THE LIFE OF HELEN KELLER

For the first nineteen months of her life Helen Keller was like other happy cute babies in every way. Then all of a sudden she lost her ability to see and hear. As she could not hear what other people were saying, Helen could not learn to speak. For the next seven years, she lived in a world of darkness, without sounds or words. She had a very difficult childhood.

In 1887, her teacher, Anne Sullivan, who entered Helen’s life, changed Helen’s world. Miss Sullivan accepted a job which seemed impossible. She accepted being the teacher of a blind and deaf girl. It was difficult because Helen didn’t know how to behave like a normal human being. It wasn’t very easy to control her actions. Most of the time she was acting wild, shouting, throwing things and hitting others when she was angry. No one believed that this child could be educated. But Anne Sullivan was a very special teacher. During her childhood, she lost her sight for a short time because of an illness, and she learnt to read Braille, a system of writing that uses raised dots which can be felt by the fingers of a blind person. After several operations, she was able to see again, but she never forgot the experience of being blind. She also knew how other people like her could feel as well. That’s why Miss Sullivan understood Helen. She loved her and believed she could teach her, and after some difficult times Helen started to trust Miss Sullivan. Eventually, they succeeded a lot. Helen developed her communication skills and studied academic subjects. With the help of her teacher, she wrote her first book and attended many organisations dedicated to helping less fortunate people.