Who Stole Helen Keller?

By Ruth Shagoury

In these times of vast economic disparities and ecological crisis, children need examples of people throughout history who committed their lives to justice—to bringing more equality and fairness to the world. Helen Keller, whose birthday we celebrate this month—June 27th—could be one of those role models. Instead, textbooks and children’s literature distort her life’s work, and miss key opportunities to inspire young people to make a difference in the world.

“When one comes to think of it, there are no such things as divine, immutable, or inalienable rights. Rights are things we get when we are strong enough to make good our claim on them.” Portrait by Robert Shetterly.

Helen Keller worked throughout her long life to achieve social justice; she was an integral part of many social movements in the 20th century. Yet today, she is remembered chiefly as a child who overcame the obstacles of being deaf and blind largely through the efforts of her teacher, Annie Sullivan. While she may be hailed as a “hero” in lesson plans for today’s children, the books recount only a fraction of what makes Helen Keller heroic.

Several years ago, I investigated and wrote about the image of Helen Keller in picture books for children in an article called “The Truth About Helen Keller,” published in Rethinking Schools magazine, and posted at the Zinn Education Project website. According to these picture books, Helen should be remembered for two things after she grew up: her “courage” and her “work with the blind and deaf.” Of course, both are true. But none of the many books I reviewed mentioned her work as a socialist and suffragist—movements that framed most of her life and were connected to her advocacy for people with disabilities. As Keller wrote in 1913, “The way to help the blind is to understand, correct, remove the incapacities and inequalities of our entire civilization.”

As I continue today to search for thoughtful curriculum on people who worked for social change, I returned to more recent texts and Web information on Helen Keller, hoping the last decade had served to renew an interest in her true heroism. Sadly, her life—and life’s work—continue to be distorted.

Please continue this article here: http://zinnedproject.org/2012/06/who-stole-helen-keller/