The Best and Most Beautiful Things by Kaison Jan (G3)

The Best and Most Beautiful Things

By Kaison Jan

Grade 3

Have you ever known someone who was deaf and/or blind? Can you imagine how hard it would be to communicate with other people and the surrounding world around you if you were blind and deaf? Helen Keller was born on June 27, 1880, in Alabama. When Helen Keller was 19 months old in 1882, she became blind and deaf because of a horrible illness. Despite the problems Helen Keller had later in her life, she would be a famous influencer in the world. Helen had a lot of horrible and frustrating tantrums when she was little because of her deafness and blindness. Because she was blind and deaf, her parents hired a teacher. 

The teacher’s name was Anne Sullivan. Anne was once blind and cured that by going to a doctor. Anne tried to teach Helen Keller words, but it did not work. Her parents were getting anxious about Helen not knowing words and not communicating.

One way Anne tried to teach Helen was through sign language. If you don’t know what sign language is, it is a hand communication signal that uses different words for different meanings. It worked, but she didn’t know that it formed whole words. Anne Sullivan tried to teach her all different sign language words, but that didn’t work either.

One morning when Ms. Sullivan and Helen were walking, Ms. Sullivan spotted a water pump near the sidewalk. She took Helen to it and put Helen’s hand in it. Helen’s hand felt very watery and cold. Ms. Sullivan then made sign-language on Helen’s hand. Helen now knew what it meant. The word meant W-A-T-E-R. She was jumping excitedly when she knew what it meant.

In conclusion, Helen then went to college and then taught other people with deaf and blindness. When she finished college, she gave a lot of speeches, and one of the most famous quotes was this quote: “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched—they must be felt with the heart.” This means that the most beautiful thing in the world can only be felt in the heart. Helen Keller died in sleep on June 1, 1968, in Easton, Connecticut, at 87 years old. What would it have been like if Helen Keller had not been in our lives back then?