Helen Keller as a Role Model for Everyone

Helen Keller was a resilient woman through every stage in her life. She was a role model for everyone including women and the disabled alike. Keller had traveled the world to influence those who had lost hope and encouraged them to fight for their rights. This led her to become a great historical figure in the United States. She had always been a step ahead, even as a toddler. When her disease posed as a setback, Keller took it with a grain of salt and pushed forward. Her ambition is admired by many and still stands as an idol for men, women and the disabled. Throughout her life, she had to pass many obstacles, overcome stereotypes, and fight for her rights as a disabled woman. Keller had been born the eldest of two girls to Arthur and Katherine Keller. Their income had been based on their cotton plantation. Helen Keller had been born with sight and hearing and was way ahead of her age. At six months old she was speaking. Then, only one year after birth, she was walking. At just nineteen months, she was stricken with what is now believed to be scarlet fever or meningitis. Keller's emotions were expressed very dramatically after this event. She would throw horrific tantrums for her parents but when she was happy, the giggles were unstoppable. As their concern grew, Keller's parents set out to find professional help for their daughter. Anne Sullivan Macy was renowned for her teachings to Helen Keller. As a child, Anne was abandoned by her father after her mother's death. Herself and her brother were rejected by the rest of her family and sent to Massachusetts State Infirmary, where her brother passed away shortly after. Being half blind, Anne was chosen to go to Perkins Institution for the Blind in South Boston, she blew every teacher out of the water with her will to learn. Anne soon had a successful eye surgery and graduated from the school. Shortly after, she received a letter from her former principal suggesting a job teaching a deaf, blind and dumb girl named Helen Keller. Sullivan decided to accept the challenge and arrived at the Keller's home in Alabama on March 3, 1887. Sullivan decided it would be best to begin this journey with finger spelling. She started with small words such as doll to help Keller better understand the gift Sullivan had brought for her. Eventually, Keller has gotten more and more defiant of this method. Sullivan decided to force Keller to push through it until she decided Keller was ready to move on. Keller's major and best-known breakthrough was learning the meaning and physical aspects of water. Sullivan had taken her out to the water pump and ran water over Kellers' had while she spelled it out on the other hand. Keller absolutely loved this and demanded to learn so much more with this method. In 1990, Sullivan was convinced Keller was ready to move on to speech. She attended Horace Mann School for the Deaf and later in 1994 she transferred to Wright-Humason School for the Deaf. By 1996, she was ready for college. In 1996, she decided to enroll in Cambridge School for Young Ladies. With Keller's story becoming more popular, she started to meet well-known people. One had been Mark Twain. The start of this friendship was also the start of an entirely new journey for Keller. She had met Henry H. Rodgers through Twain. Rodgers was so pleased with Keller's accomplishments, he decided to pay for her tuition at Radcliffe College. Keller's story spread even more so Keller decided to write a book explaining her life from childhood to her then-recent age of twenty-one. John Macy and Anne Sullivan had been with Keller every step of the way with the creation of her first book The Story of My Life. Helen Keller writes her autobiography to tell the world what she had been through as a child. She did not write it for pity or sorrow, but to encourage others to strive for their goals in life no matter the circumstances. She had always been a step ahead, even as a toddler. When her disease posed as a setback, Keller took it with a grain of salt and pushed forward. Her ambition is admired by many and still stands as an idle for men, women and the disabled. In another one of Keller's books, The World I Live In, she explains how she was very ambitious and conscious of her state and how people treated her because of it. She goes on to tell about how people, specifically reporters, went about their conversations and discussing Keller's life. The reporters, or people, had no general interest in Keller's political views or thoughts on the affairs of the world. Keller proposes she would like to focus on her future, not her inconvenient past. She uses this as a foundation for the public appearances she has made. She served as an influencer for many and worked towards the issue of women's voting right and birth control. Keller was very active in politics and had testified before the court jury on many occasions. Keller took her disabilities and used them for the greater good. She became very well Known throughout her lifetime and used it to provide comfort to all of the disabled around the world. She joined many organizations and provided many lectures to influence her cause. In 1936, she received the Theodore Roosevelt Distinguished Service Medal and in 1964 the Presidential Medal of freedom. She also received multiple degrees and honorable mentions from universities around the world. Helen Keller was inducted into the Women's Hall of Fame in 1965. Due to health issues, Keller retired to her home in Connecticut in 1961. June 1, 1968, Keller passed away in her sleep at the age of eighty-seven. She had dedicated her whole life to make the lives of others better. She was a remarkable and passionate woman whose influence will continue to live through our history.

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