии, Японии. Сам легендарный артист постоянно выезжает заграницу с консультациями, для обучения персонала.

Всей своей жизнью Валентин Дикуль доказал – перед человеческим мужеством отступают самые страшные болезни. Необходимо только лишь сконцентрироваться на желании жить — и самая страшная болезнь отступит.

8 incredible facts about Helen Keller

We’ve dug a little deeper on Helen Keller’s story to share with you some lesser known facts about this remarkable woman.

You would all know the story of Helen Keller, the well known writer, political activist and pioneer for people with disability.

But there’s a lot more to Helen’s story than you’ve probably heard – so we decided to dig a little deeper, and share some lesser known facts about this remarkable woman.

#1. A childhood illness took Helen’s sight and hearing

Helen Keller wasn’t born with a disability, but when she was only 19 months old, she became sick with what the doctors called “an acute congestion of the stomach and the brain”. These days her illness probably would have been labelled Scarlet Fever or Meningitis – both which could now be treated, but back then they often had severe consequences.

A few days after Helen’s fever broke, her Mum noticed she wasn’t responding when the bell was rung for dinner, or when a hand was waved in front of her face.

Soon after, they realised that Helen had lost both her sight and hearing.

#2. Helen was called an ‘unruly child’ when she was young

When Helen was a a young child, her behaviour had become highly erratic. She was having daily outbursts of emotion; kicking and screaming when she felt angry, and giggling uncontrollably when she was happy. Many of her relatives even thought she be put in an institution

But the truth was, this behaviour really only boiled down to her high level of intelligence, and her frustration at not being able to communicate once she realised other were having conversations she couldn’t join.

The desire to be able to speak out became so strong, Helen even created a kind of sign language with her friend Marsha Washington – and by the time she was just seven years old, they’d already made up over 60 signs to communicate to each other.

#3. Helen believed her life started at the age of seven

It wasn’t until Helen met her teacher Anne Sullivan (who went on to become her mentor and friend), that she believed her ‘soul was born’.

Anne showed up in Helen’s life in March 1887, when Helen was seven years old. Only 14 years older than Helen, Anne was also visually impaired and just recently graduated from school.

Before long, Anne had taught Helen ‘finger spelling’, which allowed her to finally communicate with those around her.

To do this, Anne gave Helen an object such as a doll and traced the word ‘d-o-l-l’ onto her palm.

At first Helen did not make the connection between the letters on her palm and the objects. But the famous watershed moment came when Anne took Helen to the water pump outside and while spelling “w-a-t-e-r” into Helen’s palm, let water run over the girl’s other hand.

Quickly, she stopped and touched the earth and demanded its letter name and by nightfall she had learned 30 words.

#4. She called Mark Twain a best mate

Surprising but true! Helen met Mark when she was just 14, when going to Cambridge School for Young Ladies, and they stayed close friends until Mark’s death 16 years later.

Handily for Helen, Mark smoked 10 to 20 cigars a day, so she could easily recognise her friend from his scent.

When describing Mark in her autobiography, she wrote, “he treated me not as a freak, but as a handicapped woman seeking a way to circumvent extraordinary difficulties.”

#5. Helen was the very first person who was deaf and blind to graduate

In 1900 Helen was accepted into the famous Radcliff College in Cambridge (along with her loyal teacher Anne, who attended alongside her to help interpret lectures and texts).

It was during Helen’s junior year here that she wrote her autobiography, ‘The Story of My Life’.

By 1904, she had not only written a book, but graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, becoming the first person who was deaf and blind to earn a college degree.

By the time she went to college, she had also mastered several ways to communicate, including reading by touching people’s lips, braille, typing and finger spelling. She had also learned to speak, although she was always unhappy with her voice as it was hard to understand.

#6. Helen was on the FBI’s radar

Helen was a true pioneer in her time, and for a woman living in the early 20th century, she was very political and was seen to have some pretty radical ideas.

She went on to become a world-famous author and speaker, with a particular focus on speaking out for people with disabilities.

