page_title: Anne Sullivan
section_title: Education
hierarchical_section_title: Anne Sullivan / Education
caption_attribution_description: Howe Building_Watertown_Massachusetts
context_page_description: Anne Sullivan Macy was an American teacher best known for being the instructor and lifelong companion of Helen Keller.
  At the age of five, Sullivan contracted trachoma, an eye disease, which left her partially blind and without reading or writing skills. She received her education as a student of the Perkins School for the Blind; soon after graduation at age 20, she became a teacher to Keller.
context_section_description: Anne began her studies at the Perkins School on October 7, 1880. Although her rough manners made her first years at Perkins humiliating for her, she managed to connect with a few teachers and made progress with her learning. While there, she befriended and learned the manual alphabet from Laura Bridgman, a graduate of Perkins and the first blind and deaf person to be educated there. Also while there, she had a series of eye operations that significantly improved her vision. In June 1886, she graduated at age 20 as the valedictorian of her class. She stated "Fellow-graduates: 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 and make life more as He would have it."
caption: Howe Building, Perkins School for the Blind, in 1912
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