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Anne Sullivan Macy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anne Sullivan

Born

April 14, 1866 Feeding Hills, Massachusetts

Died

October 20, 1936 (aged 70) Forest Hills, New York, New York

Spouse(s)

John Albert Macy (m. 19051932)

Anne Mansfield Sullivan Macy (born Johanna Sullivan on April 14, 1866 October 20, 1936), also known as Annie Sullivan, was a teacher best known as the instructor and companion of Helen Keller.

Helen Keller
When Helen was six years old, in 1887, Anne moved in and acting as her governess started teaching her. Sullivan began by teaching Helen Keller nouns using the sign language alphabet signed into Keller's palm that had been developed by Spanish monks in medieval times. After its adoption by French educators, it was adapted by British and American educators including the founder of the Perkins Institution, Samuel Gridley Howe.
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I.S.P N 7 Psycholinguistics On May 2, 1905, Sullivan married a Harvard University instructor and literary critic, John Albert Macy (18771932), who had helped Keller with her publications. The three lived together. However, within a few years, their marriage began to disintegrate. By 1914 they had separated, though they never officially divorced. In the early years after their separation, John Macy wrote and asked for money. In the 1920 census, Helen Keller was 38 years old and listed as Head of her household in the Queens, New York Census. Anna S. Macy is listed as living with her, age 52, listed as a private teacher of Helen. John A. Macy is also listed as living with them (entered as Lodger, writer/author, age 44). As the years progressed Macy appears to have faded from Sullivan Macy's life. Sullivan Macy and Keller were lifelong companions who lived, worked, and traveled together. In 1932 they were each awarded honorary fellowships from the Educational Institute of Scotland. They also were awarded honorary degrees from Temple University. By 1935, Sullivan Macy became completely blind just 1 year before her death. She died after a coma at age 70, with Keller holding her hand. When Keller herself died in 1968, her ashes were placed in the Washington National Cathedral next to Anne's.

Sullivan with an 8-year-old Keller while vacationing at Cape Cod in July 1888

Media representation
Anne Sullivan is an integral character in The Miracle Worker, by William Gibson, originally produced for television, where she was portrayed by Teresa Wright. It then moved to Broadway, and was later produced as a 1962 feature film. Both the Broadway play and 1962 film featured Anne Bancroft in the Anne Sullivan role. Patty Dukewho played Helen Keller in the 1962 film versionlater played Anne Sullivan in a 1979 television remake.Alison Elliot recently portrayed her in a 2000 television movie.. Alison Pill is currently playing Annie Sullivan on Broadway in The Miracle Worker, with Abigail Breslin as Helen Keller.

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The Miracle Worker Introduction

Anne Sullivan Macy (1866-1936) was a woman whose brilliance, passion, and tenacity enabled her to overcome a traumatic past. She became a model for others disadvantaged by their physical bodies, as well as by gender or class. Anne was a pioneer in the field of education. Her work with Helen Keller became the blueprint for education of children who were blind, deaf-blind, or visually impaired that still continues today. Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) dubbed her a "miracle worker." However, Anne's personal story remains relatively unknown. Although some of her letters still exist, it is primarily through the eyes of others that we know her. Some time after she married John Albert Macy in 1905, the young wife burned her private journals for fear of what her husband might think of her if he should read them. Similarly, she did not want her correspondence to be kept after her death. But for historical purposes, materials were retained and the Helen Keller Archives at the American Foundation for the Blind contain some of her letters, prose, and verse. Other materials about Anne are located at the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts and the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts. This web site wishes to show Anne Sullivan Macy through her own words as well as through the eyes of others as the remarkable woman whose life and teaching philosophy remain an inspiration to those who educate children who are visually impaired. In 2003, Anne Sullivan Macy was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame and the American Foundation for the Blind was privileged to receive a medal in her honor. By nature she was a conceiver, a trail-blazer, a pilgrim of life's wholeness. So day by day, month after month, year in and year out, she labored to provide me with a diction and a voice sufficient for my service to the blind. Helen Keller, writing about Anne Sullivan

Annes formative years (1866-1886)

Anne Sullivan was the eldest daughter of poor, illiterate, and unskilled Irish immigrants. She was born in Feeding Hills, Massachusetts on April 14, 1866. Anne was raised in extreme poverty. She was the eldest of five children, only two of whom reached adulthood. Her father, Thomas Sullivan, was an alcoholic and her mother, Alice Chloesy Sullivan, died from tuberculosis when Anne was 9 years old. When Anne was 7 years old she developed trachoma, a bacterial infection of the eyes. This infection went untreated and affected her vision. She had almost no usable sight until she had an operation at the age of 15, which restored some of her vision, but she remained visually impaired for the rest of her life. Sullivan's family situation became extremely difficult after the death of her mother in January 1874. At first, Anne's siblings, Mary and Jimmie, were sent to live with their uncle, and Anne
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I.S.P N 7 Psycholinguistics remained with her father. During this time, Thomas Sullivan shared stories with Anne about Irish folklore and railed against the injustice of Irish landlords and the British. This portion of her childhood ended on February 22, 1876, when Jimmie and Anne were sent to the Tewksbury Almshouse, an institution that housed poor and needy people. Anne was just 10 years old at the time. Their sister Mary was sent to live with an aunt. Jimmie died three months later in the Almshouse, and it appears that Anne never saw Mary again.

