From an email sent by: anna@ranish.net 12/21/2002
Anna writes:
... I liked the part about Helen Keller's picture being printed on
the Alabama coin in 2003...Speaking of Hellen Keller, I've been
meaning to ask an American who has dealt in the issues of deafness:
do they know here about Olga Skorohodova? She is the Russian
"Helen Keller" and her story is no less remarkable than Helen's.
She was also deaf and blind (from the age of 4) and she was part of
the project where a guy set out to prove to the world that deaf and
blind are normal people and he set up a program where they were
teaching a group of kids the same curriculum as they teach in
"normal" schools (Russian schools, which have higher standards than
American). Among her other achievements Olga lived a normal life:
she lived alone (she had translators and friends, of course, but no
one was living was her 24 hours to assist her), and she got through
college and an equivalent of American master's degree and worked in
a reputable institution as a scientist of languages. And all that
being blind and deaf!!! Anyway, only Olga and another guy survived
that experiment, the rest of the children were killed by Hitler's
soldiers.
...
Oops, sorry for making it so long, it's just that I read her
biography recently and was so fascinated by it that I thought ... if
Helen Keller is known to the whole world--how come Olga isn't!
Thanks for answering my last question despite the Christmas
business.
-- Anna.
Anna,
I took a moment and found a reference for you regarding the Helen
Keller coin. See:
Associated Press, (2002, Oct. 7), Alabama quarter to depict Helen
Keller, retrieved January 3, 2003 from http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/South/10/07/alabama.quarter.ap/
--Dr. Bill