Helen Keller’s Education

Helen Keller’s Education

By Eira, 4th Grader

Have you ever wondered who Helen Keller was? Or have you ever wondered who her teacher was? Well, today I wrote a biographical story about Helen Keller. I hope you enjoy it!

Helen Keller was a girl who was born in Alabama in the 1880s. She got very sick when she was a baby, which caused her to become blind and deaf. This problem made her learning more challenging and more frustrating. In 1887, when Helen was 7 years old, her parents hired a teacher named Anne Sullivan to teach her how to write and speak. At first, when Anne was trying to make letter signs in Helen’s hand, it didn’t work out really well. When Anne was first making signs in Helen’s hand, Helen didn’t understand the letter signs Anne made, so Helen got very frustrated. And I understand why, because the two most important senses of the five human senses were not there, so it was really hard for Helen to understand.

But neither Helen nor Anne gave up that easily. Eventually, Helen understood the letter signs Anne made on her hand, but every word looked so similar that it was so hard to differentiate between them. Not only that, but Helen also didn’t know that the letters formed words. Then, one day, they walked to a nearby water pump. And then suddenly, Anne knew how Helen could learn words.

Anne’s idea was to put one of Helen’s hands in the water and with her other hand, she made the W-A-T-E-R letter sign in her palm. And just like that, Helen finally got the idea of what Anne was trying to teach her! It thrilled Helen that she had learned her first word after she felt and tasted the wetness of the cool water. It also thrilled Anne that her idea had worked. After many kinds of trying, Helen learned how to write and speak in a different and interesting way.

With a lot of hard work, Helen finally learned how to write, spell, and speak. When she grew up, she was always grateful for all the work that her teacher, Anne Sullivan, had done for her. Helen often retold her story when she traveled around the world to help many others who were blind and deaf.