Chapter 1 — Unit 1: Learning Together

Jahnavi is a bright young girl who lives with her parents and three brothers in a coastal village in India. She is nearly ten years old and has been kept from school to mind her younger brothers while her siblings Gopi (Ettan) and Meena attend school.

Jahnavi dreams of going to school and learning to read like her brother Ettan and sister Meena. She also wants to understand why spiders are yellow in yellow flowers, why bamboo trees rustle, why the moon always comes from behind the hills, and why baby fish in the fields become frogs.

The River tells Jahnavi that little girls can do as much as little boys and advises her to slip along one morning, sit in the school and listen to what is going on — suggesting the teacher might let her stay.

Jahnavi musters courage and creeps into the back row of the classroom carrying little Appu. The teacher notices her, learns she is Gopi's sister, and promises to find a way. The teacher then visits their home and speaks to her father. Jahnavi's mother tells her she is glad the teacher came and that girls should learn as much as they want.

Jahnavi says that when she grows up she will be a teacher, go from house to house in her village, ask all the little girls to come to her school, and teach them everything she is going to learn.

The poem by Eliza Cook tells the story of King Bruce of Scotland, who is in low despair after repeated failures to achieve a great deed for his people. He watches a spider make nine failed attempts to climb to its cobweb and then succeed on the next attempt. Inspired, the King decides to try once more and this time does not fail.

The spider makes nine brave attempts that are counted, falling each time, and on the tenth attempt — making a bold little run at the very last moment — it reaches its cobweb home.

"Three Days to See" is an excerpt by Helen Keller. She cannot see, and explains that she finds hundreds of things to interest her through mere touch — feeling the symmetry of a leaf, the smooth skin of a silver birch, the rough bark of a pine, and occasionally the quiver of a bird in full song.

On Day 1 she would see the faces of the people whose kindness and companionship have made her life worth living. On Day 2 she would arise with the dawn to witness the miracle of night turning to day and then visit museums to see the condensed history of the earth, including dinosaurs and mastodons. On Day 3 she would stand at a busy city corner to observe people going about their daily lives.

She advises: use your eyes as if tomorrow you would be stricken blind; hear music and the song of a bird as if you would be stricken deaf tomorrow; touch each object as if your tactile sense would fail; smell flowers and taste each morsel as if you could never do so again. Make the most of every sense, and glory in all the facets of pleasure and beauty the world reveals.

All three texts are united by the theme of learning together — the courage to pursue education despite obstacles (Jahnavi's story), the determination to keep trying after failure (King Bruce and the spider), and the importance of appreciating and fully using one's abilities and senses (Helen Keller's essay).

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