Helen Keller, rendered blind and deaf after an infection as a toddler, learned the gift of language from her patient and determined teacher, Annie Sullivan. Their story is told in the play The Miracle Worker (and my daughter plays Helen in three more shows this weekend at Latrobe’s Cabaret Theatre).
As a young woman Helen Keller wrote her biography The Story of My Life, which also published some of Sullvan’s letters.
A few weeks after the events depicted in the play The Miracle Worker, Sullivan wrote:
I am beginning to suspect all elaborate and special systems of education. They seem to me to be built up on the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must be taught to think. Whereas, if the child is left to himself, he will think more and better, if less showily. Let him go and come freely, let him touch real things and combine his impressions for himself, instead of sitting indoors at a little round table, while a sweet-voiced teacher suggests that he build a stone wall with his wooden blocks, or make a rainbow out of strips of coloured paper, or plant straw trees in bead flower-pots. Such teaching fills the mind with artificial associations that must be got rid of, before the child can develop independent ideas out of actual experiences. –Annie Sullivan, May 18, 1887. Printed in The Story of My Life
Post was last modified on 15 Aug 2016 9:29 pm
It has long been assumed that William Shakespeare’s marriage to Anne Hathaway was less than…
Some 50 years ago, my father took me to his office in Washington, DC. I…
I first taught Wilson's Pittsburgh Cycle during an intensive 3-week online course during the 2020-21…
A federal judge ordered the White House on Tuesday to restore The Associated Press’ full…
Rewatching ST:DS9 After the recap of last week's "In Purgatory's Shadow," we see the Defiant,…
View Comments
Dennis G. Jerz, is the play being presented this Thursday, and if so what time?
Thanks!
Yes, all tickets are $15.
Oh yes. We are! So far Gene and I and Justin and Katie U. and maybe Sofia. ? Are tickets $15?
Yes, at 7:30. Please bring friends!
Carolyn might find this interesting; highlight is at the 2.50 mark where Martha Graham helps Helen dance with some of the company: https://youtu.be/ZqJL5uSZznU
Beautiful.