Education: Lesson Details

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Objectives

1.) To examine the experiences of Anne Sullivan as a poor and disabled Irish-American girl prior to her schooling at the Perkins Institution for the Blind.

2.) To explore the larger meanings of poverty and disability in nineteenth-century America.

3.) To learn about social responses to poverty and disability in nineteenth-century America.

4.) To analyze possible reasons for the inhumane conditions which destitute Americans like Anne Sullivan were compelled to endure.

Materials

    Background Essays

    1. Poor Relief and the Almshouse
    2. Social Darwinism and the Poor

    Annotated & Abridged Documents

    1. About Tewksbury
    2. Anne Sullivan: The Story Behind Helen Keller
    3. Gov. Butler's Charges Against The Tewksbury Almshouse Management
    4. Governor Butler's Order To The State Board Of Charities
    5. Report From Massachusetts
    6. The Defective Classes
    7. The Defenders Of The Tewksbury "Slaughter-house" Barbarities
    8. The Management Of Almshouses In New England
    9. The State Wards