But she didn’t stop there – she also focused on social and political issues, tackling a women’s right to vote and use birth control, and was avidly anti-war (something Mark Twain and Helen had in common). Helen also founded the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

She was even investigated by the FBI because of her extreme left views.

#7. She was forbidden from marrying her fiancé

It’s heart-breaking and hard to understand, but in Helen’s day, society believed that women with disabilities shouldn’t fall in love or experience romance of any kind – let alone get married.

But when Helen was 36 she fell deeply in love with a man called Peter Fagan, an ex-newspaper reporter who was working as her secretary, and they were secretly engaged.

They even managed to get a marriage license before Helen’s family caught on and forbid them from going any further because of her disabilities.

Helen regretted never marrying, sadly saying later “If I could see, I would marry first of all.”

#8. Helen’s teacher died while holding her hand

Helen remained close to her beloved teacher Anne for an incredible 49 years.

In 1936, Anne went into a coma after suffering with coronary thrombosis, and heartbreakingly, she died. Right up until the end Helen was there with her, and was holding onto Helen’s hand when she died.

Even to this day they’re still by each other’s side – with Helen’s ashes being placed next to Anne’s in 1968, when she died peacefully in her sleep.

Переводы текстов Spotlight 9 класс-Culture corner

Представьте себе человека, который бы не мог видеть и слышать, но, несмотря на это, мог бы еще и писать, читать и дружить. Кроме того,
он бы учился в университете, писал много книг, путешествовал по миру и встречался бы с 12 американскими президентами. Что за удивительный человек был бы! Невероятно, но такой человек на самом деле существует! Ее звали Хелена Келлер. Она была из штата Алабама в США, и она была и слепой и глухой.
Когда Хелене было всего 1 год, у нее была страшная болезнь, которая оставила ее не в состоянии видеть и слышать. В течение следующих нескольких лет, Хелена часто кричала и вела себя очень плохо. Когда ей было 7, семья Хелены призналась, что они нуждаются в помощи, и они нашли репетитора для нее, Энн Салливан.
Энн, у которой у самой были проблемы со зрением, была очень строга с Хеленой. Она начала учить выкладывать слова своими руками, такие как «кукла» и «пирог», но Елена не очень понимала, что слово означает. Затем, однажды утром, Энн попыталась что-то новое. Она протянула одну руку Хелены под воду, а на другой руке написала слово «в-о-д-а». В тот день Хелена узнала 30 слов! С тех пор обучение Хелены развивалась быстрыми темпами. Она научилась читать азбуку Брайля и печатать как с азбукой Брайля, так и с обычной пишущей машинкой. Она также научилась понимать, что ее учитель говорил, читая по губам, когда она говорила.
Когда Хелене было 20 лет, она поступила в университет, где начала писать свою первую книгу «История моей жизни». Окончила университет в 1904 году, став первым слепоглухим человеком, который получил степень в науке.
Хелена написал много книг и статей, читала лекции по всему миру и упорно трудилась, чтобы собрать деньги на улучшения условий жизни слепых. В общем, жизнь Хелены была невероятно вдохновленной.

