If You Give Me Three Days of Light: The Best Collection of Helen Keller

Chapter 51 Teaching Report (1)
Teaching Report One
Miss Sullivan's first teaching report was published in the official yearbook of the Perkins Institute for the Blind in 1887. Compared with the integrity of the letters, the records in the yearbook are only outlines.

It is worth mentioning that Miss Sullivan's report repeatedly mentioned the word "class", which made everyone think that she was teaching Helen in a conventional way.But in fact, this is just a need to write a teaching report.For the daily life of the teachers and students, the word "class" is not so formal, it is very flexible.

One day, I led Helen to the water room.I spelled the word "water" as the water gurgled from the pump.Helen patted my hand lightly with excitement.Then spelled out the word.Just at this time, the nanny came to the water room with her little sister in her arms.I put Helen's hand on the little sister and spelled the word "baby" at the same time.She spelled the word repeatedly without hesitation, and I could even see a gleam of reason on her face.

Along the way, you have to tell her the name of everything she perceives, and her memory is amazing, you hardly need to repeat, she can remember the words.Neither the length of the words nor the combination of letters seemed to make any difference to the child.In fact, she remembered more complex words like "heliotrope" (sunflower) and "chrysanthemum" (chrysanthemum) better than those with fewer letters.By the end of August, she had learned a total of 8 five words.

When I talk about the positional relationship between words.I just said: "Helen, your clothes are put (in) into a box, and you can take them out of it when you wear (on)." I used this visual method to teach her to spell prepositions.Soon, she learned the difference between "on" and "in".Of course, sometimes she would make up her own sentences out of such words.If she wants, she will be the "protagonist" in the class, she stands happily on the (standon) chair, and is happy to put on (putinto) costumes to try her skills.In this class, she also learned the names of other people in the family and the use of the word "is". "The box is on the table", "Dad is in the bed", "Helen Keller is in costume", "Mildred is in the crib".These sentences are all she learned in the class at the end of April.

The next stage deals with the expressive use of primary-level words.In the first class, I took two balls, one ball was a projectile.The other ball is large and soft, made of wool.Helen immediately noticed that the two balls were not the same size.She held the pellet and pinched the fingers of one hand to a small patch of skin on the other hand, meaning "small."Then she picks up another ball, and she says "large" by spreading her hands over the object.I replaced these gestures with the adjectives "big" and "small."Later, her attention shifted and she noticed that one ball was hard and the other was soft.So she learned the words "soft" and "hard".After a few minutes she felt her little sister's head, and she said to her mother at once: "Mildred's head is small and hard."

Next, I taught her the concepts of "fast" and "slow".That day, I asked her to wind some yarn for me, and she was fast at first, then slowed down.So I used sign language letters to say to her, "Quickly go around" or "Slowly go around".At the same time, I held her hand and asked her to wind the yarn at the speed I asked.The next day, while we were doing our homework, she walked quickly around and spelled to me, "Helen walks fast." Then walked slowly around and spelled to me, "Helen walked slow." It seems that she has fully grasped the concept of fast and slow.

When I taught Helen to read print, I started with a small slip of paper embossed on it.For example, I paste the word "box" (box) on the corresponding item.In terms of reading articles, you can also try to use the same means.Of course, Helen couldn't immediately understand that the name on the label represented the item itself.So I took an embossed alphabet and put her finger on the letter A while I spelled it for her.As I spell, her fingers move from letter to letter.This worked surprisingly well, and in just one day she had learned all the printed letters, capital and small, and she remembered them all.

On the second day, I turned to the first page of the literacy textbook, and I let Helen touch the word "cat" (cat), and spelled it out for her with my fingers.She got the hang of it in no time, and she asked me to look up "dog" and other words for her.But because I couldn't find her name in the book, she seemed very upset.

She usually sits for hours at a time, trying to "feel" every word in the book.Whenever she touched a familiar word, a very sweet expression would appear on her face.In this way, we can see that her expression is changing every day, and she becomes more and more focused and moving.

I made a vocabulary list of the words Helen knew and sent it to Mr. Ananos.With great zeal he printed these terms in relief.Later, Mrs. Keller and I cut and divided the printed vocabulary list so that Helen could use these words to form sentences.She was intrigued by it in such a way that it completely surpassed anything she had ever done.How to write the same sentence with a pencil, and the small slips of paper she uses to make sentences every day, now she can fully understand these things.Day after day, she just wrote and drew along the dents on the paper with a pencil.She never showed the slightest sign of irritability or fatigue.

