For the first post of this blog, I would like to share two stories. Both these stories are about women who were born in the 1800's, both worked with children with special needs at a time when few would invest time or effort into educating these children. And they both achieved remarkable success in their work and were seen as 'Miracle Workers.' They continue to inspire many of us even today.
1) Anne Sullivan
Anne Sullivan was a vision impaired 20 year old when she was offered a job to be governess to a six year old girl. She took up the offer and moved to Tuscumbia, Alabama, to tutor the blind, deaf, mute daughter of the Keller Family. When she arrived at the Keller home on March 3, 1887, she met a child who was angry, rebellious and very aggressive. Some accounts even describe the little girl as being feral.
But Anne Sullivan was not deterred. She worked relentlessly and with ingenuity in teaching her young student. During one lesson, she finger-spelled the word "water" on one of Keller's hands as she ran water over her student's other hand. Keller finally made her first major breakthrough, connecting the concept of sign language with the objects around her. From that point, Anne Sullivan's student made great progress in her education and eventually graduated from Radcliffe College. Soon the world learned of her and Helen Keller became famous for accomplishing things that nobody would ever have imagined. And it was all because of the belief, commitment and perseverance of one person - Anne Sullivan
2) Dr Maria Montessori
Dr Maria Montessori was the first woman to graduate with a medical degree from the University of Rome. Soon after her graduation, she began postgraduate research at the Psychiatric Clinic of Rome and began to work with the children who were labeled as 'deficient'. Because of her success, Dr. Montessori was appointed by the Minister of Education in Rome to run a school for 'deficient' children from the schools of Rome and 'mentally disabled' children from Rome's asylums. Dr. Montessori took a keen interest in the education of these children. Dr Montessori travelled to London and Paris in search of ideas to educate retarded children. On her return to Rome she spent many hours working with teachers and children, building on ideas from Froebel (the founder of kindergarten) and special educators Itard and Seguin.
She developed and utilized scientific methods to enable these children to learn better. She would spend much of her time observing these children and at night, she would write out her notes, analyze them, and make new materials for use in her classroom. She would then go back to the school to test these new materials. She would again observe them, take notes and would use all her studies to fine-tune her methods and materials. Over a period of time, the children made remarkable progress and after two years Dr Montessori's work brought surprising results with several 'retarded' children passing the public examinations, performing as well as normal children. Eventually Dr Montessori went on to develop a whole new way of education which would come to be known as the Montessori Method, but it all had its genesis in a school for children with special needs.
I often wonder that if these great women could achieve so much with so few means and virtually no technology to support them, how much more can we achieve. I am truly inspired by what Anne Sullivan said to her fellow students at her graduation from Perkins School for the Blind: "Duty bids us go forth into active life. Let us go cheerfully, hopefully, and earnestly, and set ourselves to find our especial part. When we have found it, willingly and faithfully perform it; for every obstacle we overcome, every success we achieve tends to bring man closer to God."
