“A strenuous effort must be made to train young people to
think for themselves and take independent charge of their lives.” – Annie Sullivan
Education had transformed the lives of Annie Sullivan and
her pupil and lifelong friend Helen Keller.
In an era that offered few opportunities for women or the disabled, the
pair managed to earn their living, attend college and travel internationally.
Sullivan never started out to become a world-renowned educator. According
to Sullivan, “some of us blunder into life through the back door”.
Born into a poor Irish immigrant family, she had impaired
eyesight due to trachoma, which causes inflammation and scar tissue in the eye. After the death of her mother, Sullivan ended
up in an overcrowded poorhouse. She escaped
the poorhouse by begging a wealthy donor to be sent to school. Unlike the other students at the Perkins Institution
and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind, Sullivan did not have a family to
return to after graduation.
Fate step in. Helen
Keller’s family were looking for a teacher.
Sullivan needed a job. Together
Sullivan and Keller would jump start the change of how the world views women
and the disabled.
Sullivan considered her life an experiment. “If all people knew what was good for them
and acted accordingly, this world would be different world, though not nearly
so interesting. But we don’t know what’s
good for us, and I’m spending my days in experimenting. The experiments are amusing – and sometimes
costly, but there’s no other way of getting knowledge.”