Students learn about Keller from ancestor

Keller Johnson Thompson, the great-great niece of Helen Keller, spoke to second grade students at West Elementary last week about the life of Helen Keller.

Many people say the best way to learn something is through experience so when there’s an opportunity to receive a real-life history lesson, West Elementary School Principal Dr. Chris James said it’s something his school don’t pass up.
Last Monday, second graders at WES listened to Keller Johnson Thompson, the great-great niece of Helen Keller, talk about Keller’s life and legacy.
Thompson works through the Helen Keller Foundation for Research and Education and she said teaching school children about her great-great aunt is something she enjoys doing because it gives her an opportunity to learn even more about Keller herself.
“I wanted to find a way to tell people about the amazing life Helen Keller had and how inspirational she was,” Thompson said. “I thought I knew a lot but I realize that I find out more and more about her all the time.
“I’ll go into a school sometimes and a student will ask me a question that I realize I don’t know the answer to and it just reminds me that there are so many facets to Helen Keller’s life and it makes me want to talk about her life even more.”
Thompson’s presentation to the students includes a slide show with pictures as well as stories the children may or may not have heard before.
This is Thompson’s third year to speak to second graders at WES and second grade teachers who have enjoyed the presentation year after year said the students always seem to get a lot out of it.
“We’ve actually been studying about Helen Keller in our reading classes and knowing [Thompson] is related to Helen Keller just makes it more real to them,” second grade teacher Tracy Ward said. “They get interested in the story because it’s real life and not just something they are reading out of a book.”
Fellow teacher Jennifer Bishop agreed the students seemed to relate to Keller’s life story more personally after hearing it from a relative.
“The students sometimes think Helen Keller was just blind and deaf but they get to hear all these other stories and it seems to help them understand it better and really connect to it,” Bishop said.
Thompson said she is glad she can make that connection and continue to teach a whole new group of students the lessons that can be learned by studying Keller’s life.
“This presentation is really about character education and I use Helen Keller’s life as an example,” she said. “I’m teaching the next generation so they don’t forget all you can do despite obstacles that might be in your way.”