Page 259 - The Story of My Lif

Miss Anne Mansfield Sullivan was born at Springfield, Massachusetts. Very

early in her life she became almost totally blind, and she entered the Perkins
Institution October 7, 1880, when she was fourteen years old. Later her sight was
partially restored.

Mr. Anagnos says in his report of 1887: “She was obliged to begin her education
at the lowest and most elementary point; but she showed from the very start that

she had in herself the force and capacity which insure success…. She has finally
reached the goal for which she strove so bravely. The golden words that Dr.

Howe uttered and the example that he left passed into her thoughts and heart and

helped her on the road to usefulness; and now she stands by his side as his
worthy successor in one of the most cherished branches of his work…. Miss
Sullivan’s talents are of the highest order.”

In 1886 she graduated from the Perkins Institution. When Captain Keller applied
to the director for a teacher, Mr. Anagnos recommended her. The only time she

had to prepare herself for the work with her pupil was from August, 1886, when
Captain Keller wrote, to February, 1887. During this time she read Dr. Howe’s
reports. She was further aided by the fact that during the six years of her school
life she had lived in the house with Laura Bridgman. It was Dr. Howe who, by
his work with Laura Bridgman, made Miss Sullivan’s work possible: but it was
Miss Sullivan who discovered the way to teach language to the deaf-blind.

It must be remembered that Miss Sullivan had to solve her problems unaided by
previous experience or the assistance of any other teacher. During the first year
of her work with Helen Keller, in which she taught her pupil language, they were
in Tuscumbia; and when they came North and visited the Perkins Institution,
Helen Keller was never a regular student there or subject to the discipline of the
Institution. The impression that Miss Sullivan educated Helen Keller “under the
direction of Mr.

Anagnos” is erroneous. In the three years during which at various times Miss
Keller and Miss Sullivan were guests of the Perkins Institution, the teachers