Animoto

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Review

Out of Darkness; The Story of Louis Braille

By: Russell Freedman

1997 Clarion Books/New York

Out of Darkness; The Story of Louis Braille was a great book. It deserves a 4 and a half star rating. I really liked how the author told it as more of a story rather than a boring biography. I thought that the author focused more on Louis' childhood than when he was older. This was okay though because that is when most of the important things occurred in Louis' life. The only disappointment was that there was no timeline. I believe that a timeline helps many students, and it was a feature this book lacked. In the end, it was a great book!!! Awesome job Russell!

I would read another book by this author. He made a biography fun to read. This is a hard task to do considering most biographies are all facts. I would recommend this book to friends because it was a great book. I would also recommend the author because he is a talented biography writer. As you can tell, it was an enjoyable book to read!

Life Shaping Events, Obstacles, and Risks

Everyone goes through the ugly parts in life. The ups and downs happen to everyone in life. These are the ups and downs of my life.

My first major event was when I was just 4 years old. My father made saddles and harnesses for a living. One day I decided to imitate my father. I picked up an awl and I stabbed the leather as hard as I could. Unfortunately, the awl glanced off of the leather and stabbed me in the eye. As you can imagine, it was not a pretty sight. The doctor tried to heal my eye, but it didn't work. I had severely damaged and infected my cornea. At first only one eye was damaged. Then I rubbed the infection to the other eye. This successfully made me totally blind.

At the institute we had a celebration for Valentin Hauy. He was the man that invented the embossed lettering system. At that time I was pretty much about to give up on improving Captain Barbier's nightwriting system. I was very discouraged. Mr. Hauy shook my hand at the end of the celebration. To me it was like he passed on a torch. That is when it became my mission to continue working on the system. That was the second major event.

A risk in my life was when Dr. Pignier was dismissed as director. The new director, Armand Dufau, did not approve of my system. He banished it and confiscated the Braille textbooks. He made all of the students use embossed letters again. This almost destroyed my system! Thankfully, Dufau's new assistant, Joseph Gaudet, had a talk with Dufau and convinced him to use my system. The students were still secretly using it anyway, so what was the point of banning it. Thank you Joseph!!!

One final obstacle I faced was tuberculosis. Because of the unclean conditions of the school, I developed tuberculosis. Back then, the doctors that diagnosed me could not make me healthy again. Therefore, I eventually died from the disease. In conclusion, I did not overcome this obstacle.

Those were the life shaping events, obstacles, and risks that happened to me. This concludes my blog. I hope you have enjoyed reading these posts. My hope is that you now know at least who I am and could recognize my name. Goodbye everyone.

Louis Braille

End of Post 5

Special and Interesting things About Me

Hi everyone! I've had some special and interesting things happen to me.

1) This fact may surprise you. I was once more famous for my piano playing than my invention. When people saw me they thought of me as a piano player. This occurred after almost the whole blind community of France was using my system. All of the sighted people didn't know about me because the blind and the sighted don't really communicate. So I found it interesting that I was known for my piano playing more than my invention.

2) Once I died, some of my friends found a box. I had written on it in bold letters, " To be burned without opening." My friends opened the box anyway and found it full of paper slips. Basically, I had given students loans for either gifts or school things. I didn't want them to pay me back so I wanted the slips to be burned. My friends did this, so I was satisfied.

3) When I lost my sight, I lost all memories of color. My hands told me that a tree was tall, but I had no idea what color it was. I could make out the shapes of things but I couldn't make those shapes fill up with color. The colors of my parents was another thing I couldn't see. I couldn't remember their eye or hair color. That was a very weird experience.

Those are some special things about me that you might not have known. See you next time!!

Louis Braille

End of Post 4

Character Traits

I'm back to tell you about traits! After reading this post you will have an idea of who I am as a person. I hope I come across as a pretty kindhearted guy and not someone crazy!!!

Some people describe me as determined. They say it is because I worked so hard on the Braille system. I did work on it for three years nonstop. So I know why they call me that. When I was inventing the system I had my eyes on the prize. I was on a mission to find a way for blind people to read and write.

Other people say that I'm musical. This one is easy to understand. I played the organ at St. Nicholas-de-Champs. That is one of the largest churches in Paris. When I first started to learn how to play the piano and other instruments, it came very easy to me. I was naturally gifted in music. It was fun to learn these instruments because I could learn at a quick pace and still play well. Musical is definitely a way to describe me.

