Accompanied by the Captain and her Aunt Evelyn, Helen went to see Dr. Bell. Her mother carefully curled Helen’s hair before she left. Helen looked like an angel. She was about six years old now.
Helen walked into Bell’s office, and the two became friends right away. Helen got on Bell’s lap. The young child and the inventor felt at home with each other. Helen later wrote in her autobiography, “He understood my signs, and I knew it and loved him at once.” Bell felt that Helen could learn. He thought she was a smart and sensible girl. He wanted to see her succeed. Maybe, just maybe, Helen Keller could lead a more normal life.
Bell gave Helen his watch to play with as he talked to Captain. He told Captain to write to the Perkins Institution for the Blind in Boston, Massachusetts (later called Perkins School). Dr. Bell told Captain that forty years earlier a deaf-blind child, Laura Bridgman, had been taught to read, write, and talk with hand signals. He was sure that the Kellers could find a teacher for Helen there.
Once back at home, Captain wrote to the head of the Perkins School. Captain Keller wrote that he needed a teacher for his daughter. The Kellers waited anxiously for his reply.
Michael Anagnos, the head of Perkins, wrote back that he did have a teacher in mind. Her name was Anne Sullivan. The Kellers were thrilled. What they did not know was that Anne Sullivan still needed to be convinced to take the job.
Who was Anne Sullivan? Anne, or Annie as she was called, was an orphan who had had a very hard and lonely life. As a child, she had been partially blind.
She was sent to the Perkins School and later on, operations restored her sight. Annie graduated first in her class at Perkins. Like Helen Keller, she was very bright and also very stubborn.
At twenty, Annie had never been a teacher. She was not sure she could do the job, or even that she wanted it. Mr. Anagnos kept encouraging her. He felt that this lonely, intelligent young woman would be right for the job. And Annie did not have many other choices open to her. It was either the teaching job or a job in a factory. Annie decided to take the job with the Kellers.
Annie took two months to prepare for her new job. She had met Laura Bridgman. She learned the manual alphabet. She talked to Laura by spelling into her hand. Now she studied the different ways to teach the manual alphabet. Annie prepared the best that she could. But really she had no idea what lay before her or how her new job would change her life. |