Library Collections: Document: Full Text


Perkins Report of 1888

Creator: Michael Anagnos (author)
Date: 1888
Source: Perkins School for the Blind

Next Page   All Pages 


Page 1:

1  

HELEN KELLER.

2  

"Nor strong tower, nor wall of beaten brass,
Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron,
Can be retentive to the strength of spirit."

3  

SHAKESPEARE.

4  

The case of little Helen Keller is a most striking illustration of the truth, which is tersely but graphically expressed in the above lines of the poet.

5  

When nineteen months old, this remarkable child was suddenly attacked by a severe illness, which, although brief in duration, destroyed her senses of sight and hearing. As both these royal avenues of perception were hopelessly closed, the tiny victim was at once isolated from her environment, and sunk in the bosom of thick night and profound stillness. She could no longer hear the music of the birds and the soothing lullaby of her loving mother, nor see the beauty of the flowers and the smiling faces of those around her. The sun and moon and every starry light were eclipsed to her, and the booming of the cannon and the thunder, "winged with red lightning and impetuous rage," ceased to have the slightest effect upon her sealed ears. To her all was black and peaceful, silent and awful. Hers seemed to be the secluded lot of an exile in the world, debarred from human fellowship, shut out from all that is sweet in intercourse with others, and doomed in the very midst of the crowd to the misery of solitary confinement. The following words of Sir Walter Scott give as characteristic a description of her position in society as if they had been written for that express purpose: --

6  

"'Twas a prison room
Of stern serenity and gloom."

7  

But, although Helen's physical frame, deprived of its principal channels of communication with the material world, became a sort of dismal dungeon cutting her off "from the cheerful ways of men," her unfettered spirit was neither crushed nor maimed, nor reduced to drowsy inertia and fatal stupor by the mournful sullenness and dead silence of its encasement. On the contrary, like a caged lark, impatient of its captive state, it was constantly striving for a vent whereby to get abroad, to go out and examine the relations of external things, to come in contact with living creatures and inanimate objects.

8  

While Helen's mind was thus laboring to escape from the strong tower of its imprisonment, my friend and former pupil, Miss Anna M. Sullivan, was engaged by Capt. Keller at my recommendation to aid his little daughter in her strenuous efforts to gain freedom. Fully conscious of the magnitude of the task, the young teacher entered upon the duties of her holy mission with much diffidence and not a few misgivings as to the completeness of her equipment and its adequacy to meet the requirements. But she was determined not to disappoint those who placed implicit confidence in her ability. Nor was there any ground for serious apprehension of failure on her part. She had no uncertain problems to solve, no untried experiments to make, no new processes to invent, and no trackless forests to traverse. Her course was clearly and definitely indicated by the finger of the illustrious liberator of Laura Bridgman. His glorious achievement stood before her like a peerless beacon, illumining her pathway, urging her onward, and filling her heart with hope and encouragement.

9  

On taking charge of her little pupil, Miss Sullivan saw at a glance that she had an extraordinarily bright child to deal with, and that what was so wonderfully made could not be kept in endless shade. The ebulliency of Helen's mental activity, and the outbursts of despair which followed the failure of her attempts to make herself understood by the members of her family, convinced the teacher that there was a tremendous intellectual force locked up and suppressed in a dismal grave, struggling for an outlet, and ready to shatter its barriers. Following the simplest and most direct methods of Dr. Howe, Miss Sullivan sought anxiously to find some aperture in the rocky walls of the cavern, through which to convey the pabulum of knowledge to a starving soul. Her efforts were rewarded with a speedy and grand success. Helen's darkened mind was reached through the sense of touch, and was filled with rays of celestial light. The stupendous feat was accomplished instantaneously, as by the touch of a magic wand. The little prisoner was triumphantly rescued, and became at once a citizen of the world. She is no longer disinherited from her human estate, and treads the earth with buoyant footsteps and a light heart. Freed from her double incarceration, and lifted from her bondage, she stands now upon the mount of mental vision, and receives her inspiration directly from external sources. Her deliverance from the dreadful abyss of blackness and solitude was hailed with joy in every direction; and, while she is still contending against fearful odds, the people at large watch her with loving sympathy, encourage her in her attempts to gain intellectual light, feel pride in her achievements, applaud her triumphs, cheer her with appreciative words and cordial greetings, and urge her to go forward.

Next Page

Pages:  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20  21    All Pages