Welcome to the Wild and Free Podcast, episode 41.

I'm Ainsley Arment, and this week we'll hear an inspiring story from the annals of homeschool history.

Our friend Elsie Uticello shares her heartfelt reflections about wild and free conferences,

and Sandy Hunt, the mother and music teacher of the band The Hunts, reflects on her own homeschool experience.

So grab a cup of coffee and join us on the front porch.

Let's get started. One of my favorite homeschool stories happened between an unlikely teacher and a unique child who faced the greatest learning challenges imaginable.

I told the story at our recent Wild and Free Conference in Franklin, Tennessee, and I'm delighted to share it with you now.

On April 14, 1866, a baby girl named Anne was born to a poor family in Feeding Hills,

Massachusetts. At just five years old, Anne contracted a bacterial eye infection, leaving her nearly blind. She couldn't read, she couldn't write, and she had no means of making it on her own.

But Anne excelled in her classes, and eventually she was admitted to the Parsons School for the Blind in Boston,

where she not only excelled, but graduated as valedictorian six

years later. The next summer, a wealthy socialite named Arthur Keller contacted the school,

looking for a teacher for his daughter Helen, who was both blind and deaf. At 20 years old,

Anne began working with Helen Keller, a relationship that would change both their lives.

Helen was angry, rebellious, and most of all, she had no interest in learning.

So Anne did the only thing she knew to do.

She changed her approach.

She began teaching Helen based on what Helen's interests were.

She began spelling the words into her palm and what resulted was an explosion of wonder and discovery.

Anne remained Helen's educator for the next 13 years and in 1900 she went with her to Cambridge, Massachusetts,

where Helen had been admitted to Radcliffe College.

Anne went with Helen to every single class, spelling into her hand,

...