I have thought about it a great deal, and the more I think, the more certain I am that obedience is the gateway through which knowledge, yes, and love, too, enter the mind of the child.

Sullivan frames “obedience” not as mere submission, but as the child’s first workable structure for learning: a willingness to accept guidance, limits, and shared meanings. In her view, once a child can reliably respond to a teacher’s direction, the mind becomes accessible to instruction (“knowledge”) and to relationship (“love”)—because communication and trust can take root. The line also reflects a late‑19th/early‑20th‑century pedagogical emphasis on discipline and character formation, though Sullivan’s own practice with Helen Keller suggests she saw obedience as a means to liberation: establishing order so that language, autonomy, and affection could develop.