Assignment #10 - A

‘The Miracle Worker’ (1962) is a dramatization of the story of Helen Keller (1880-1968)- specifically the time period when Anne Sullivan (1866-1936) came into her life. Helen Keller became deaf and blind at 18 months of age after suffering a severe illness. Her parents were ill prepared (but, fortunately for Helen, well prepared financially) to transition to raising a healthy deaf/blind child. After many failed attempts to educate and discipline her, the Kellers hired Anne Sullivan to work with Helen. Sullivan came to live with the Kellers and was able to reach Helen by teaching her words, meaning and structure using American Sign Language (ASL). It is not clear why Sullivan had such a command of ASL while she, herself, was partially blind and would have a lesser, not greater, dependency on visual language. Sullivan’s unwavering perseverance and high expectations of Keller eventually broke through and connected with Keller, who was described as almost feral up to that point.

For me, this story is not at all about Keller; it is completely about Sullivan. It is thanks entirely to Sullivan’s will, resolve and tenacity that Keller is pulled from her downward spiral. Sullivan’s abilities as a teacher are an extension of her personal character. She has high, yet realistic expectations for Helen, rather than demeaning her with pity. She has to be cruel to be kind, but that is largely a product of Keller having so many lost years with no rules.

Sullivan models a few important attributes of teaching peoples with disabilities.
- High, yet realistic, expectations- adjusted for the student, but not of a lesser level than would normally be reasonable
- Kindness rather than pity
- Consistency, consistency, consistency
- Fairness

It is important to note that Sullivan is able to accomplish so much for two reasons: she has personal life experience in common with Keller and she has a skill set that specific to the problem at hand. Sullivan acts with personal knowledge and background of blindness, as well as life experience and knowledge of the mistreatment of peoples with disabilities. This both motivates her to “save” Keller, and allows her to empathize with Keller. Sullivan is educated and has a skill set that immediately empowers her to act. It is a vehicle to language that Keller’s parents lack. Without this specific knowledge, all the determination in the world would be useless. As educators, it is our responsibility to seek out and learn the skills and methods that we need to reach our students. Without that, we are useless to them.