Mar 15, 2011

Disability WAH!?

Today i'm going to dedicate this post to a woman that shows true strength and being able to beat all the odds. Helen Keller was born on June 27th 1880 (Emily's was born on the same day). She was an American Arthur, Political activist and lecturer. If you have only heard of her and not know who she was and why she is considered a Great woman in history. Well at nineteen months old Helen Keller was diagnosed as the doctors describes "an acute congestion of the stomach and the brain" which most likely was scarlet fever or meningitis. This left her blind deaf and mute. Frustration made her destructive and a wild child. Her mother sent for a special teacher. The teacher was Anne Sullivan a 20 year old  visually impaired former student of The Perkins Institute for the Blind. She taught Helen to spell by using her finger in her palm first learning to spell "d-o-l-l" for the doll she had bought Keller as a meeting gift. Helen got frustrated often in the beginning actually getting so upset trying to learn the word "mug" she ended up breaking the doll Anne got for her. A breakthrough came when Anne was running Helen's hand under water with one hand and on the other hand spelling out the word water. After that she wanted to become familiar with other objects almost exhausting Sullivan. Helen was the first deaf blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts Degree she wrote a total of 12 published books. The earliest when 11 was The Frost King. At the age of 22 she published her autobiography, The Story of My Life in 1903 while in college. She became an advocate for persons with disabilities. Along with being a suffragist, a pacifist, a radical socialist, a supporter of birth control and an opponent to Woodrow Wilson. To me that's beyond greatness not letting so called "Disabilities" stop her from breaking boundaries. As parents we have to teach our kids to break boundaries. I am the best father i can be i go above an beyond but i want my daughter to be ten times greater than i am and not let anything hold her back. So parents of kids with food allergies or anything that a doctor may consider a "disability' or "different" take a long look at Miss Keller and other like her and make sure your little ones know they are GREAT!    

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