It can be said that such exercises paved the way for her writing classes in the future.I put a clipboard for the blind under the paper, and let Helen examine the letters in squares, as if I were teaching her to form words.Then, I guided her hand to make a sentence: "Cats don't drink milk." After making the sentence, she seemed very excited.She showed the sentences to her mother and made her spell it for her.Soon, she realized that she didn't need to limit herself to the phrases she had already learned, that is, she could communicate with any thought and "say" whatever came to mind.

Now she has learned to express her thoughts with a pen.Next, I'm going to teach her to use Braille.She learned even harder when she discovered that she could read the sentences she had written.Also, this (learning) approach provides her with a steady stream of joy.All evening, she would sit at her desk and write, and she would pour out the thousands of thoughts that were racing through her busy mind.Plus, I barely have a hard time reading what she's written.

Helen's progress in arithmetic was equally remarkable.She knows the first five groups of numbers in the multiplication table (there are twelve groups in total), and once I asked her again: "How much is fifteen multiplied by three?" Unexpectedly, she spelled out the answer in the blink of an eye: "Fifteen times three is 45."

She can also quickly calculate addition and subtraction within one hundred.Recently she was "studying" the number "forty".When I said to her, "Multiple by two," she immediately replied, "Twenty times two is forty."

When I told her that she was white, white, and that one of the servants in the house was black, she came to the conclusion that all people who worked as servants had the same color.Later, whenever I asked her servants the color of their skin, she would say "black."When I asked about someone's color and she didn't know their occupation, she would look confused and end up saying "blue".

She had never been exposed to anything about death or funerals before.However, just recently, for the first time in her life, she walked into the cemetery, accompanied by her mother and me, and she was very quiet as we stood there.After she "saw" some flowers and plants on the mausoleum, she put her hand over our eyes and spelled "cry" repeatedly.Her eyes really filled with tears.Those flowers and plants did not bring her happiness.

Whenever we came across someone we knew, whether walking or riding, she would immediately call out that person's name.Once, when we were out for a walk, she seemed to sense that her brother might be nearby, when we were quite far away.She spelled her brother's name over and over and looked in the direction he was coming.

Teaching Report II

On October 1888, 10, Miss Sullivan completed her second teaching report.

Although Helen has been in excellent health over the past few months.But after careful examination of her eyes and ears, experts concluded that Helen was no longer able to make even the slightest perception of light and sound, but no one had yet been able to say for sure when it came to her senses of smell and taste. Tell how much Helen can play a specific role in obtaining information, but authoritative experts say that it cannot be ignored that the sense of smell and taste have a huge impact on Helen's mental development.

Helen must have experienced great joy in these sensations.Whenever she walks into the flower room, her face will show joy, and she can call out the names of some flowers just by her sense of smell (of course, she has been taught her before).She had an excellent memory for smells, and she liked to smell roses or violets.If you promise her to send her a bouquet of flowers, you will find that a strange smile appears on her face immediately, which shows that she has been immersed in the imagination of perceiving the fragrance of flowers.

Whether it's a family event or a birthday party, floral and fruity scents will evoke her scent memories.As Dugald Stewart said: "Some of the most important words connected with human intelligence come from the sense of smell, and the most obvious example is the language of poetry. All the peoples of the world have a natural use of this language. Purify and refine it with fantasies, and finally transform it into beautiful poems." Her sense of touch has been significantly improved during this year, and it can be said that it has become more sensitive and precise. Not only can she distinguish extremely subtle air fluctuations, but also various Floor vibrations caused by sounds and movements.She is also aware of the mental states of those around her.For anyone who talks to Helen, no matter whether he (she) is happy or sad at that time, it is impossible to escape Helen's "eyes".

The coordination of her whole body has also become excellent, and she seems to use this body as a medium through which she can have intimate contact with her partners.And now she can instantly recognize friends and acquaintances just by touching her hands or clothes.

I had given several examples in the report I submitted last year, and I wanted to say that there seemed to be an unexplainable ability in Helen.But after a year of careful observation and analysis, I now think that this ability of hers can be explained, because she is extremely sensitive to the changes of body muscles caused by the emotions of the contact object, which is why she has this ability. cause of talent.It can also be said that she mainly relies on this feeling of muscle changes to detect the emotional response of the other party.