Anne as a teacher (1886-1904)

In August of 1886, Michael Anagnos, Director of the Perkins School for the Blind, asked his star pupil, Anne, if she was interested in working for the Keller family in Tuscumbia, Alabama. He told her that their six-year-old daughter, Helen, had been deaf and blind since the age of 19 months because of a severe illness. Since that time the baby had grown into a wild and increasingly uncontrollable child. The parents, Kate and Arthur Keller, had contacted the famous inventor and educator of the deaf, Alexander Graham Bell in Washington, D.C. for help. He, in turn, had put them in touch with the Perkins School for the Blind.

Teaching Helen
The 21-year-old Anne Sullivan came to Tuscumbia, Alabama on March 3, 1887. From the moment she arrived she began to sign words into Helen's hand, trying to help her understand the idea that everything has a name. This period of Helen Keller's life is best known to people because of the film The Miracle Worker. The film correctly depicted Helen as an unruly, spoiled, but very bright child who tyrannized the household with her temper tantrums. Anne saw the need to discipline, but not crush, the spirit of her young charge. As a result, within a week of her arrival, Anne had gained permission to remove Helen from the main house and live alone with her in the nearby cottage where she could teach Helen obedience. Anne's work with Helen is documented in her correspondence with Sophia Hopkins, a wealthy New Englander who had taken a motherly interest in Anne when she was a pupil at Perkins. Anne wrote the following to Hopkins: As I began to teach her, I was beset by many difficulties. She wouldn't yield a point without contesting it to the bitter end. I couldn't coax her or compromise with her. To get her to do the simplest thing, such as combing her hair or washing her hands or buttoning her boots, it was necessary to use force, and, of course, a distressing scene followed...I saw clearly that it was useless to try to teach her language or anything else until she learned to obey me. I have thought about it a great deal, and the more I think, the more certain I am that obedience is the gateway
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I.S.P N 7 Psycholinguistics through which knowledge, yes, and love, too, enter the mind of the child. One month later, on April 5, 1887, she succeeded in communicating the meaning of words. That night, for the first time, Helen climbed into bed with Anne, who later said "I thought my heart would burst, it was so full of joy." Anne wrote the following to her friend in Boston: In a previous letter I think I wrote you that "mug" and "milk" had given Helen more trouble than all the rest. She confused the nouns with the verb "drink." She didn't know the word for "drink," but went through the pantomime of drinking whenever she spelled "mug" or "milk." This morning, while she was washing, she wanted to know the name for "water." When she wants to know the name of anything, she points to it and pats my hand. I spelled "w-a-t-e-r" and thought no more about it until after breakfast. Then it occurred to me that with the help of this new word I might succeed in straightening out the "milk-mug" difficulty. We went out to the pump-house, and I made Helen hold her mug under the spout while I pumped. As the cold water gushed forth, filling the mug, I spelled "w-a-t-e-r" in Helen's free hand. The word coming so close upon the sensation of cold water rushing over her hand seemed to startle her. She dropped the mug and stood as one transfixed. A new light came into her face. She spelled "water" several times. Then she dropped on the ground and asked for its name and pointed to the pump and the trellis, and suddenly turning round she asked for my name. I spelled "Teacher." Just then the nurse brought Helen's little sister into the pump-house, and Helen spelled "baby" and pointed to the nurse. All the way back to the house she was highly excited, and learned the name of every object she touched, so that in a few hours she had added thirty new words to her vocabulary. Here are some of them: Door, open, shut, give, go, come, and a great many more. P.S.--I didn't finish my letter in time to get it posted last night; so I shall add a line. Helen got up this morning like a radiant fairy. She has flitted from object to object, asking the name of everything and kissing me for very gladness. Last night when I got in bed, she stole into my arms of her own accord and kissed me for the first time, and I thought my heart would burst, so full was it of joy

The Power of Words

After Helen's breakthrough in understanding the meaning of words, she moved ahead with amazing speed. Within three weeks, she had learned more than 100 words. Anne taught her as one would teach a young child. "I shall assume that she has the normal child's capacity of assimilation and imitation. I shall use complete sentences in talking to her." Anne took all she had learned at Perkins about teaching a deaf-blind child and adapted her knowledge to produce a more natural way of teaching. Many of Helen's lessons were outdoors. Anne realized that this deaf-blind child could learn much using her three remaining senses of touch, smell, and taste: It is wonderful how words generate ideas! Every new word Helen learns seems to carry with it the necessity for many more. Her mind grows through its ceaseless activity.

