WHAT TO SAY
Chapter #1 of 5 Jane Goodall: No Monkey Business
So, are you ready? Take a look inside. You'll see pencils, a notebook, a tape recorder and a camera. That's because I'll be sending you back in time to visit some very famous women and I want you to be able to record what you see and learn. So put on your seatbelt and get ready to go!
I am setting the time machine for 1944: LONDON, ENGLAND. You're about to meet a world famous scientist who did most of her work while living in the jungles of Africa. (She can make very convincing monkey sounds too!) Here we go
1944: LONDON, ENGLAND
A ten-year-old girl uses a magnifying glass to watch bugs in the garden. Now she's out in the forest with binoculars, watching birds flying and animals scurrying about. Now she's in her room reading a book and holding a toy chimpanzee that her father gave her for her birthday. She's reading "Dr. Doolittle", a book about a doctor who can talk to animals. She stops to think about how neat it would be if people really COULD talk to animals. She dreams of going to Africa, where animals roam wild and free. This is a good place to take a picture, because this little girl will grow up to be one of the most famous ethnologists ever. An ethnologist is someone who studies
can you guess? That's right - ethnologists study ANIMALS!
1959: KENYA, AFRICA
By now, Jane Goodall has graduated high school, finished secretarial school, worked as a secretary and as a waitress, all the time saving up money to follow her dream of traveling to Africa. Now she's in Kenya, visiting a friend who has invited her on a trip. Kenya is so completely different from England (wide open spaces instead of crowded streets; elephants and monkeys instead of businessmen,) that Jane decides she must figure out a way to stay. Get out your camera because this is the moment when she meets a man who will give her the chance to make her dreams come true. She meets Louis Leakey, a famous scientist studying fossils (old human bones) to try and discover how long ago the first person appeared on earth. (Nobody knows the answer for sure, but most people think early people lived at least 1,500,000 years ago!) Mr. Leakey hires Jane Goodall first as his assistant, but then gives her a very special job.
1960: GOMBE, TANZANIA
Turn on your tape recorder! There! Did you hear that hooting noise? Those are chimpanzees, shouting to one another from across the forest. It's called the chimpanzee hoot-pant. If an owl makes a sound like a hoot, and a dog makes a panting sound when it's tired or hot, you can imagine what a hoot-pant sounds like. And look, over there - that's Jane Goodall, sitting on the ground with a notebook, quietly watching a group of chimpanzees as they play in the grass nearby. She is the first person to ever observe chimpanzees in the wild.
But why study chimpanzees? After all, there are alligators in Africa, along with elephants, lions, gazelle
tons and tons of animals that could be studied. What's so special about chimps? Well, it turns out that chimpanzees and human beings share similar DNA. DNA is the information in the cells of our bodies that decides that we have two arms, two legs, ten toes, a nose, a heart, lungs - everything about us except what we think or do. Chimpanzee DNA is the closest to human DNA, so close that it's barely different. Weird, huh?
For the next thirty years, Jane will study these chimps. At first, they are afraid of her and run away when she comes near. But after some time goes by, they start to get used to her. Okay, get your camera ready, because Jane Goodall is about to see a chimp do something NO ONE has ever seen a chimp do. Watch that chimp over there - the one that looks like he's wearing a beard. (Jane has named him "David Greybeard".) He's sitting next to a small hill. Inside the hill are thousands of termites, which are wood-eating bugs. David Greybeard would like to eat some termites, but waiting for the little bugs to crawl out one by one is hardly enough food. Now watch. David Greybeard takes a twig, pulls all the leaves off, and dips it into the termite hill. A moment later, he pulls it out and there are about fifty termites on it! He eats them all up! Yum, yum!
This might not seem like a big deal, but it is. Up until this moment, scientists believed that ONLY humans used TOOLS. Now, Jane Goodall has watched a chimpanzee use a tool, too. This is big news in the scientific community. Are there other things we thought only humans could do that maybe chimps can do? It turns out there are. Through Dr. Goodall's work (she got her doctorate #176ree, or PhD, in ethology from Cambridge University in 1965 - that's why she has a "Dr." in front of her name), we have learned that chimps can feel anger, jealousy, love, and joy. They hug, kiss, communicate, and argue. Dr. Goodall's work has changed the way animals are treated in zoos and in medical research. She has opened up a whole new world of understanding between humans and our closest relatives in the animal world.
