Helen Adams Keller (June 27, 1880 - June 1, 1968), an American mentally and physically disabled person, American writer, social activist and lecturer.

She was blind and deaf due to acute encephalitis when she was one year and seven months old, which also made her unable to speak.

In 1887, with the patient guidance and care of her mentor Anne Sullivan, she found an expert to help her learn pronunciation and learn fluent expression, and then she began to communicate with other people and Get an education.

Helen Keller not only learned to read and speak, but also completed her studies at Harvard University with amazing perseverance and graduated in 1904, becoming the first blind and deaf person in history to receive a bachelor's degree in literature.

As an adult, she continued to read widely and study hard, becoming a writer and educator who mastered English, French, German, Latin and Greek.

She is committed to the cause of disabled people and raises funds everywhere to improve the living environment and educational level of disabled people. Her deeds led her to be selected as one of the "Top Ten Icons of Humanity" by Time Magazine in the United States. Was awarded the "Presidential Medal of Freedom".

Extended information:

Life

Helen Keller was born on June 27, 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama, USA. Helen Keller was originally a healthy baby, but she suffered from acute cerebral congestive disease when she was 19 months old and lost her hearing and vision. When he grew up, he used his own sign language to communicate with family members.

As she grew older, simple communication could not satisfy her, and her temper became irritable. When she was 6 years old, her parents, with the assistance of their family doctor, invited teacher Anne Sullivan from Perkins Enlightenment School to be Helen Keller's enlightenment tutor.

Teacher Sullivan first understood the reason for Helen’s bad temper: her parents couldn’t bear to see her being punished for doing something wrong (beating people, breaking rules, breaking things, etc.), so when she did something wrong Give her candy every time. She corrected her parents' incorrect behavior and established a trusting relationship with Helen. She then patiently taught her sign language so that she could communicate with others, and then taught her some new words. The first word she learned was water.

Then we will teach you how to use finger braille and live etiquette. When she was 10 years old, her parents hired teacher Sarah Fouroi from Horace Mann School to teach her how to speak. She put her middle finger on the teacher's nose, her index finger on her lips, and her thumb on her throat. Helen also learned to speak. say.

In 1896, Helen Keller entered the Cambridge Girls' School in Massachusetts. In the fall of 1900, he entered Harvard University's Radcliffe College. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in 1904 and became the first deaf-blind person to graduate from a higher education institution. Sullivan stayed with Helen Keller over the years and wrote textbooks and class contents on the palm of Helen Keller's hand.

Helen formed the Helen Keller Foundation in 1924 and joined the American Foundation for the Blind as its national and international relations advisor. Later, she gave a speech at the annual meeting of Lions Club International, where she asked Lions Clubs to become “warriors who help blind people defeat darkness.” And said: "I open a window of opportunity for you, I am knocking on your door."

In 1946, he served as the international relations consultant of the American Global Blind Foundation and visited 35 countries. She fought to build schools for the blind around the world and often visited patients in hospitals to share her experiences.

Helen Keller died at home in 1968 at the age of 87. She had suffered multiple strokes before.

Helen Keller Day

In 1971, the international director of Lions Club International announced that June 1st of each year would be designated as "Helen Keller Day". Lions clubs around the world host vision-related service events on Helen Keller Day.

Quotes

1. Darkness will make people cherish light more, and silence will make people love sound more.

2. Because in the long dark night of my life, the books I have read and the books others have read to me have become a great and bright beacon, revealing to me the human life and the human spirit. the deepest source.

3. The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they must be felt with the heart.

4. Love is intangible, but you can feel the sweetness it brings.

5. I can feel so much happiness just by touch, so if I can see it, how many more beautiful things I will find!

6. The greatest disaster in life is not the trauma of the past, but giving up the future.

7. Without hope, nothing can be accomplished.

8. All the atoms in my body are vibrators. I could guess what was going on every day by the vibrations I felt throughout the house.

9. Use your eyes like you will lose them tomorrow.

10. Death is just moving from this room to that room, but I may be different from other people, because I can see things with my eyes in that new room.

11. We are obviously different. Those who can see and those who cannot see are different from each other.

It's not that the feeling is different, but the way of using the feeling is different. It's just that the imagination and courage to find wisdom beyond feelings are different.

12. No matter what environment you are in, you must keep working hard.

13. I strive to acquire knowledge in the hope that I can use it in the future and contribute something to society.

14. As long as it is something that is truly beneficial to society and something I can do, I will do my best.

15. My task is to practice, practice, and practice. Failure and fatigue often trip me up, but the thought of holding on just a little longer so that my loved ones can see my progress gives me courage.

16. For those who are above destiny, faith is like the master of life.

17. I use my whole body and mind to feel everything in the world, and I can’t rest for a moment. My life is full of vitality, just like those small insects that live and die quickly, squeezing their whole lives into one day. Life is either a bold adventure or useless.

18. I only look at what I have, not what I don’t have.

19. There is happiness in forgetting oneself. ——Therefore, I must strive to regard the light in other people's eyes as my sun, the music in other people's ears as my music, and the smile on other people's lips as my happiness.

20. Although my body is not free, my heart is free. Let my heart transcend my body and go to the crowd, immersed in joy, and pursue a beautiful life!

21. Treat every day of your life as your last day.

22. Cruel fate blocks the entrance. I will not be willing to question why fate makes such an arbitrary judgment, because my heart has not yet been tamed and is still fanatical; but when the harsh and ruthless words come to my mouth, My tongue did not speak out, but like tears that had not yet fallen, they flowed back into my heart.

23. As long as you face the sun, you will not see the shadow.

24. Facing the light, the shadow is behind us.

25. Confidence is the master of destiny.

26. Sometimes I think how great it would be if people regarded every day of their lives as the last day of their lives! This might show the value of life.

27. The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched... they can only be felt by the heart.

Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia-Helen Keller