Helen Keller joined the Wright-Humason School for the Deaf in New York City in October 1894. The school was famous for its specialised training in vocal culture and lip-reading. Helen joined the school to improve her speech further. Besides learning speech, during two years she studied there arithmetic, physical geography, French and German.
Helen made much progress in German because Miss Reamy, her German teacher, could use the manual alphabet. In a few months she was able to understand almost everything her teacher said. She found French much more difficult because Madame Olivier, a French lady, did not know the manual alphabet. So she could not read her lips easily.
Helen’s progress in lip-reading and speech was unexpectedly slow. It was so because her ambition was to speak like other people, which was too high to achieve. So the disappointment was inevitable. No doubt, she worked very hard but found goal not within reach. She was not good at arithmetic. However, physical geography enabled her to learn the secrets of nature. All the teachers at the Wright-Humason School tried their level best to provide every advantage to the pupils of the school. So Helen looked back at the two years she spent there with fondness.