1 Какие части тела нужны для пяти чувств ниже?
•слух • осязать• вид • вкус • запах
► Нам нужны наши уши, чтобы слышать.
Представьте, что у вас нет ни одного из этих чувств. Как бы ваша жизнь отличалась от нынешней? Скажите классу.
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2 Что вы знаете о Хелен Келлер? Почему ее жизнь является «вдохновением»? Прослушайте, прочитайте и проверьте.
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3 К чему следующие номера/даты относятся?
• 30 • 1904 • 20 • 1 • 7 • 12
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4 Прочитайте и ответьте на вопросы (1-6).
1 Что настолько невероятно о Хелен Келлер?
2 Какой была Хелен, когда она была ребенком? Почему вы думаете, что она была такая?
3 Как Энн Салливан повлияла на жизнь Хелен?
4 Чего Хелен достигла, когда она стала взрослой?
5 Что впечатляет вас больше всего в Хелен Келлер?
6 Что мы можем узнать из жизни Хелен?
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5 Попробуйте объяснить слова жирным шрифтом в тексте из контекста, где они находятся, например, «Репетитор = учитель». Проверьте в списке слов.
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6 Создать краткое резюме текста. Прочитайте его к классу.
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Imagine a person who couldn’t see or hear but despite this, they could still write, read and make friends. They also went to university, wrote many books, travelled all over the world and met 12 US presidents. What an amazing person that would be! Incredibly, a person like this really existed! Her name was Helen Keller. She was from Alabama in the USA and she was both blind and deaf. When Helen was only 1 year old, she had a terrible illness which left her unable to see or hear. Over the next few years, Helen would often scream and be very badly behaved. When she was 7, Helen’s family admitted that they needed help and they found a tutor for her, Anne Sullivan.
Anne, who had very poor eyesight herself, was very strict with Helen. She started to teach her to spell out words with her hands, such as ‘doll’ and ‘cake’ but Helen didn’t really understand what the words meant. Then, one morning, Anne tried something new. She held Helen’s hand under some water and spelled ‘W-A-T-E-R’ into her other hand. That day, Helen learned 30 words! From then on, Helen progressed rapidly. She learnt to read Braille and to type with both a Braille and an ordinary typewriter. She also learnt to understand what her teacher was saying by feeling her mouth when she spoke. When Helen was 20, she went to university, where she began to write her first book, ‘The Story of My Life’. She graduated in 1904, becoming the first deaf-blind person to get a degree.
Helen wrote a lot of books and essays, gave lectures around the world and worked hard to raise money for and improve the living conditions of the blind. All in all, Helen’s life was an incredible inspiration.

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14 Surprising Facts About Helen Keller That They Don’t Teach You In School

If you’ve been granted even the scantest American education, you’ve probably heard of Helen Keller, the incredible woman who fought her way to prominence after being left both deaf and blind at just 19 months old.

Thanks to the help of her famed teacher Anne Sullivan, Keller was no longer isolated and able to communicate on behalf of the disenfranchised. She was a tireless advocate for education and women’s rights until her peaceful death in 1968. For decades, her perseverance and ingenuity have been righteously celebrated by legions of fans who stand in awe of her achievements. Seriously, without the benefit of sight or hearing, Keller managed to figure out a way to communicate with the world around her with unfailing accuracy. Imagine the kind of brilliance that takes.

The flip side of Keller’s intelligence was her increasingly radical social and political beliefs. In her zest to conquer life, Helen Keller was turned on to some revolutionary (and often eccentric) perspectives, and Keller herself was never one to shy away from new ways of thought. You’ve heard about Helen Keller’s relationship with Sullivan and her courageous quest experience the world even though she could neither see nor hear it, but there’s more to the icon than just the Hallmark Channel stuff.

Her Father And Grandfathers Were Big Shots In The Confederacy

Although she was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama, Helen Keller left the American South (never to really return) when she was eight years old. However, both her parents and grandparents had deep ties to the Antebellum South. In fact, her paternal grandfather was Robert E. Lee’s second cousin and came down from Massachusetts prior to the war in order to fight for the Confederacy. In addition, her father was a Confederate captain, and her maternal grandfather was a Confederate general. Those are some deep Southern roots!

However, regardless of his ideological dubiousness, Keller’s father was also a newspaper editor and, paradoxically perhaps, a big believer in education.

Alexander Graham Bell Referred Her Parents To Anne Sullivan’s School

Not a lot of people know that Alexander Graham Bell devoted a lot of time and energy to helping deaf people speak and hear. This urge most likely went back to his own mother’s hearing loss. Today, Bell’s work is considered somewhat controversial (he fought to ban sign language in the education of deaf people). At any rate, in 1886, at the height of his fame, he agreed to meet with Arthur and Kate Keller and discuss the hardships facing their daughter.

On their first meeting, Helen said she, “loved him at once,” after he made his pocket watch chime so she could feel the vibration. It was Bell who referred the Kellers to the Perkins Institution in Boston. And, though Bell referred Keller to another doctor, he maintained an active interest in her education. The two maintained a lifelong friendship.

