Surely belongs in any Teachers' Hall of Fame.
Sullivan herself was partially blind, and received most of her education
at a school for the blind in Massachusetts.
At 20 years of age she became tutor to the deaf-blind Helen Keller.
This story is very well known at least in outline; I was told it in
childhood. A famous moment:
(Keller later wrote) "I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the
motions of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of
something forgotten—a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the
mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that w-a-t-e-r meant
the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand."
Both their stories are full of interesting stuff I didn't know.
Keller helped to found the America Civil Liberties Union. She became a
member of the Socialist Party and supported their presidential candidate
Eugene V.Debs in his four campaigns (1904-1920). She also belonged to
the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, "Wobblies"). And was attracted
to the theology of Emanuel Swedenborg. (Gasp)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Sullivan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Keller
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