In the process of talking with someone, she will observe the slightest change of syllable, and she will understand the intention of the other person by every change of body position and tense and loose muscles of the hand.She responds swiftly to gentle touches, approving pats, impatient jerks, commanding forceful movements, and a myriad of "emotional words."She is very good at analyzing this unconscious emotional language, and can often guess our thoughts.She has also learned certain bodily movements, such as anger, joy, or sadness.

One day, I saw a police officer bring a man into the police station. Probably some kind of anxiety caused subtle changes in my body. Helen asked excitedly, "What did you see?"

Another time, when she was out with her mother and Mr. Ananos, a little boy threw a cannon on the ground, and Mrs. Keller was taken aback.Immediately sensing the change in her mother's movements, Helen asked, "Are we afraid?" This strange ability has recently been demonstrated.

Several ear experts in Cincinnati carefully examined Helen's ears. They also performed several experiments to determine whether Helen had the ability to perceive sounds.At that time, I stood beside her and held her hand. To the surprise of all the experts present, she could not only "hear" the whistle, but also "hear" ordinary speech.She would turn her head and smile, as if she had actually heard the voices.And then, when I put her hand on the table and turned and retreated into the opposite room.Helen remained still from the beginning to the end, and she didn't have the slightest reaction to what happened around her.This is in sharp contrast to the results of previous experiments.At my suggestion, a gentleman took her hand, and the experiment was repeated.This time her expression changed because she could talk to people.However, she did not show the expression of relief that I had just shaken her hand.

In last year's report, I mentioned that Helen didn't know anything about death, or funerals.Now that she has understood something, let me introduce the process of her understanding of death,

In fact, long before I came here, she had touched the dead chickens, birds or other small animals with her hands.Later, when she entered the cemetery for the first time in her life, you can see her true feelings-her eyes actually filled with tears.Not long after visiting the cemetery, Helen became interested in a horse that had broken a leg in an accident and asked me to accompany her to visit the horse every day.Later, the horse's leg injury became more and more serious, and people had to hang the horse from a beam.Helen seemed to be aware of the sound of the horse moaning in pain, and she also became depressed.In the end, it was decided that the horse should be killed.When Helen asked again to see the wounded horse, I told her that the horse was dead.

It was the first time she heard the word "death".Then I explained to her what had happened: he had been shot so that the horse would not suffer, and now he had been buried.I think that although the horse was killed intentionally, there was a reason for it, so it wouldn't shock Helen so much.But at this moment, she has already realized the fact of the end of life. From her point of view, the death of a horse is the same concept as the dead bird she touched.Similarly, she should also know the truth about the burial of the horse.From then on, I will use the word "death" whenever it is necessary.But for the meaning of death, I didn't give her any more explanations, which will slowly seep into her later.

Once, on our tour in Brewster, Massachusetts, she walked my friend and I through a cemetery.She began to feel around the headstones, and when she recognized a name, she seemed excited.But she did not reveal that she wanted to pick the flowers on the mausoleum.Just sniffed it.I brought her some flowers, and she didn't pin them to her dress as usual.Later, her attention was attracted by a stone tablet inscribed with the word "Florence".I saw her squatting on the ground, as if she was looking for something.Then she asked me with a perplexed face: "Where is poor little Florence?" Did little Florence cry aloud? I think she must be dead, who put her in the big hole?" We took her away from the cemetery to avoid answering these poignant questions.

In fact, Florence was my friend's daughter, and she died in her prime, much to my friend's grief.Of course, we didn't tell Helen about this girl, and she didn't know that when I came back from the cemetery, she immediately ran to the closet, because there were many toys in it."Poor little Florence played with them," she said, as she handed them to my friend. It was true, although we don't know how she thought of it.A week later, she wrote to her mother how she felt about it:

"I pushed my little ones (her dolls) in Florence's pram and I put them in cribs so they could sleep. Poor little Florence died Yes, she used to be lovely like Sadie, and now she has run into the earth, she is very dirty, and she is cold. She died of a very serious illness. Mrs. H cried aloud for her lovely baby Shout. Mrs. H always kissed and hugged her. Florence was very sad in the big hole. The doctor gave her medicine to try to get her better, but poor Florence didn't get better. When she was sick , she was rolling and moaning on the bed. Mrs. H will be visiting her soon."

(End of this chapter)