Celebrating Women's History Month! - March 2009

 

Celebrating Women's History Month! - March 2009
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From March 2009
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During my time with the TFST Diversity Council—which would undergo several name changes in the future, including Tempe Diversity Council, Tempe Diversity & Inclusion Council, Tempe Inclusion Council, and others—there was a period from 2008 through 2009 when we created and shared a Diversity Calendar. I’ve decided to share parts of those calendars where the information provided offers historical insights into diversity, equity, and inclusion.

This is from the March 2009 calendar Celebrating Women's History Month. The first image shows how it originally looked, and the second has been updated so you can hopefully see it better. You can also read the text in the description below.


Celebrating Women’s History Month

“Keep on beginning and failing. Each time you fail, start all over again, and you will grow stronger until you have accomplished a purpose - not the one you began with perhaps, but one you'll be glad to remember.”
~ Annie Sullivan

Anne Sullivan was the daughter of Irish immigrant farmers, Thomas Sullivan and Alice Cloesy. She had one brother, Jimmie, who was crippled from tuberculosis. Growing up, Anne was subject to poverty and physical abuse by her alcoholic father and at the age of five, trachoma struck Anne, leaving her almost blind. Two years later, her mother died and her father abandoned his children to an orphanage in Tewksbury, MA where her brother died shortly thereafter.

Despite being left in a orphanage with no formal educational facilities, Anne Sullivan prospered. When the state board of charities chairman,

Frank Sanborn visited the Tewksbury orphanage, Anne literally threw herself in front of him crying, "Mr. Sanborn, I want to go to school."

After regaining her eyesight from a series of operations and graduating as class valedictorian in 1886 from the Perkins Institute for the Blind, she began teaching Helen Keller. When Miss Sullivan first arrived, Helen was seven years old and highly undisciplined. Miss Sullivan had to begin her teaching with lessons in obedience, followed by teachings of the manual and Braille alphabets. All who came in contact with them were amazed at the ability of Miss Sullivan to reach Miss Keller and Miss Keller's heightened ability to grasp concepts unheard of by deaf and blind students before her. Alexander Graham Bell, Andrew Carnegie, Henry H. Rogers and John Spaulding were only a few of those who met them and supported them.

Audio: "Travelator" by Density & Time from the YouTube audio library.