CBSE Class 10 Answered

Describe the efforts Helen's parents made for her education, and the final outcome.

Asked by pdcavita | 29 Nov, 2017, 09:23: PM

Expert Answer

Helen's parents are perfect role models of love, care, affection, and responsibilities. They didn't consider Helen as a burden on them

Helen and her family lived a long way from the school for the blind or the deaf. It seemed unlikely to them that any one would come to such an out-of-the-way place as Tuscumbia to teach a child who was both deaf and blind. Her friends and relatives, thus, had no hopes of she eve reciving any eduction. However, her mother, Kate Keller, had ray of hope which came from Dickens's 'American Notes'. She had read his account of Laura Bridgman, and remembered vaguely that she was deaf and blind, yet had been educated. She wished the same kind of eduction for Helen.

Her father discovered an "eminent oculist in Baltimore." They traveled there "to see if anything could be done for [Helen's] eyes." When they arrived in Baltimore, Helen's parents were disappointed to find out that the doctor could not do anything to fix Helen's eyes. Dr. Chisholm, referred Hellen Kellerf to Dr. Bell who is a wonderful and patient teacher. This meeting was not only the beginning of a long friendship between Dr. Bell and Helen but it also proved to be the foundation of Helens education and life. He understood Helen's likes and dislikes and stayed by her side in all tough situations. Bell advised Helen's parents to send her to attend speech classes at the Horace Mann School for the Deaf in Boston which eventually gave the fruit of a strong base to her career.A gain it was on Dr.Bell's advice that Helen's father wrote Mr.Anagnos of the Perkins Institutio, a Boston school for the blind. There she met Annie Sullivann who was a dedicated, understanding and caring teacher who taught her to communicate.

After learning the special sign language that Helen's teacher developed for her, she began to communicate with others. Gradually she learned hundreds of words used to describe different things, feelings and also actions. She then went a step further struggling and learning how to write and speak. On achieving these skills she realized that her life too had some meaning and purpose. She felt empowered and was confident that she could tackle more challenges. She learned other languages and even enrolled herself in college. She decided that after completing her studies she would work for the betterment of the less privileged people, doing whatever she could to ease their suffering.

Helen's parents were determined and did not give up until they found a way to educate their daughter.

Answered by | 04 Dec, 2017, 12:08: PM