Shagoury discusses that while Helen Keller's abilities to overcome her disabilities, with the help of Anne Sullivan, is truly a great story, not all aspects of this story are told. Some of the aspects were not considered acceptable during her time. A major aspect of this story that is left out is that Helen Keller attributed her achievements in overcoming her disabilities to her level of privilege. She believed that poor people with disabilities would not have the same chances to overcome them that she had. Such a discussion of financial inequities in our society would not have been received well by people in powerful places at that time, so this belief of hers is left out of the telling of her story in most cases.
Most authors refer to Helen Keller as an inspirational figure who was brave, and worked tirelessly for the rights of the blind and deaf. That is what is written the most because it is the least controversial aspect of her life. These stories leave out many aspects of true bravery that she exhibited during her life. She was a socialist who advocated for more equity for all people. She attacked Nelson Rockefeller as a "monster of capitalism" because of his child labor practices (especially following the Ludlow Mine Accident) in which many women and children were killed. She spoke out in favor of women's rights during a time when this was not a socially popular view to have. She was also an early supporter of the NAACP during a time when the Jim Crow south was still very real, and the support of a white woman for the organization would bring scorn to her from many. Helen Keller was also a supporter of radical labor unions. People in power did not want to see these unions be successful because it would greatly effect their financial bottom lines. She did not care about that. She supported more financial equity in American labor practices, and greatly supported what labor unions stood for.
Despite all of these achievements, and real acts of bravery, Helen Keller is depicted as an almost saintly person who worked tirelessly to support the deaf and blind. While she did do this, there is so much more to her story that is either ignored or quickly brushed over in the telling of her story. Ruth Shagoury asks us to consider why this may be so. As teachers, we should try to help kids become informed of as much of a complete story as possible. I personally believe after reading this, that she was simply too controversial for the time in which she lived for her story to be told. It is not right at all, but those with money and power (and the ability to publish her story) were not inclined for people to have easy access to the truth about her. Her complete story is amazing, and it is a shame that most accounts of her life spend more than 90 percent of its pages on the early years of her life and very little about anything else of significance. I think Shagoury is letting teachers know that there is a lot more to a story in most cases, and eloquently uses Helen Keller as an example of this.
This is a great post. I went back to the text and read that section after reading your post. I remember being taught how important she was when I was a child but, like you said its a watered down version of all that she did. I have several of the "Who Was..." books in my class library. The kids absolutely love them but now I am prompted to look at them more critically and make sure my students aren't missing important parts.
ReplyDeleteThanks John for your post on another eye-opening article. It's a good thing that research is being done and that real truth or lack of truth comes out . It's pathetic how we are getting robbed from the real truth very often. As teachers we don't have the time to research all the stories out of books we share with our students. You believe what you read as the author would have done the research for you. apparently that's not the case. Thank you for making me aware. It's frustrating.
ReplyDeleteI agree that I really enjoyed this post. It's very interesting how different history can be based on where and how we're learning it. I feel that often we don't relearn the true history of things until we're much older. One thing we were never taught was that Keller, while certainly admirable for many of her political positions, was also a supporter of eugenics at one point. It's amazing what you can learn when you look beyond what is taught as a child.
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