So now you see why Dr. Goodall's approach to science was so different from anything that came before. Her lab was in the wild, and she studied wild animals. These days, Dr. Goodall spends more time lecturing, writing books, and working with foundations she's set up to help people understand the importance of wild animals. Two of the books she has written are: "Wild Chimpanzees" and "The Shadow of Man". In 1984, she was awarded the J. Paul Getty Wildlife Conservation Prize for helping millions of people understand the importance of saving the wild life on our planet.
And that same toy chimpanzee she had as a little girl is still sitting in the corner of her office today.
Chapter #2 of 5 Helen Keller: Seeing, Hearing and Speaking Differently
Before you get back in the time machine, I want you to prepare for your next adventure. First, cover your ears so you can't hear. Now close your mouth so you can't speak. Last, close your eyes so you can't see. Now stay that way for about a minute. Done? Okay, now you're ready to go!
1881: TUSCUMBIA, ALABAMA
See the cute little one-year-old baby? See how she smiles at you when you wave? Look - she's starting to walk- and say words! Her name is Helen Keller and her parents are very proud. Take some pictures of this smiling, laughing, walking, talking baby.
1882: TUSCUMBIA, ALABAMA
Helen is almost two. But she was very ill a couple of months ago. Her parents were afraid she might die. Now she's better, but you might notice that she doesn't smile back at you when you wave to her. If you pass your hand over her face, her eyes don't move. And when you call her name, she doesn't seem to hear you. Her parents have just realized that Helen's sickness has left her deaf and blind.
1887:TUSCUMBIA, ALABAMA
Helen is six now and she's become really difficult. She smashes plates and throws herself on the floor screaming. She eats her food with her hands and reaches into other people's plates to eat their food, too. But today is the day Helen's parents have decided to do something about it. Helen's mother has visited a specialist who had worked with another deaf and blind child. He suggested that Helen's Parents get a specialist to work with Helen too.
Today is the day the specialist is supposed to show up. Listen - there's a knock at the door. (Get your camera ready.) Helen's parents are meeting the specialist for the first time. Her name is Annie Sullivan. Annie lost most of her sight when she was five. When she was older, she had two eye operations that helped her to see again.
Annie is about to try to teach Helen how to communicate. Annie gives Helen a doll, and then, using the sign language alphabet, spells the word doll in Helen's hand. Then she gives Helen some cake and spells the word cake in Helen's hand. When Annie gives Helen her hand, hoping that Helen will spell the word back to her, it doesn't work. Helen just touches her hand back, not spelling anything. She seems to think it's just a game, not a way to speak with someone.
TUSCUMBIA, ALABAMA - ONE MONTH LATER
Helen and Annie have moved into a cottage behind Helen's parents' house. Annie is working with Helen to teach her how to eat with a fork instead of with her hands. She's also trying to teach Helen to brush her hair and put on her shoes, but Helen just screams and has more temper tantrums. Helen probably doesn't understand why she's being forced to change her behavior and it makes her angry. You would be angry if you couldn't speak or see or hear, and people tried to make you change the way you act. The only way Annie could punish Helen for these temper tantrums was by pushing her hand away and refusing to spell out words for Helen. You see, Helen thought that the hand spelling was just a fun game, and she started to behave better so that Annie would play the game with her.
Now, here we are, standing in the garden, about to see what many people thought was a miracle. Annie is holding Helen's hand and is walking her to an outdoor water pump. Annie puts Helen's hand under the cool rush of water. On Helen's other hand, Annie spells "W-A-T-E-R". Helen's face lights up. She repeats the spelling back in Annie's hand. Then she rushes around the garden, touching everything - plants, flowers, grass, bricks - and puts her hand out for Annie to spell the words. She understands!
1888: TUSCUMBIA, ALABAMA
It's only a year later, but now Helen is using her fingers to read books with raised letters and books that are written in Braille. (Braille is a system of raised dots on a page that represent letters and words). Now she's writing on both ordinary and Braille typewriters! Before long Helen is famous, with her face on the covers of magazines and many articles being written about her for overcoming her handicaps. People begin to call Annie Sullivan a "miracle worker."
1900: BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
Here comes Helen Keller, the first deaf and blind person to enroll in a university. During Helen's years of study at Radcliffe University, Annie Sullivan was right beside her, helping her to study, get around campus, and understand her teacher's lectures.
