The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1913-12-12
Slow Process Of Learning.

The deaf-blind child, like the nor
NAL child, has certain likes, dislikes,
desires and thoughts. The deaf-blind
child in learning the manual language
is taught if he spells the words that
represent the article he wants, he Sc
cuers the article. Every normal child
hears a word hundreds, probably
thousands of times before he attempts
to utter it to express his desire for
that article He is led naturally to
articulation because every one about
him is sure to name an article that is
give nto him. Thus the language is
learned by erpeated association. With
the normal child this is pleasant and
easy task. With the deai-blind child
this task is increased 100 fold, for
every scrap of knowledge must come
to his mind through his hands.
Helen learned to use the words
doll" and cake" manually spelled,
almost Immediately, especially after
one tempestuous struggle with me,
she found that she could not obtain
those much desired prizes unless she
spelled those words. She learned 18
nouns and three verbs in the first
month. At first she thought of words
IL
Upon her. Thus for many days SHE
confused mug" milk" and drink"
At last it occurred to her that there
was name for everything. and her
niger vocabulary increased rapidly.
She was transformed from ba.fled
little animal to radiant child. l
began to spell complete sentences to
her. BY the END of four months she
vas writing letters in pencil and when
we had studied together for six
months she was reading stories print
ID in raised type.
Mrs. Macy told of many amusing
happenings in Helen's education.
When she met DR.. Edward Everett
dale in Boston when she was eight
years old the first words she spelled
to him were: Hush with your feet,
Nancy Cher dolly is very sick" She
was possessed of very lively imagi-
nation that now for the first time had
found an outlet in her life. Some o.
her definitions ar: delightfully."- ex-
pressive. An uprire persimmon, she
said, pulls me together all over"
Determines to Speak.
When Helen discovered that the
people about her were not talking in
manual language, she at once determ-
med to learn to speak. Mrs. Macy at
iirst discouraged the proposal, but her
pupil was so determined to learn that
she finally consented to try the ex-
before she could carry on a connected
conversation with her new and strange
voice, articulating words that it was
impossible for her to hear. her knowl-
edge of speech was of great value in
her studies. Her present develop
ment of he rvoice SO that she can
speak in public has been brought about
within the last two years, through the
help of Chaster White of the New
England conversatory of music.
Another idea OF Miss Keller's that
her teacher did not approve of at
irst was her plan to go to college.
She won her teacher over and entered
Radcliffe college in 1900 Her work
was unbelievably difficult. Few, if
any, of her text books could be obtain
ed in the raised letter system so that
it was necessary for her to have Mrs.
Macy read all her texts to her by
manual language. A similar plan had
to be used when she listened" to a
lecture.
English Working at College.
From an educational standpoint,
said Mrs. Macy, the course at Radcliffe
was a waste of time. Miss Kellar's
work in English, however, was of
great value to her and she wrote the
story of her life, later published in
book form, as sophomore themes.
They are the only sophomore themes
in the history of education that have
been sold to a magazine for $4,000,