Tiempos Y Movimientos

Helen Keller

Do you know of anyone with a disability who did remarkable things? Helen was a truly remarkable woman.

Helen Keller was a healthy baby. But when she was 19 months old, she had a sudden fever. The fever disappeared, but she became blind and deaf. Because she couldn’t hear, it was difficult for her to learn to speak. As she grew, she was angry and frustrated because she couldn’t understand or communicate with people. She became wild, throwing things and kicking and biting.

When Helen was seven years old, a teacher, Anne Sullivan, came to live with Helen’s family. First, Anne taught Helen how to talk with your fingers. Helen was excited when she realized that things had names. Then Anne taught Helen to read by that Braille system. Helen learned these skills quickly. However, learningto speak was harder. Anne continued to teach Helen patiently. Finally,when Helen was ten years old, she could speak clearly enough for people to understand her.

Helen was very intelligent. She went to an institute for the blind, where she did very well in her studies. Then she went to college , where she graduated with honors when she was 24 years old. Helen traveled extensively with Anne. She worked tirelessly, traveling all over America, Europe, and Asia to raise money to build schools for blind people. Her main message was that handicapped people are like everybody else. They want to live life fully and naturally. Helen wanted all people to be treated equally.

While she was in college, Helen wrote her first of many books, The Story of MY Life, in 1903.

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