The miracle teacher
Published: July 3, 2006
Every commemoration of Helen Keller’s birthday (27 June, 1880) requires a complementary tribute to her tutor, miracle teacher Anne Sullivan. Helen’s spectacular success was due to Anne, whose own experience of temporary blindness made empathy easy for her. When Anne tutored the seven-year-old blind-deaf child, Helen, she learnt that Helen could neither hear nor see. Anne was firm and loving with Helen and succeeded in teaching her words. However Helen didn’t know what they meant.
One day, Anne had a brainwave, which changed not only Helen’s life but also the world of similarly challenged people till today. Anne took Helen’s hands and placed it under the flowing water. On Helen’s other hand she wrote out the letters, W-A-T-E-R and, in a flash, Helen co-related the written word ‘water’ with the object, water. Now she ‘saw’ that words were labels for certain objects. Again, she understood instantly when Anne tapped the earth with her hand and then spelt the word, “E-A-R-T-H” on her arm. Anne, the miracle communicator, quickly taught Helen not one but twenty words that day!
Without Anne’s lateral thinking Helen’s transformation was impossible. Elated, Anne exclaimed, “My heart is singing for joy this morning! A miracle has happened! The light of understanding has shone upon my little pupil’s mind, and behold, all things are changed!” With painful and halting steps Anne opened up Helen’s life.
Anne underlined her credo, “Keep on beginning and failing. Each time you fail, start all over again, and you will grow stronger until you have accomplished a purpose—not the one you began with perhaps, but one you’ll be glad to remember.” The grateful Helen wrote: “The most important day I remember in all my life is the one on which my teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, came to me.” Thanks to her teacher’s patient efforts and strong belief, Helen Keller’s life helps challenged people transform their lives, letting deaf and blind people to understand and be understood.
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