"We need to reintroduce families to American heroes who have overcome real educational handicaps (not mere inconvenience) to achieve academic excellence. One of my heroes is Helen Keller. Though blind and deaf, Helen became an international figure before the age of radio or movies. Most of us are familiar with “Teacher,” Annie Sullivan, from the biographical movie The Miracle Worker. Annie was a true teacher in that she made Helen do hard things and overcome many disabilities. I am in awe of the imagination and determination this deaf and blind woman possessed in order to achieve what she did. She could “hear” a radio by touching the radio and feeling the vibrations! But I am even more deeply moved by her joy for life in spite of living in total darkness. In her 1951 biography of Helen Keller titled Journey into Light, Ishbel Ross says, “She found Franklin D. Roosevelt an ideal subject [for lip reading by vibration]. She caught Mark Twain’s best jokes by vibration. With her fingers on his lips Enrico Caruso ‘poured his golden voice’ into her hand. Feodor Chaliapin shouted the ‘Song of Volga Boatman’ with his arm encircling her tightly so that she could feel every vibration of his mighty voice. Jascha Heifetz played for her while her fingers rested lightly on his violin. She read Carl Sandburg’s verses from his lips and old plantation folk songs from the rim of his guitar.”"