Helen Keller

Child (Source: http://5thsocialstudies.pbworks.com/f/Helen%20Keller-kid.jpg)

The often heard quote “When life gets hard don’t give up” well, that exactly describes Helen Keller. Helen Keller has been someone who has always been a great role model and especially a hero. Imagine after only 19 months of life and then not being able to see or hear again. Helen Keller lost both sight and sound to an awful case of brain fever. Helen was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama on June 27, 1880. Her mother and father not wanting to upset her or hurt her any further let her become a wild and uncontrollable child. Until the most important day of her life came around and she met her new teacher Anne Mansfield Sullivan. She first taught Helen with a doll given to her by the kids at the blind hospital where she worked and also regarded most of her sight. Even though many people know about Helen Keller, not many know she was an activist, peacemaker, and women’s rights advocate.

Cap and Gown (http://www.chairgrrl.com/DisabilityTimeline/helenkeller.jpg)

Miss Sullivan was there was Helen Keller’s angel of education and they were inseparable. At the age of seven Miss Sullivan had started to write words in Helen’s hand. Though she could not make the association between an object and the words or letters in her hand she was still willing to try. Then on a normal sunny day she and her teacher went out to sit by the water pump. Miss Sullivan ran cool water over her hand then spelt the word water into the other and Helen made the connection and within the day she had learned 30 words and knew what they were and meant. Helen wanted to learn to speak so she got her first speech teacher Sarah Fuller. Soon Helen said that one day she would go to college, and she did. In 1990 she stated at Radcliffe and received her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1904.

Touch face (http://www.dailyhistory.net/images/helen-keller-dwight-d-eisenhower.jpg)

Even though she had to conquer many difficulties of her own, Helen Keller always fought for woman rights. Helen felt that all women deserved the same rights as men and deserved to be treated as their equals. This is one of the times she expresses this "Some of us have imagined that we lived in a democracy, we do not. The democracy would mean full opportunity for all, it would mean that every child had a chance to be well, well fed, well educated and properly started in life. It would mean that every human being had a voice in the making of the laws and in exercising its privileges; it would mean that all men enjoyed the fruits of their labor. Such a democracy has never existed." “Few people remember Helen Keller as a person ahead of her time.” She stood up and fought for women's sufferings and spent years advocating for improvements in women's and children's health. Throughout her adult life, she tried to make “reproductive healthcare” possible to women who were in poverty and created a close friendship with Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood.

Teacher and Helen on bench (Source: http://www.estatevaults.com/lm/%20%20Helen_Keller_Anne_Sullivan.jpg)

Helen Keller symbolizes many great things but I think the main things are hope and courage. As Helen grew older and became an adult she began speaking to people and helping more and more. She helped install hope in many people who had lost all. Like people who were deaf, blind, or ever the soldiers who had been severally hurt from battles. The courage it took to do all this is incomprehensible. I can’t even imagine working through it but she did and she prospered through the tuff stuff and by age 10 she was using a typewriter and by age 16 she could speak and write and by age 23 she was a graduate of college.

Face of Helen (http://www.freeclipartnow.com/d/34249-1/Helen-Keller.jpg)

Helen Keller prospered through even when people said she couldn’t she did and, that’s why she is my hero and thousands of others hero too. Because, she is my definition of someone who accepts a great challenge to benefit the lives of others.