Teaching Helen Keller Essay example -- Learning Education

The Truth About Helen Keller In Learning Dynamics, the authors, Marjorie Ford and Jon Ford, choose to include an excerpt from The Story of My Life by Helen Keller to show learning from experience. The excerpt titled "The Most Important Day of My Life" mainly draws from Helen Keller's early childhood as she begins her education on the third of March in 1887, three months before she became seven years old. Keller recounts her early experiences of being awakened to a world of words and concepts through the brilliant teaching methods of her teacher, Anne Sullivan. Sullivan taught Keller new vocabulary by spelling words into the young girl's hand. At first, she does not understand the meaning of each word, but eventually learn to connect a word with the physical object it represents. Sullivan often left Keller to spend much time in nature as a way to develop her senses. In time, Keller not only discovers the physical world, but also a world of intangible concepts, ideas, images and emotions. Furthermore, she contribu tes much of her learning to Anne Sullivan, which she wrote, "I fell that her being is inseparable from my own, and that the footsteps of my life are in hers. All the best of me belongs to her." Realizing that words could be put together to evoke a mental image, Helen Keller is able to paint many visual images in the readers' minds through her unique and eloquent usage of poetic language. Her writing style captures both her emotion and experiences. She writes, "Have you ever been at sea in a dense fog, when it seemed as if a tangible white darkness shut you in and the great ship, tense and anxious, groped her way toward the shore with plummet and sounding-line and you waited with beating heart for something to happen?" He... ...ucation does not stop at the word "W-A-T-E-R", but she went on to universities and learned many other languages as well. Keller makes a strong argument that her succeed is a result of her teacher, Anne Sullivan, "My teacher is so near to me that I scarcely think of myself apart from her." Even the Fords stated, "Anne Sullivan showed her (Keller) that love and learning are intimately connected." Keller is an extraordinary person not because she overcomes blindness or deafness rather she should be great for her contribution to achieve social changes. Helen Keller should be appreciated for her honesty in realizing that she was privilege to an education, and uses her knowledge and wisdom to help those less fortunate. Works Cited Ford, Marjorie, and Jon Ford. Learning Dynamics (Streamlines : Selected Readings on Single Topics). Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing, 1997.