1904: BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
Get out your camera, because Helen Keller is about to graduate from college. And last year, she published her first book, "The Story of My Life". But this was just the beginning for Helen Keller. She went on to publish two more books and had a long career speaking publicly all over the world. Even though Helen was never able to learn how to speak the way most of us do, through translators she was able to answer questions and share her views with others. There was a silent movie called "Deliverance" made about her life, as well as a play called "The Miracle Worker", which was later made into TWO movies, one in 1979 and one in 2000. Interestingly, the actress who played Helen Keller in the 1979 movie went on to play Annie Sullivan in the 2000 version! There is even a documentary about Helen Keller's life called "The Unconquered." All this proves that people who have no sight or hearing can achieve their goals. Helen Keller's story shows the power of the human spirit to succeed in life no matter what kind of hardships we have! Think about that the next time you think there's something YOU can't do!
Chapter #3 of 5 Madame Curie: A Math and Science Whiz
For your next adventure, I have set the time machine for Poland. You will meet Marie Curie, a woman whose work is so famous and important, her picture is on stamps and coins, streets have been named after her, movies have been made about her life, and NASA even named a rover (space buggy) in her honor to travel on Mars!
1867: WARSAW, POLAND There's a little baby girl sleeping in a crib. It's Marie Sklodowska, and someday this little baby will win not one, but TWO Nobel Prizes in Science! The Nobel Prize is the best award you can win when you're a scientist. It's like getting a gold medal at the Olympics. Soon, we'll find out how this little sleeping baby went on to be the ONLY scientist IN THE WORLD to ever win TWO Nobel Prizes. But for now, get out your camera and take a picture of her - but don't use your flash! You might wake her up!
1883: WARSAW, POLAND Now Marie is 16 years old and has just graduated from high school. Her mother is a pianist, singer, and teacher and her father teaches MATH and PHYSICS (say fizz-ix) at the university (this is important - are you taking notes?). Why is that important, you might ask? Because Marie will go on to be famous for her work in chemistry and physics, which is the study of teeny, tiny things called atoms. Do you notice how proud Marie's parents look right now? That's because Marie has graduated with a gold medal, because she has the highest grades and test scores. If you stand close enough to hear her parents talking, you'll hear them call her "Manya." Manya was her nickname.
1891: PARIS, FRANCE Marie has worked the past eight years in Poland, saving her money to study math and science in Paris. She lives simply as she studies, mostly eating bread, butter, and tea. Soon, she's hired to work in a research laboratory. Here she is in class, raising her hand to ask a question.
1895: PARIS, FRANCE There aren't many women studying math and science. Before too long, Marie falls in love and marries one of her fellow researchers - Pierre Curie. Their wedding license shows that Marie Sklodowska is now Marie Curie. Marie and Pierre now form a team together, not just as wife and husband, but as scientists.
1897: PARIS, FRANCE Marie and Pierre have just given birth to their first daughter, Irene. You might want to take a picture of little Irene as she sleeps in her crib because in 38 years from now, Irene will also win a Nobel Prize for her work in chemistry! Meanwhile, Marie and Pierre continue working hard in their lab. About a year ago, a German scientist named Wilhelm Roentgen had made an interesting discovery. He found a mysterious ray that could travel through wood or flesh and show pictures of human bones. He called it the "x-ray", the "x" standing for the mystery of the ray. No scientists understood how this ray worked. It was a complete puzzle. So Marie and Pierre started looking closer, searching for the elements that make up the x-ray. (Elements are the basic ingredients that make up everything in the world). Although these elements are hard to find or see or touch, they combine together to form things that we CAN find or see or touch. For example, oxygen and hydrogen make water. Sodium and chlorine make salt.
1898: PARIS, FRANCE Why are Marie and Pierre smiling? Because their lab work has paid off. They have just discovered an element that no one else has ever known about - they named it POLONIUM! Polonium is an element (just like oxygen or silver) that exists in the world. When you study chemistry, you will see a chemistry chart that shows all the known elements in the world. So Marie and Pierre have just discovered polonium, a radioactive element that answers part of the mystery of what makes the x-ray work. The cool thing about discovering an element is that you get to name it. Can you guess why Marie wanted to call it polonium? (Hint: think about the country where she was born.) If you hang out here in Paris for a couple more months, you'll see Marie and Pierre smiling in their lab again. Why? This time they've discovered another radioactive element called radium. Radium is named for the Latin word "radius" meaning a ray (think of sunshine with its many rays of light). And guess what? Radium is used in a lot of x-ray work today.
1903: PARIS, FRANCE Marie is about to become the first woman in Europe to earn her PhD in science! She's spent the last five years working with radium to see if she can find it in metals - and she has! And later that year, Marie and her husband win their FIRST Nobel Prize for their discovery and research of radium.