Early Fame
Anne's success with Helen was astonishing. She described her progress with Helen in letters to Michael Anagnos, the Director of the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston. He then published
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I.S.P N 7 Psycholinguistics these in the school's Annual Reports. Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone and teacher of the deaf, who had referred Helen's parents to the Perkins School, also played a role in Anne's and Helen's life. He made the public aware of their results when he gave a New York newspaper a picture of Helen and one of her letters to him. In May 1888, Anne, Helen, and Helen's mother Kate Adams Keller, traveled to Washington, D.C. There they met President Grover Cleveland and were joined by Dr. Bell. They went on to Boston as guests of Mr. Anagnos. It was he who persuaded Helen's father, Arthur Keller, to let Helen study at Perkins in the fall as a guest of the school. Sophisticated Bostonians were eager to meet Helen and her extraordinary teacher. Already, however, people's interest was focused on Helen rather than Anne. Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) gave Anne the credit she was due, when he called her a "miracle-worker."

Teaching Helen Keller How to Speak

By the age of ten, Helen Keller was proficient in reading braille and in manual sign language and she now wished to learn how to speak. Anne took Helen to the Horace Mann School for the Deaf in Boston. The principal, Sarah Fuller, gave Helen eleven lessons. Then Anne took over and Helen learned how to speak. But she was never truly satisfied with her speech, which was often hard to understand. She struggled to vocalize her words throughout much of her life. The method that Anne used was pioneered in America by Sophia Alcorn, a teacher at the Kentucky School for the Deaf in Danville, Kentucky. She succeeded in teaching two young deafblind children named Tad Chapman and Oma Simpson to speak. Alcorn named her method TadOma after these two pupils. The children were taught to speak by touching their teacher's cheek and feeling vocal vibrations.

Anne's Educational Philosophy

In June 1892, Anne was elected a member of the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf. In 1894, Alexander Graham Bell asked her to give a speech at an Association meeting. She was so shy, however, that Bell had to deliver the speech for her. It was at this meeting that Anne and Helen met a man named John D. Wright. He convinced them to attend a new school in New York City run by him and a colleague. Helen was the only deafblind pupil at the Wright-Humason School for the Deaf. Anne was critical of the teaching methods used there, which were very different from hers. She writes the following to John Hitz, Alexander Graham Bell's assistant at the Volta Bureau: Helen learned language almost as unconsciously as the normal child. Here it is made a "lesson." The child sits in-doors [sic], and for an hour the teacher endeavors more or less skilfully [sic] to engrave words upon his brain....The contrast between these children's plodding pursuit of knowledge and Helen's bounding joyousness makes me wonder

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Lines of Communication
Once Helen's abilities were known, the general public and even some scholars believed them to be too extraordinary for a deaf-blind child. In 1891, Anne and Helen's detractors were given information that seemed to prove them right. Anne had sent Michael Anagnos, the Director of the Perkins School for the Blind, a story by Helen entitled The Frost King. Helen's story was very similar to one written by Margaret Canby. Helen was accused of plagiarism. Alexander Graham Bell and Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain), another of Anne and Helen's supporters, came to their defense quickly. Both men said that we all unconsciously plagiarize. Those who made the charge assumed that Anne, not Helen, had read Canby's book. That led to the belief that Anne must be shaping Helen's thoughts and opinions. In fact, Helen had come across Canby's book many years before at a friend's house. Without realizing it, she had made the story a part of her own thoughts. In 1897, there was a still more dramatic example of the disagreement over what information Anne was giving Helen. A year earlier, paid for by private, philanthropic funding, Anne and Helen enrolled in the Cambridge School for Young Ladies in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The purpose was to prepare Helen for entrance examinations to Radcliffe College. By the fall of 1897 a dispute had arisen between the school's director, Arthur Gilman, and Anne. Gilman believed that Anne had too great a control over Helen. He wrote to Mrs. Keller that Anne was overworking Helen. He claimed that her health was suffering as a result. He showed Anne a telegram from Mrs. Keller. It authorized him to separate Anne from Helen; Gilman was to take charge of Helen. Helen and her sister Mildred, who was visiting at the time, refused to follow Gilman to his home without Anne, who left the school that night. Anne sent telegrams to several people, among them Mrs. Keller, Dr. Bell, and philanthropist Eleanor Hutton. Anne returned the next day and refused to leave the school until she had seen Helen and Mildred. She then went with the girls to the house where they lived. All three were forbidden to leave the premises. Joseph E. Chamberlin, a friend of Anne and Helen's, met with Gilman and convinced him to let Anne and the girls stay with him. In the meantime, Mrs. Keller arrived. So did Alexander Graham Bell's assistant at the Volta Bureau, John Hitz. He, following Bell's request, gathered independent reports about what had taken place. Helen did not return to the school. Instead, she completed her preparatory education at the Chamberlins' home in Wrentham, Massachusetts. No one ever succeeded in separating Anne from Helen after this.