The Akita Dog Was First Brought To America Thanks To Keller

In 1937, Helen Keller and her companion Polly Thomson went on a speaking tour of Japan, a country that often called Keller “Saint Keller” and “Saint of Three Burdens” among a litany of other reverent titles. It was on this trip that Keller visited Japan’s Akita district where she hoped to encounter the site of a legendary Akita named Hachi-Ko.

Hachi-Ko achieved fame for his insane loyalty. The dog would follow his beloved master to the train every day and then greet him precisely at 3:00 pm. Then, one day, Hachi-Ko’s owner had a stroke and died in the city. Hachi-Ko dutifully met the 3:00 pm train, waiting long into the night for his owner to return. In spite of being given to friends of the family miles away, Hachi-Ko continued to return to the train station, sharply at 3:00, day after day.

Keller had become interested in the story and subsequently fell in love with the breed. When she expressed interest in meeting one, plans were made for her to meet Kamikaze, a puppy that Keller introduced to the United States.

The Truth About Helen Keller

Children’s books about Helen Keller distort her life

Illustrator: Brown Brothers Photography

The “Helen Keller story” that is stamped in our collective consciousness freezes her in childhood; we remember her most vividly at age seven when her teacher, Annie Sullivan, connected her to language through a magical moment at the water pump. We learned little of her life beyond her teen years, except that she worked on behalf of the handicapped.

But there is much more to Helen Keller’s history than a brilliant deaf and blind woman who surmounted incredible obstacles. Helen Keller was a socialist who believed she was able to overcome many of the difficulties in her life because of her class privilege – a privilege not shared by most of her blind or deaf contemporaries. “I owed my success partly to the advantages of my birth and environment,” she said. ” I have learned that the power to rise is not within the reach of everyone.” More than an icon of American “can-do,” Helen Keller was a tireless advocate of the poor and disenfranchised.

Helen Keller was someone who worked throughout her long life to achieve social change; she was an integral part of many important social movements in the 20th century. Her life story could serve as a fascinating example for children, but most picture books about Helen Keller are woefully silent about her life’s work. It’s time to start telling the truth about Helen Keller.

COVERT CENSORSHIP: PROMOTING THE INDIVIDUAL

“The world is moved not only by the mighty stories of heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.”

Helen Keller

In the last decade, there has been a surge in literature for children that depicts people who have worked for social change. On a recent search for non-fiction picture books that tell the stories of those involved in social activism, I found scores of books – beautifully illustrated multicultural texts. Initially, I was delighted to be able to share these books with kids in my neighborhood and school. But as my collection grew, so did my frustration.

One problem with many of the books is that they stress the individual rather than the larger social movements in which they worked. In his critique of popular portrayals of the Rosa Parks story, educator and author Herb Kohl argues convincingly that her role in the Montgomery bus strike is framed again and again as that of a poor, tired seamstress acting out of personal frustration rather than as a community leader in an organized struggle against racism. [See “The Politics of Children’s Literature,” p. 37 in Rethinking Our Classrooms, Vol. I]

Picture books frame the stories of many other key community leaders and social activists in similar ways. Activist and educator Patrick Shannon’s careful analysis of the underlying social message of books for young readers highlights this important finding: “Regardless of the genre type, the authors of these books promoted concern for self-development, personal emotions, self-reliance, privacy, and competition rather than concern for social development, service to community, cooperation toward shared goals, community, and mutual prosperity” (1988, p. 69).

I first became interested in the activist work of Helen Keller a few years ago when I read James Loewen’s Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong (1995). Loewen concludes that the way that Helen Keller’s life story is turned into a “bland maxim” is lying by omission. When I turned to the many picture books written about her, I was discouraged to discover that books for young children retain that bland flavor, negating the power of her life work and the lessons she herself would hope people would take from it. Here is a woman who worked throughout her long life as a radical advocate for the poor, but she is depicted as a kind of saintly role model for people with handicaps.

THE IMAGE OF HELEN KELLER IN PICTURE BOOKS

For the purposes of this investigation, I chose six picture books published from 1965 through 1997, which are the most readily available from bookstores and websites. Four of the six covers depict the famous moment at the well where Annie, her teacher, spells “water” into Helen’s hand. This clichéd moment is the climax of each book, just as it is in the movies made about her life. To most people, Helen remains frozen in time in her childhood. According to these picture books, she is to be remembered for two things after she grew up: her “courage” and her “work with the blind and deaf.”