1911: PARIS, FRANCE And now, get your camera ready, Marie Curie is about to become the ONLY PERSON, male OR female, to ever win TWO NOBEL PRIZES!! This time it's in chemistry for her continuing work with radium. Throughout World War I, Marie continued working with radium, leading to the development of the x-ray machine, as well as using radium to treat illnesses like cancer.
Chapter #4 of 5 Harriet Tubman: Journey to Freedom
For your next time machine trip, you'll need to recharge the flash on your camera because there's going to be a lot of night photography! Ready? I am setting the time machine for 1820. Climb aboard. Oh! You might want to take this warm jacket and these rubber boots with you.
1819/1820: BUCKTOWN, MARYLAND
You might notice the time machine is flickering between 1819 and 1820. That's because no one knows for sure which year Harriet Tubman was born. Harriet Tubman is now just a little baby, named Araminta Ross. Her parents and her ten other sisters and brothers all work for the same slave owner in Maryland. Even though they're slaves, they are fortunate to have their family around them, because many slaves are sold away from their families. So take a photo of the family together because someday little baby Araminta Ross will grow up and move all of her family out of slavery and into freedom. So how does Araminta Ross become Harriet Tubman? When she was a child, she decided she wanted to be called Harriet, which was her mother's name. No one seemed to mind. And Tubman? Hop back into the time machine and find out!
1844: BUCKTOWN, MARYLAND
At the age of 24 or 25 (remember, we don't know which year she was born) Harriet Ross is married to John Tubman, who is a free African-American. That's how she became Harriet Tubman. By this time, she had worked both as a housekeeper and by doing hard work in the fields.
1849: PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA
Her master had been thinking about selling Harriet to another family. Rather than have that happen, Harriet decided to escape. No one in her family wanted to go with her, too afraid of what might happen if they were caught, so Harriet set off on foot one night and ended up in Philadelphia. Get your tape recorder out, because she's about to tell you how she felt when she crossed the Mason-Dixon Line. The Mason-Dixon Line was the boundary that separated the South, where slaves were kept, from the North, where slaves were free. "When I found I had crossed the line, I looked at my hands to see if I were the same person. The sun came like gold through the tree and over the field and I felt like I was in heaven." While in Pennsylvania, Harriet makes contact with many other abolitionists (people, like Quakers, who are against slavery). The abolitionists helped her make plans to return to Maryland and rescue her family members. (You'll read about Susan B. Anthony, another famous abolitionist, in the next chapter). The abolitionists made the "Underground Railroad" to help slaves escape. The Underground Railroad wasn't a railroad at all, but a collection of homes and people who wanted to help slaves. Some people gave money to help free slaves, some used their houses to hide them and some hid slaves in their carts and pulled them by horse to freedom. There's Harriet at a meeting with William Still, a well-known abolitionist who helped Harriet make her plans to help free other slaves.
1850: AMERICA
Congress passes a law called the Fugitive Slave Act. A fugitive is someone running from the police. The Fugitive Slave Act said that it was illegal to help a runaway slave. But this does not stop Harriet from saving money and making friends with abolitionists to prepare for her famous journeys.
1851: MARYLAND
This is where you'll need to use your flash on your camera and you might want to put on those boots. Harriet Tubman is leading her sister and her sister's children from Baltimore to Philadelphia. It's nighttime and only the moon lights their way. Now they're crossing through a chilly river as they make their way through the backwoods to freedom. (Splash, splash!) Over the next six years, Harriet will perfect her method of bringing slaves to freedom. She always comes in the winter and at night (that's why you're wearing that warm coat!). It is always a Saturday night because slaves didn't usually have to work on Sundays. Therefore, slave masters might not notice anyone was missing until Monday morning. Then, when the slave masters put up posters saying their slaves are missing, Harriet hires people to follow them and pull down the posters right after they are put up. Harriet is also carrying a gun. She is fearful about her own safety and worries about slaves who might want to go back. She later said the slaves "had to go through or die." Only once did she have to point the gun, when a slave refused to move. When she pointed the gun and said, "Be free or die", he jumped to his feet and continued the journey to freedom. As the slaves make their way through a forest, Harriet suddenly sits down and falls asleep! The other slaves wait patiently for her to wake up because they know that Harriet will wake up soon. See, Harriet had a head injury when she was thirteen years old. Because of it, she developed a brain condition called "narcolepsy". People with narcolepsy will suddenly fall asleep - even if they're in the middle of talking or walking.