Radcliffe College
Helen passed the Radcliffe entrance examinations and entered the college in 1900. She was a great success. And it was Anne's help that made it possible. She manually signed all the class lectures to Helen. She also signed all the texts and books that were not brailled. Anne's eyes suffered greatly. Helen says in her biography Teacher: Anne Sullivan Macy that Anne had to consult an ophthalmologist. When he discovered that Anne read to Helen at least five hours a day, he exclaimed: Oh my God! That is sheer madness, Miss Sullivan. You must rest your eyes completely if Miss
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I.S.P N 7 Psycholinguistics Keller is to finish her course.

You Must Train Teachers

In 1903, Helen published an autobiography. The Story of My Life appeared a year before her graduation from Radcliffe in 1904. A section of the autobiography contains letters Anne wrote to Sophia Hopkins on her arrival in Tuscumbia. They describe how she taught Helen. After reading these published letters, Alexander Graham Bell wrote to Anne. He urged her to educate others in her methods. He lovingly scolded her for not making the letters known sooner to the Volta Bureau. He pointed out that they showed how methodically she taught Helen and how her practices would help all teachers: Why in all the world did you not tell us about those letters to Mrs. Hopkins, when we were preparing the Volta Bureau souvenirs; they are of the greatest value and importance, and contain internal evidence of the fact that you were entirely wrong when you gave us the idea that you proceeded without method in the education of Helen, and only acted on the spur of the moment, in everything you did. These letters to Mrs. Hopkins will become a standard, the principles that guided you in the early education of Helen are of the greatest importance to all teachers. They are TRUE and the way in which you carried them out showswhat I have all along recognized that Helen's progress was as much due to her teacher as to herself, and that your personality and the admirable methods you pursued were integral ingredients of Helen's progress.

A Woman of Many Talents

The question arises whether or not Anne would have chosen a different path for herself if she could have, rather than remain with Helen her entire life. John D. Wright, in the 1890s, noted her musical talent and Helen recorded that her teacher had a love and aptitude for sculpture. Anne was an excellent equestrian and loved poetry. Her letters and essays reveal a very talented writer. However, her thoughts reflect a degree of fatalism as to life's eventual outcome. In Nella Braddy Henney's book Anne Sullivan Macy, Anne is quoted as follows: I have never known...the deep joy of surrender to my own, I cannot say genius, since I have not that immortal gift of the gods - but to my own individual bent or powers. I have been compelled to pour myself into the spirit of another and to find satisfaction in the music of an instrument not my own and to contribute always to the mastery of that instrument by another. How often I have been asked: "If you had your life to live over, would you follow the same path?" Would I be a teacher? If I had my life to live over I probably should have as little choice of a career as I had this time. We do not, I think, choose our destiny. It chooses us. In 1932, four years before she died, she again considered teaching. This time her pupil was to be a baby who was deaf-blind, however she was disuaded from doing so. The little documentation that we have suggests that her own volatile nature (and perhaps her bouts of ill-health) impaired her ability to focus her own talents. Moreover, her poor working-class background was perhaps a constant reminder that to remain Helen's teacher was a far more reliable way of ensuring a secure future. In Foolish Remarks of a Foolish Woman, she wrote the following: I hate a mapped-out life, yet I can't find a centre within myself to grow from. Growth requires
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I.S.P N 7 Psycholinguistics time and patience, yet I can't let them be. I am impelled to dig up the acorn and see if the oak has sprouted. Only in Helen have I kept the fire of a purpose alive. Every other dream flame has been blown out by some interfering fool.

National Women's Hall of Fame

In the fall of 2003, Anne Sullivan Macy was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York, an organization that honors in perpetuity women "whose contributions...have been the greatest value for the development of their country." Regina Genwright, who was then the Director of the AFB Information Center, received this award on Anne's behalf. Regina spoke of Anne's accomplishments when she said: I am thrilled to accept this award on behalf of a woman who was instrumental in breaking down the educational barriers for people who are deaf, blind and visually impaired and whose teaching practices are still very much in use today. Like all good teachers Anne's sole aim was to provide her student with the tools to think clearly and independently.

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More information: http://www.afb.org/AnneSullivan

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