Helen Keller
It is difficult to find in history a woman with a mind more
fascinating than that of Helen Keller, who at 19 months old lost
her sight and hearing due to an illness. Vision is known to affect
important changes at that age which allow a person to develop their
powers of perception adequately.
It is also known that the vast majority of older people do not recall the memories of their learning experiences in
those years. As Helen Keller failed to form an idea of the visual and auditory world as normal people do, she had to
discover her world by touch alone.
And that is how she managed it, and although she had an intelligent and persevering tutor, it is remarkable
that the girl was able to become a famous writer. Anne Sullivan guided Helen to learn systematically about the
touchable world around her. The only means of contact between them was through touch. Helen relates in her book
"The Story of My Life" from 1902, about her bewilderment when he found her father with paper in front of his
face:
"When I was about five years old we moved from the little vine-covered house to a large
new one. The family consisted of my father and mother, two older half-brothers, and, afterwards,
a little sister, Mildred. My earliest distinct recollection of my father is making my way
through great drifts of newspapers to his side and finding him alone, holding a sheet of paper
before his face. I was greatly puzzled to know what he was doing. I imitated this action, even
wearing his spectacles, thinking they might help solve the mystery. But I did not find out the
secret for several years. Then I learned what those papers were, and that my father edited one
of them".
Consequently, the questions about knowledge are: how much do we know through sight and hearing? How much
do we know through the rest of the body? Are the interactions between humans the most powerful transmitters of
knowledge?
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