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Helen Keller Breaks Down
IntroductionHelen Keller found college thrilling yet exhausting, thanks in part to the unwillingness of Radcliffe administrators to modify the curriculum or classes for her. Administrators did only the absolute minimum necessary for Keller to attend college. Sullivan, however, did not press for additional modifications; she felt that the public would question Keller’s achievement if Radcliffe made special provisions for Keller. At this time, educators had not yet developed the notion of “accommodating” students with disabilities to make their studies easier. Indeed, federal policymakers did not require public schools or colleges to make accommodations until the 1970s. Nonetheless, this melodramatic article from the New York Times misrepresented the situation. Keller and Sullivan attended graduation, but not the other festivities of the week. Keller’s health was not to blame; rather, Keller and Sullivan were upset that Radcliffe had not seen fit to recognize Sullivan’s immense and crucial contribution to Keller’s education. | |||||||||||||
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| 1 | Gifted Blind Deaf-Mute on the Verge of Nervous Prostration. | |
| 2 | Special to The New York Times. | |
| 3 | BOSTON, June 24. -- Thousands of admiring friends will sympathize with Miss Helen Keller, the gifted deaf, dumb, and blind student, for, while her sisters in Radcliffe's class of 1904 are in the midst of their graduation festivities, she is ill in her room at Wrent Hall. | |
| 4 | Miss Keller, whose educational efforts have been so successful as to be commented on the world over, has broken down. It is said, indeed, that she is on the verge of nervous prostration. She began to fail two months ago and was ordered by her physician to abstain from college work. It is believed she will get a degree in spite of her inability to fill all the requirements. | |
