Question

How did helen learn subjects like geography, history and science?

Answer 1

Miss Sullivan preferred teaching Helen out of doors in close proximity with nature . Miss Sullivan ensured Helen touched each and everything she learnt. One of their favourite learning spots was Keller's Landing, an old wharf on the Tennessee river, where Helen learnt Geography. There Helen made dams of pebbles, islands and lakes, dug river beds while Miss Sullivan described the physical and topographical features of the round world. Miss Sullivan would describe to Helen the burning mountains, buried cities, moving rivers of ice, etc. She made raised maps in the clay in relief so that Helen could feel the mountain ridges, valleys, and the devious course of rivers.
 
She learnt Science and History in the same manner. Once a gentleman sent her a collection of fossils. Miss Sullivan made Helen touch the fossils, and as she did so, she would describe to her the description of the dinosaurs. Helen would see those gigantic beasts tramping the primeval forests in her imagination and wonder at their enormity.   

Answer 2

Helen had a different way of learning subjects like Geography, History, etc. She went with Miss Sullivan to

an old tumble–down lumber wharf on the Tennessee River which had been used during the Civil War to land

soldiers. She built dams of pebbles, made islands and lakes, dug river-beds all for fun, never realising that she was

learning a lesson. She listened to Miss Sullivan’s descriptions of burning mountains, buried cities, moving rivers

of ice, etc. She made raised maps on clay so that she could feel the mountain ridges and valleys and follow the

course of the river with her fingers.

She learnt Arithmetic by stringing beads in groups and by arranging kindergarten straws, she learned how to

add and subtract. She did not have the patience to arrange more than five or six groups at a time.

She studied Zoology and Botany also in a leisurely manner. She listened carefully to the description of the terrible

beasts which tramped the forests and died in the swamps of an unknown age.

The growth of a plant itself taught her a lesson in science. She bought a lily and set it in a sunny window. Very

soon she noticed the signs of opening in the pointed buds. This process was reluctant in the beginning but later

on used to go on rapidly–in order and systematically. There was always one bud larger and more beautiful than

the rest which pushed her outer covering with more pomp. In a way she learned from life itself.