April 30, 2010

* Helen Keller, Annie, and the Floor Maid *

- Please see below for a needed update regarding this story -

Dr. Frank Mayfield was touring Tewksbury Institute when, on his way out, he accidentally collided with an elderly floor maid. To cover the awkward moment Dr. Mayfield started asking questions,

"How long have you worked here?"

"I've worked here almost since the place opened," the maid replied.

"What can you tell me about the history of this place?" he asked.

"I don't think I can tell you anything, but I could show you something."

With that, she took his hand and led him down to the basement under the oldest section of the building. She pointed to one of what looked like small prison cells, their iron bars rusted with age, and said,

"That's the cage where they used to keep Annie."

"Who's Annie?" the doctor asked.

"Annie was a young girl who was brought in here because she was incorrigible - nobody could do anything with her. She'd bite and scream and throw her food at people. The doctors and nurses couldn't even examine her or anything. I'd see them trying with her spitting and scratching at them.

“I was only a few years younger than her myself and I used to think, 'I sure would hate to be locked up in a cage like that.' I wanted to help her, but I didn't have any idea what I could do. I mean, if the doctors and nurses couldn't help her, what could someone like me do? I didn't know what else to do, so I just baked her some brownies one night after work. The next day I brought them in. I walked carefully to her cage and said,

'Annie I baked these brownies just for you. I'll put them right here on the floor and you can come and get them if you want.'

“Then I got out of there just as fast as I could because I was afraid she might throw them at me. But she didn't. She actually took the brownies and ate them. After that, she was just a little bit nicer to me when I was around. And sometimes I'd talk to her. Once, I even got her laughing.

“One of the nurses noticed this and she told the doctor. They asked me if I'd help them with Annie. I said I would if I could. So that's how it came about that every time they wanted to see Annie or examine her, I went into the cage first and explained and calmed her down and held her hand. Which is how they discovered that Annie was almost blind."

After they'd been working with her for about a year - and it was tough sledding with Annie - the Perkins institute for the Blind opened its doors. They were able to help her and she went on to study and she became a teacher herself.

Annie came back to the Tewksbury Institute to visit, and to see what she could do to help out. At first, the Director didn't say anything and then he thought about a letter he'd just received. A man had written to him about his daughter. She was absolutely unruly - almost like an animal.

The father had been told she was blind and deaf as well as 'deranged.' He was at his wit's end, but he didn't want to put her in an asylum. So he wrote the Institute to ask if they knew of anyone who would come to his house and work with his daughter.

And that is how Annie Sullivan became the lifelong companion of Helen Keller.

When Helen Keller received the Nobel Prize, she was asked who had the greatest impact on her life and she said,

"Annie Sullivan." But Annie said,

"No Helen. The woman who had the greatest influence on both our lives was a floor maid at the Tewksbury Institute."

~ Author Unknown ~

Much Needed Update

Where there is a good deal of truth in the above story in regards to Annie being at the almshouse named Tweksbury, I can not find that she was ever in a cage in the basement. She followed Dr. Sanborn (not Mayfield) around during his visit there and he later moved her to the much superior facility in Boston for the blind. When her brother died, she did have a very difficult time emotionally and it might have been during this time a maid befriended her in a most meaningful way.,

Anne Sullivan--Teacher

The story of Anne Sullivan as a child and as a young woman before her life was joined with Helen Keller has its own special interest.

• Birth--Anne Sullivan was born in April, 1866 in Feeding Hills, Massachusetts, a small village near Springfield, Massachusetts, to Irish immigrants who were very poor. This was a troubled family, because her father drank excessively and worked inconsistently, and her mother suffered from tuberculosis.
• Trachoma--Anne contracted trachoma, a disease of the eyes, when she was about 5. This disorder is not unusual where there is poor hygiene, and Anne's situation was not good. She was physically strong, but the disease was left untreated and she gradually lost her vision, although she was never totally blind.
• Shaping her character--The first 14 years of Anne Sullivan's life was the story of a young girl with a dream to escape an indescribable childhood of abandonment and loss. Her mother died while she was still a child. Because her father could not maintain a family, she lived with a series of relatives, and finally, just before her tenth birthday, she and her brother Jimmy were sent to the state "poorhouse" in Tewksbury, Massachusetts. This was a home for charity cases, and Anne roomed and boarded with the mentally ill, with prostitutes, and with people who could not maintain functioning lives in the society of that day. She fought for Jimmy and herself to be together, and they had beds next to each other, but Jimmy had a tubercular hip from birth and he died at Tewksbury, leaving her with no caring family. Despite these problems, Anne held to the dream that she would go to school. She had heard of schools for the blind.
• The committee--Her chance to go to school came when an investigating committee visited Tewksbury to inspect the institution. Heading the group was Mr. Frank B. Sanborn, Head of the Board of Charities. Anne followed them, and near the end of the tour, she threw herself at the mercy of Mr. Sanborn. She pleaded to be sent to a school for the blind. Soon thereafter, Anne learned she was to be sent to Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston, unable to read, unable to see clearly, with a scarred childhood, but with her ambition to succeed.
• Perkins School--Perkins was a world-renowned institution for the blind. Anne's stay there was a process of softening--some would say taming--a highly intelligent young woman with a sharp questioning mind, but with an exceptionally strong will, a narrow point of view, and formative training from the school of hard and bitter experience. She started at the age of 14 at an elementary school level, but graduated at the age of 20 as class valedictorian. At first, she was mocked by her classmates for her lack of social skills, but over time she gained their respect through her perseverance and the strength of her personality.
• Rebellion--Anne was insecure about her background and excessively defensive toward ridicule, which she covered with rebelliousness. There were teachers who could not tolerate her quick mouth and ready challenge of authority, but a number of key teachers saw her potential and nourished her and shaped her.

....I know that gradually I began to accept things as they were, and rebel less and less. The realization came to me that I could not alter anything but myself. I must accept the conventional order of society if I were to succeed in anything. I must bend to the inevitable, and govern my life by experience, not by might-have-beens. --Anne Sullivan

• Valedictorian--At the age of 20 she delivered the valedictory address for the school graduation. This was a great moment of triumph. Shortly after this the director of the school, Michael Anagnos, learned of a deaf blind student in Alabama who needed a teacher. Anne Sullivan was offered the position and her life then became entwined with that of Helen Keller.
• Educational theorist--Anne Sullivan developed her own philosophy of teaching as she worked with Helen. She reasoned that a child learns to talk by imitation. As the child is spoken to--typically in sentences or phrases--the child repeats what is said and begins to work out by himself or herself the interconnections and structure of the language. Thus Annie began to give Helen complete, although simple, sentences. Helen, on her own began to understand the nuances of subject, action and object.
• Teacher--Anne Sullivan came to be known as a great American teacher. Her gift was her dedication. Anne literally gave her life and career to make Helen Keller great. But Helen, in return, also gave to Anne a sense of family, a stability she had never had.

The sign of a great teacher is that the accomplishments of her students exceed her own. --Aristotle

More information about Anne Sullivan can be found at the Anne Sullivan online museum.

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