Young Helen Keller, Woman of Courage is typical. The first 29 pages bring us to Helen, age 12, who can read and write “and even speak.” The last page, page 30, sums up the remaining 66 years of her life:

When Helen was 20, she did something that many people thought was impossible. She went to college. Annie went with her to help her study. Helen spent her life helping blind and deaf people. She gave speeches and wrote many books. Helen Keller died on June 1, 1968. But people all over the world still remember her courageous, helpful life.

But courage to do what? The statements that sum up her “courageous accomplishments” are ambiguous and confusing. “She gave speeches and wrote books.” What were they about? What did she do that was so courageous?

None of the children’s books I reviewed mentioned that in 1909 Helen Keller became a socialist and a suffragist – movements that framed most of her writing. “I felt the tide of opportunity rising and longed for a voice that would be equal to the urge sweeping me out into the world,” she wrote.

The picture books omit the courage that took Helen Keller farther away from her home to visit povertystricken neighborhoods in New York City, where she witnessed the horror of the crowded, unhealthy living conditions in tenement buildings. Outraged about the child labor practices she encountered, she began to educate herself about efforts to organize unions and the violence that organizers and strikers faced. She wrote angry articles about the Ludlow Massacre, where, in an attempt to break a miners’ strike, the Colorado National Guard shot 13 people and burned alive 11 children and two women. The Ludlow Mine belonged to the powerful millionaire John D. Rockefeller, and Rockefeller had paid the wages of the National Guard. When newspapers hesitated to publish her articles, Helen Keller spoke out publicly against Rockefeller: “I have followed, step by step, the developments in Colorado, where women and children have been ruthlessly slaughtered. Mr. Rockefeller is a monster of capitalism,” she declared. “He gives charity in the same breath he permits the helpless workmen, their wives and children to be shot down.”

Helen Keller was not afraid to ask tough, “impolite” questions: “Why in this land of great wealth is there great poverty?” she wrote in 1912. “Why [do] children toil in the mills while thousands of men cannot get work, why [do] women who do nothing have thousands of dollars a year to spend?”

This courage to speak out for what she believed in is also ignored in the picture book Helen Keller: Courage in the Dark. Here, her achievements are summed up on the final page:

Helen’s story has been retold over and over. She has been the subject of books, plays, films, and television programs. The United States Postal Service has dedicated a stamp to her. And an organization with her name works to help blind people. Helen Keller’s life was filled with silence and darkness. But she had the courage and determination to light her days. This is courage at its blandest – and most passive.

Notice that Helen herself is simply an icon – a “subject” of the media, the name behind an organization, and of course, best of all, an image on a stamp!

What a contrast to Helen Keller’s own commitment to an active, productive life. When she wrote her autobiography in 1929, Keller declared, “I resolved that whatever role I did play in life, it would not be a passive one.” Children don’t learn that Helen Keller not only supported organizations to support blind people, she supported radical unions like the Industrial Workers of the World, becoming a Wobbly herself. Nor do they learn of her support for civil-rights organizations like the NAACP and that W.E.B. DuBois printed news of her financial donations and the text of her letter of support in the organization’s publication. “Ashamed in my very soul, I behold in my beloved south-land the tears of those oppressed, those who must bring up their sons and daughters in bondage to be servants, because others have their fields and vineyards, and on the side of the oppressor is power.”

The two best-selling picture books on Helen Keller listed at amazon.com are: A Picture Book of Helen Keller (Adler) and A Girl Named Helen Keller (Lundell). The theme of passive courage is at the center of both these books as well. At least in Lundell’s book, Helen is credited with some action. After focusing on her childhood for 42 of the book’s 44 pages, the author sums up Helen Keller’s life with the following list:

In her life, Helen wrote 5 books. She traveled many places. She met kings and presidents. She spoke to groups of people around the world. Most of the work she did was to help people who were blind or deaf. She was a warm and caring person. People loved her in return. The life of Helen Keller brought hope to many.

