13 Quotes & Sayings By Anne Sullivan

Anne Sullivan is widely known as the "mother of American" speech therapy. She was born in 1867 in Germany and moved to the United States at age 12. Her first teaching job was at the Perkins School for the Blind in Massachusetts. She worked there until her marriage to John Macy, professor of linguistics at Harvard University. After her pioneering work with Helen Keller, Anne Sullivan briefly returned to teaching at the Perkins School for the Blind, before moving into private practice Read more

From 1915 to 1917 she taught speech therapy at Lawrence School for the Deaf in Middleborough, Massachusetts. In 1917 she married George De Lany, a physician, and moved to Boston. She died January 19, 1968 after a long period of ill health.

1
It's a great mistake, I think, to put children off with falsehoods and nonsense, when their growing powers of observation and discrimination excite in them a desire to know about things. Anne Sullivan
2
My heart is singing for joy this morning! A miracle has happened! The light of understanding has shone upon my little pupil's mind, and behold, all things are changed! Anne Sullivan
3
I need a teacher quite as much as Helen. I know the education of this child will be the distinguishing event of my life, if I have the brains and perseverance to accomplish it. Anne Sullivan
4
The processes of teaching the child that everything cannot be as he wills it are apt to be painful both to him and to his teacher. Anne Sullivan
5
I have thought about it a great deal, and the more I think, the more certain I am that obedience is the gateway through which knowledge, yes, and love, too, enter the mind of the child. Anne Sullivan
6
The wrong things are predominantly stressed in the schools - things remote from the student's experience and need. Anne Sullivan
7
It's queer how ready people always are with advice in any real or imaginary emergency, and no matter how many times experience has shown them to be wrong, they continue to set forth their opinions, as if they had received them from the Almighty! Anne Sullivan
8
The immediate future is going to be tragic for all of us unless we find a way of making the vast educational resources of this country serve the true purpose of education, truth and justice. Anne Sullivan
9
Children require guidance and sympathy far more than instruction. Anne Sullivan
10
We imagine that we want to escape our selfish and commonplace existence, but we cling desperately to our chains. Anne Sullivan
11
We all like stories that make us cry. It's so nice to feel sad when you've nothing in particular to feel sad about. Anne Sullivan
12
People seldom see the halting and painful steps by which the most insignificant success is achieved. Anne Sullivan