I am known to be fair. When I would be playing the piano somewhere or presenting my invention to the public, someone would always pity me and say," He is so clever for a blind man." Why couldn't that person treat me like any other person in the world? Why couldn't they judge me as if I still could see? I would get so frustrated when people would pity me. They should think of me as a sighted person and put my disability aside. They should treat me as an equal, and not as a disabled person. That is why I am known for being fair.

My colleagues would describe me as dedicated. I taught at the Royal Institute for Blind Youth for twenty-three years! That was all the time I could teach because of my death from tuberculosis. I loved to teach, so why would I quit just because of a deadly disease? I only stopped teaching when I was physically not able to anymore.

One final trait that the director and my teachers would describe me as would be intelligent. I came up with the idea of using the alphabet instead of using sounds for the raised dots of my system. I did this when I was 15! I also became a teacher at the institute, overcoming my blindness that should have stopped me. It takes a smart person to become a teacher. That is why people call me intelligent.

Now you know who I am as a person. I hope you could somehow relate to me. Please wait patiently for the next post.

Louis Braille

End of Post 3

Effect on World

The Braille Characters!!!

Hi again! So in the time between this post and last post you might have been wondering,"What does this guy have to do with me or my community?" In this post you'll find out.

My main effect on the world would be the Braille System. I completed my system when I was fifteen years old. My system was inspired by Captain Barbier's system which he called nightwriting. It was a system which consisted of a series of dots which represented sounds. Once you traced your finger over the dots you would be able to read a message. The only problem with his system was that he was using sounds, which can change in each word and can be very complicated. After many experiments of my own, I realized that instead of sounds the letters of the alphabet should be used. The dots would be arranged in a cell block, with a maximum of six dots in each block. Fortunately, my system worked. That was the beginning of the Braille System, and a new way for blind people to read and write. I officially demonstrated my system for Dr. Pignier, the director of the institute, in 1824.

I also effected the students of the Royal Institute for Blind Youth. After graduating from the institute myself, I became a teacher. Because I invented the Braille System, I was the best one to teach it. I taught history, grammar, arithmetic, and geography. I really enjoyed teaching and I enjoyed seeing the students learn and grow. Even though I received little pay, I managed to buy the necessities and had enough left over for a piano. Of course, this was after several years of saving. Teaching was a great job for me.

One final way I effected the world is I wrote a book for the blind. My book instructed blind people on how to write words, music, and songs using the Braille system. That is why I called it, Method of Writing Words, Music and Plain Songs by Means of Dots, for Use by the Blind and Arranged by them. Don't you just love the descriptive title? Anyway, this helped the blind write words and music. Without my book, they wouldn't have learned how to do these things. So I must have effected those people.

That is how I effected the world. You now hopefully understand why I am an important person. Until next time, goodbye for now!

Louis Braille

End of Post 2

About Me

Hi! My name is Louis Braille. If you haven't heard of me ever before in your life I'm not surprised. The chances are, you are not blind. You probably haven't heard of me because I haven't effected your life.

I was born on January 4, 1809. I lived in Coupvray, France, which is near Paris. I had two wonderful parents named Simon-Rene and Monique Braille. I had a brother and two sisters to play with. Everything was great until I became blind (that's a different story). I was relatively young so I had received no education. After unsuccessfully trying to learn at a public school, I was sent to the Royal Institute for Blind Youth when I was ten years old. I was the youngest student there.

The Royal Institute for Blind Youth was a big help for me. I learned how to read and write for the first time. I learned how to play an instrument there which was very fun. The writing/reading system made me unsatisfied though. The system was called embossed letters. The letters were enlarged and raised, and we read by tracing the letters. It took forever!! I couldn't remember what I had read by the time I got to the end of a sentence. The system was overall not very productive or useful. But I managed.

The Royal Institute for Blind Youth was very fun though. I finally had the chance to learn and be like sighted people. I learned how to play piano and organ. Knitting caps and mittens was another thing we learned along with making leather slippers. As you can probably tell, the institute helped the blind youth learn things that would help us later in life.

So that is a little bit about me. I hope you find my early life interesting. If so, you can read more about me in my next post. I've got to go! See you later!

Louis Braille

End of Post 1