Helen Keller herself would probably be horrified by this vague and misleading representation of her life’s work. She spoke to groups of people around the world – ah, but what did she say? Lundell doesn’t hint that she said things like, “The future of America rests on the leaders of 80 million working men and women and their children. To end the war and capitalism, all you need to do is straighten up and fold your arms.” Lundell is equally vague about the content of her books, neglecting to mention essays such as “How I Became a Socialist”or books such as Out of the Dark: Essays, Letters, and Addresses on Physical and Social Vision (1913).

Lundell’s synopsis of Keller’s accomplishments focuses on the famous people – “kings and presidents” – who she met in her life. But at the core of her commitment was being part of work for political change with others, taking part in rallies, marches, meeting with friends to talk politics and to strategize. “I have never felt separated from my fellow men by the silent dark,” she wrote. “Any sense of isolation is impossible since the doors of my heart were thrown open and the world came in.” She showed that connection to her fellow workers in her actions again and again.

One fascinating example occurred in 1919, when Keller starred in Deliverance, a silent movie about her life. Helen supported the Actors Equity Union’s strike by refusing to cross the picket line to attend the opening – and by joining a protest march with the striking actors.

David Adler’s Picture Book of Helen Keller is the best-selling illustrated biography of Helen Keller for young readers. Like the other books I reviewed, this one focuses almost solely on her life before graduating from Radcliffe. The two important adult episodes Adler includes are her visits to blind soldiers during World War II and her work for the American Foundation for the Blind. The book ignores her phenomenal and productive life work as a writer and social activist. On the last page of the book, Adler sums up her life work: “Helen Keller couldn’t see or hear, but for more than eighty years, she had always been busy. She read and wrote books. She learned how to swim and even how to ride a bicycle. She did many things well. But most of all, Helen Keller brought hope and love to millions of handicapped people.”

Adler has space to note that Helen Keller learned to swim and ride a bicycle, but not to state that she helped found the American Civil Liberties Union or take on the medical establishment to change health care for infants. The inadequacy of the information in these books for children is staggering. Her life of hard work is reduced to the phrase “she had always been busy.”

Children could also learn from Helen Keller’s compassion and recommitment to pacifism after her visit to Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1948. Deeply moved by the people she met and what they described to her, she wrote that the experience “scorched a deep scar” in her soul and that she was more than ever determined to fight against “the demons of atomic warfare … and for peace.”

WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS STORY?

“So long as I confine my activities to social service and the blind, they compliment me extravagantly, calling me ‘archpriestess of the sightless,’ ‘wonder woman,’ and ‘a modern miracle,” Helen wrote to her friend Robert LaFollette, an early pacifist who ran for president as a third-party Progressive candidate in 1924. “But when it comes to a discussion of poverty, and I maintain that it is the result of wrong economics – that the industrial system under which we live is at the root of much of the physical deafness and blindness in the world – that is a different matter!”

While she was alive, Helen Keller fought against the media’s tendency to put her on a pedestal as a “model” sweet, good-natured, handicapped person who overcame adversity. The American Foundation for the Blind depended on her as spokesperson, but some of its leaders were horrified by her activism. As Robert Irwin, the executive director of the foundation, wrote to one of the trustees, “Helen Keller’s habit of playing around with Communists and near-Communists has long been a source of embarrassment to her conservative friends. Please advise!”

In the years since her death, her lifelong work as a social justice activist has continued to be swept under the rug. As her biographer Dorothy Herrmann concludes:

“Missing from her curriculum vitae are her militant socialism and the fact that she once had to be protected by six policemen from an admiring crowd of 2,000 people in New York after delivering a fiery speech protesting America’s entry into World War I. The war, she told her audience, to thunderous applause, was a capitalist ploy to further enslave the workers. As in her lifetime, Helen Keller’s public image remains one of an angelic, sexless, deaf-blind woman who is smelling a rose as she holds a Braille book open on her lap.”

