The Story Of My Life-Chapter 7- Simplified Summary

 

                     The Story Of My Life-Chapter 7

Helen Keller Learning Skill of Reading

Anne Sullivan Teaching Helen Keller

Helen Keller

In this chapter, Helen Keller tells us as to how she was taught the skill of reading. As soon as she learnt some words to spell, Miss Sullivan gave her some slips of cardboard on which a few words were printed in raised letters. She at once understood that each printed word meant for some object an action or a quality.

She found the slips of papers which represented ‘doll’, ‘is’, ‘on’. ‘bed’. She placed each on its objects. Then she put her doll on the bed with the words ‘is’, ‘on, ‘bed’ which she arranged beside the doll, thus making a sentence out of the words. At the same time, she carried the idea with the things.

One day, she played a game with her teacher for hours and it delighted her very much. She had arranged the words ‘is’, ‘in’, wardrobe’ on the shelf.

From the printed slip, it was a step to the printed book. She took her book ‘Reader for Beginners’ and searched for words. When she found them in the book, her joy was boundless. In this way, she began to read.

She had no regular lessons for a long time. Whenever Miss Sullivan, taught her, she illustrated it by inventing a beautiful story or a poem. Whenever anything delighted her, Miss Sullivan would talk it over as if she were also a little girl.

Miss Sullivan’s sympathy with Helen’s pleasure and dislike was superb. It was due to her long association with the blind. In addition to that, she had a wonderful faculty for description. She also introduced Helen the technicalities of science little by little. She made every subject so real that Helen could remember it easily.

Helen Keller in Contact with Nature

Wild Grapes

Grashopper

Fragrant Pine Trees

Miss Sullivan takes her out of doors perfectly in the sunlit woods for studies. Helen says that all of her early lessons had been taught to her in the close contact with nature. She still remembers the sweet fragrance of the pine trees mixed with the perfume of wild grapes. She learnt while sitting under the graceful shade of the wild tulip tree that “everything that could hum, or buzz, or sing, or bloom, had a part” of her education. She learnt that in nature nothing is useless; everything has a purpose. Each and every object of nature has its contribution in educating her. She counts so many things of nature like noisy throated frogs, katydids (a bush cricket), crickets, etc. She held them in her hands and after sometime, they forgot their fear. She also names some more objects of nature like downy chickens and wild flowers, dog wood blossoms, meadow-violets and budding fruit trees. She also felt the soft touch of the fiber and the small seeds of the bursting cotton balls. She also felt the rustling sounds of the wind through the corn stalks, the rustling through the silky leaves of some trees, ‘indignant snort’ of her pony when both of them caught him in the grassy land and put some bit in his mouth. She remembers the spicy, clovey smell of his breath. She means to say that she learnt the great lessons of life through her senses mainly of smell and touch.

Sometimes she would wake up at dawn and go secretly into the garden while the grass and flowers were laden (burdened) with heavy dew drops. She narrates here that she had the wonderful feeling of the joy of pressing the roses softly into her hand or having the feeling of beautiful motion of the lilies when they swayed in the morning breeze.

Sometimes she felt the faint noise of a pair of wings of an insect inside the flower in terror of being pressed when she was enjoying the touch of the soft petals of some flowers.

Orchard

Peaches

There was another place where she was usually found and it was the orchard where the fruits ripened in early July. Helen narrates here very beautifully how the large peaches would reach themselves into her hands when the ‘joyous breezes’ passed through the trees and the branches laden with the burden of fruit bowed (bent) down. The apples would also fall down at the feet due to the blowing wind.

Branches Laden with Apples

She felt the heavenly joy when she gathered up the fruit in her pinafore (/ˈpɪn.ə.fɔːr/  a clothing like apron) and when she pressed “her cheeks against the smooth cheeks of the apples” she that were still warm from the sun. After that, she would go back home.

The apples would also fall down at the feet due to the blowing wind. She also dug river beds all for fun. She did not know at that time that she was learning a lesson. She listened to Miss Sullivan’s descriptions of the round world with wonder. 

Burning Mountains

She also came to know from her teacher about burning mountains, buried cities, moving rivers of ice and many other strange things. She also raised maps in clay. The purpose was to make her feel the mountain ridges, valleys and also follow with the touch of her fingers the zigzag course of rivers. She liked that all but felt difficulty in understanding the division of the earth into zones and poles (South Pole and the North Pole). She still remembered how the poles were represented by orange sticks.

She did not like to study mathematics. She was not at all interested in the science of numbers. Her teacher tried to teach her to count numbers by stringing beads into groups. She learnt to add and subtract by kindergarten straws. She had very less patience and so she never arranged more than five or six groups at a time. After finishing it, she would feel relaxed and go at once to join her playmates. In the same play-way method, she studied zoology and botany.

 She had very less patience and so she never arranged more than five or six groups at a time. After finishing it, she would feel relaxed and go at once to join her playmates. In the same play-way method, she studied zoology and botany.

These things proved to be the keys to unlock the treasures of ancient world for her. She listened to her teacher’s descriptions of the terrible beasts of different names, which, once, lived in the primeval (ancient) forests breaking down the branches of huge trees for food and died in the swamps on an unknown age. Those strange creatures haunted her dreams for long time, and that gloomy period formed sad background to the joyous, filled with sunshine roses and echoes with the gentle beat of her pony’s hoof.

Another time, she was given a beautiful shell by her teacher. She expressed delight and surprise when she learnt how a small creature (mollusk) had built the lustrous (shining) coil for his dwelling place (shelter/house). She also wondered as to how the Nautilus sails on the blue waters of the Indian ocean in his “ship of pearl” in the absence of breeze. Then she learned a lot of interesting things of the children living near the sea.

nautilus

In this way, Helen’s teacher taught her very much about the sea-life.

She was also taught how the growth of a plant takes place. Once, a lily was brought and placed in a sunny window. The she came to knows to how the green, pointed buds showed the signs of opening. The opening process was rapid, but in order and in some system.

Once, she had a great fun to put her hand into a bowl and feel the tadpoles frisk () about and to let them slip and slide between her fingers.

Q1. How did Miss Sullivan teach reading skill to Helen Keller?

   Ans. As soon as she learnt some words to spell, Miss Sullivan gave her some slips of cardboard on which a few words were printed in raised letters.

  She at once understood that each printed word meant for some object an action or a quality. She found the slips of papers which represented ‘doll’, ‘is’, ‘on’. ‘bed’. She placed each on its objects.   Then she put her doll on the bed with the words ‘is’, ‘on, ‘bed’ which she arranged beside the doll, thus making a sentence out of the words. At the same time, she carried the idea with the things.

From the printed slip, it was a step to the printed book. She took her book ‘Reader for Beginners’ and searched for words. When she found them in the book, her joy was boundless. In this way, she began to read.

Q2. How did she make Helen Keller learn the lessons from Nature?

   Ans. Miss Sullivan takes her out of doors perfectly in the sunlit woods for studies. Helen says that all of her early lessons had been taught to her in the close contact with nature. She still remembers the sweet fragrance of the pine trees mixed with the perfume of wild grapes.  

 She learnt while sitting under the graceful shade of the wild tulip tree that “everything that could hum, or buzz, or sing, or bloom, had a part” of her education. She learnt that in nature nothing is useless; everything has a purpose.  She learnt while sitting under the graceful shade of the wild tulip tree that “everything that could hum, or buzz, or sing, or bloom, had a part” of her education. She learnt that in nature nothing is useless; everything has a purpose.

 

 

Each and every object of nature has its contribution in educating her. She counts so many things of nature like noisy throated frogs, katydids (a bush cricket), crickets, etc.