Monday, November 16, 2009

Annie Sullivan on Discipline

I recently ordered a course by Lisa VanDamme that analyzes three great plays--one of which is The Miracle Worker. So, in partial preparation for the course, the wife and I watched the movie based on Gibson's play.

Though I watched the movie as a child, and didn't like it, I found it much better this time around. The actions of the characters made more sense, and I could get past the erratic behavior of Keller in particular, to enjoy more fully the drama bound up in Sullivan's quest to get Heller to understand language.

On Sullivan's disciplinary methods: I'm not sure what you would call this these days--other than illegal--but I wonder what my readers would call it.

For instance: Can Sullivan be said to be using positive discipline? At some parts of the movie--when she's not slapping Keller hard in the face-- think a lot of what Sullivan does actually follows these principles (given my admittedly cursory understanding of them).

Anyway, I had to mention this real quick before I forgot. Also: if anyone has not seen the movie, I recommend it.

1 comment:

  1. It seems, at the end of the second paragraph, my brain couldn't make up its mind between Helen and Keller. Just to want to acknowledge the typo and say I'd fix it--if I knew how to edit posts sent from Youtube.

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