1857: MARYLAND
Harriet has now lead almost 300 slaves to freedom. Posters have been plastered all over the place offering $40,000 for her capture. $40,000! That's like offering close to a million dollars today! Her last trip, which we're watching right now, is more dangerous than the others. She has come for her parents, who are now too old to walk. In order to make sure they'll have a safe passage, she's hidden them in a horse-drawn cart. Finally, Harriet Tubman's entire family is free. The Civil War broke out in 1861 and Harriet continued her work helping others as a nurse and even a spy. Once the war was over, she raised money for schools, for the poor and the sick, and eventually opened a home for elderly people. Harriet Tubman never stopped working for others until she died in 1913.
Chapter #5 of 5 Susan B. Anthony: Fight For Your Right
For your last time machine adventure, you'll visit a woman who fought so hard for her rights as an American, she was even willing to be arrested by the police for it!
1823: ADAMS, MASSACHUSETTS In a modest home sits a little girl. She's only three years old but already she's reading a book! Her father watches over her sternly, making sure she does her work. He is a Quaker and wants all eight of his children to learn the Quaker values of self-reliance (helping yourself), self-discipline (making sure you do the right thing at the right time instead of someone else having to tell you to do it) and self-worth (feeling that you are a valuable person.) Quakers also don't believe in war or slavery and were the first group to practice equality for men and women. Can you guess what kind of a person little Susan will grow up to be? Let's step into the time machine and check up on her.
1838: NEW YORK Susan's only 18, but already she's a teacher! Take a photo as she teaches because today will be her last day here. Follow her as she goes to the headmaster to protest the fact that the women working at the school are being paid one fifth of what the men are for doing the same job. That means that if a man is being paid fifteen dollars a week to teach, a woman is being paid three dollars a week to do the same thing. Does that seem fair to you? Well, it doesn't seem fair to Susan B. Anthony either. She quits her job in protest.
1850: NEW YORK By now, Susan is involved in the temperance movement. The temperance movement was started to make people understand that drinking too much alcohol is bad. When people drink too much, they are mean to their wives, husbands, and children. Susan was very committed to working with a group called the Sons of Temperance to try to teach other people about the evils of too much drinking. But when she wanted to give a speech to the Sons of Temperance, they told her she couldn't because she was a woman. She left the group and helped to form the Daughters of Temperance. Here she is at a meeting. One of the women at the meeting is holding a #169 of "The Lily", the first newspaper owned by women in the United States. Susan B. Anthony has written many articles for "The Lily". And here is Susan with one of the women she met through her work, Amelia Bloomer (take a photo!), who will help get Susan involved in two of her biggest causes: slavery and voting. Since this is before the Civil War, many people owned slaves. Raised as a Quaker, Susan B. Anthony could not support this idea. She worked tirelessly with other people who wanted to see the end of slavery. These people are called abolitionists. During her work here, she met another important woman, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who would end up helping Susan with her biggest challenge of all - getting women the right to vote.
1860: NEW YORK Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton have spent the last ten years working hard to get women the right to vote and own property. Trying to get women the right to vote is called the Suffrage movement. Now look! Here's a good time to pull out your camera because Susan and Elizabeth are celebrating! Why? Because their work has paid off! The New York State legislature has just passed a law called the Married Women's Property Act. It allows women who are married to control their own money (if they have a job or got it from their parents) and to own property. Before this, all property was in their husbands' names only. Here come Susan and Elizabeth down the courthouse steps looking very happy. But they know they haven't yet finished fighting for women's rights.
1872: NEW YORK The Civil War has ended. Now the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution has been written. It says that black men can vote. Susan B. Anthony is happy because she hated slavery, but she still believes women should have a right to vote, too. She notices that the Fourteenth Amendment says that all people born in the United States are citizens and they all have rights. Now get out your camera, because here comes Susan now, marching down the street with fifteen other women, on their way to vote! And here come the police to arrest her!
1873: NEW YORK There's Susan B. Anthony on trial for voting illegally. The judge won't let her speak during the trial and has just said that he finds her guilty. Now he's telling her to pay a fine of $100, but she's refusing! Quick, turn on your tape recorder. The judge is finally letting her speak! "You have trampled under foot
my natural rights, my civil rights, my political rights."
1920: WASHINGTON D.C. The Nineteenth Amendment, giving women the right to vote, is finally passed. It took forty years since Susan B. Anthony's first arrest. Sadly, Susan B. Anthony didn't live to see this day come because she died in 1906. But if it weren't for her hard work and strong beliefs, maybe it would have taken much longer.
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