But why is her activism so consistently left out of her life stories? Stories such as this are perpetuated to fill a perceived need. The mythical Helen Keller creates a politically conservative moral lesson, one that stresses the ability of the individual to overcome personal adversity in a fair world. The lesson we are meant to learn seems to be: “Society is fine the way it is. Look at Helen Keller! Even though she was deaf and blind, she worked hard – with a smile on her face – and overcame her disabilities. She even met kings, queens, and presidents, and is remembered for helping other handicapped people. So what do you have to complain about in this great nation of ours?”

This demeaning view of Helen Keller celebrates her in a way that keeps her in her place. She never gets to be an adult; rather she is framed as a grown-up child who overcame her handicap. Like other people with disabilities, Helen Keller deserves to be known for herself and not defined by her blindness or her deafness. She saw herself as a free and self-reliant person – as she wrote, “a human being with a mind of my own.”

It’s time to move beyond the distorted and dangerous Helen Keller myth, repeated in picture book after picture book. It’s time to stop lying to children and go beyond Keller’s childhood drama and share the remarkable story of her adult life and work. What finer lesson could children learn than the rewards of the kind of engaged life that Helen Keller lived as she worked with others toward a vision of a more just world?

Ruth Shagoury Hubbard (hubbard@lclark.edu.) teaches language arts and literacy courses at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore.

HELEN KELLER CHRONOLOGY

David Adler’s best-selling A Picture Book of Helen Keller includes an ending chronology, typical of the dates that other authors include about Helen Keller’s life:

1880 Born on June 27 in Tuscumbia, Alabama.

1882 As a result of illness, became deaf and blind.

1887 Met Anne Sullivan.

1900 Entered Radcliffe College.

1924 Began to work for the American Federation for the Blind.

1936 Ann Sullivan died on October 20.

1946 Visited injured soldiers.

1964 Received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Lyndon Johnson.

1968 Died on June 1. There are a few dates I would add to this chronology that highlight her lifelong commitment to social justice:

1903 The Story of My Life is published – first in a series of articles in The Ladies’ Home Journal, and then as a book.

1907 Helen writes a groundbreaking article for The Ladies’ Home Journal in an effort to prevent blindness among infants caused by the mother’s venereal disease. (She rallies forces to convince the medical establishment to treat children’s eyes at birth with a cleansing solution as a regular procedure.)

1908 Publication of The World I Live In.

1909 Becomes a socialist and a suffragist.

1912 Publicly speaks out in favor of birth control, and in support of Margaret Sanger’s work

1914 Demonstrates with the Woman’s Peace Party to call for peace in Europe; after the demonstration, she makes an impassioned speech for pacifism and socialism in crowded Carnegie Hall.

1915 Writes articles publicly denouncing Rockefeller as a “monster of Capitalism,” responsible for the Ludlow Massacre, (at his coal mine in Ludlow, Colorado) where men, women, and children were killed in a bloody confrontation between strikers and the militia.

1916 Openly supports the Industrial Workers of the World.

1917 Donates money to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and writes a supportive article in the NAACP Journal.

1918 Helps found the American Civil Liberties Union to fight for freedom of speech.

1919 Stars in Deliverance, a silent movie about her life; supports Actors Equity Union’s strike by refusing to cross the picket line to attend the opening.

1924 Campaigns for Robert LaFollette, a Progressive running for president as a third-party candidate.

1929 Publication of Midstream: My Later Life.

1948 Visits “the black silent hole” that had once been Hiroshima and Nagasaki and recommits herself to the anti-war movement.

1961 Suffers first stroke; retires from public life.

RESOURCES ON HELEN KELLER

Lawlor, Laurie. 2001. Helen Keller: Rebellious Spirit. (New York: Holiday House). A new biography for adolescents with excellent photographs to document Keller’s life.

Herrman, Dorothy. 1989. Helen Keller: A Life. (Chicago, Ill: University of Chicago Press). A fine recent biography that covers her adult life as well as her famous childhood.

Keller, Helen. 1929. Midstream: My Later Life. (Garden City, NY: Doubleday). Helen Keller’s fascinating autobiography as an adult gives readers a taste of her writing voice, her passionate beliefs, and her social convictions.