Chapter 2
Gandhi
When something happens, there’s usually a simple explanation. But that simple explanation is almost never the full story.
Here’s the simple explanation anywhere: Dave had decided to stop talking for a whole day because of something he’d read in a book.
See? Very simple, very clear. But it’s not the whole story.
So here’s a little more.
sort out the facts
Dave and a partner hat to prepare a report on India—not a long one, just some basic facts. Something about the history, something about the government, something about the land and the industry, something about the Indian people and their culture. Five minutes or less.
Dave’s report partner was Lynsey Burgess, and neither one of them was happy about that---there were some boy-girl problems at Laketon Elementary School. But this isn’t the time to tell about that.
Even though Dave and Lynesy had to give their report together, they both agree that they did not want to prepare it together. So they divided the tropics in half, and each worked alone.
Dave was a good student, and he had found two books about India, and he had checked them out of the library. He hadn’t read both books, not completely—he wasn’t that good a student. But he had read parts of both
books.
Dave thought the most interesting section in each book was the part about hoe India became independent, how the country broke away from England to become a free nation—sort of like the United State did.
And Dave though the most interesting person in the story of India’s independence was Mahatma Gandhi.
Dave was amazed by Gandhi. This one skinny little man practically pushed the whole British army out of India by himself. But he didn’t use weapons or violence. He fought with words and ideas. It was an incredible story, all of it true.
And in one of the books, Dave read this about Gandhi:
For many years, one day each week Gandhi did not speak at all.
Gandhi believed this was a way to bring order to his mind.
Dave read that bit of information on Thursday afternoon, and he read it again on Sunday night as he prepare for his oral report. And it made him wonder what that would be like—to go a whole day without saying a single word. And Dave began to wonder if not talking would bring order to his mind too.
In fact, Dave wondered what that meant, “to  bring order to his mind.” Could something as simple as not talking change the way your mind worked? Seemed like it must have been good for Gandhi. But what would it do for
a regular kid in New Jersey?
Would not talking make him … smarter? Would he finally understand fractions? If he had more order in his mind, would he be able to look at a sentence and see which word was an adverb—instead of just guessing? And hoe about sports? Would someone with a more orderly mind be a better baseball player? Powerful question.
So Dave decided to zip his lip and give it a try.
Was it hard for him to keep quiet?  You bet, especially at first, like when he got to the bus stop, where his friends were arguing about why the Jets had lost to the Patriots. But Dave had learned quickly that by nodding and smiling, by frowning and shrugging, by shaking his head, by giving a thumbs-up or a high five, or even by just putting his hands in his coat pockets and turning away, not talking was possible. And by the time he’d ridden the bus to school, Dave had gotten pretty good at fitting in without speaking up.
Three. That explains what’s going on a little better.  And it’s probably enough, at least for the moment. But there’s more. There’s always more. And now we’re back in class on Monday with Dave, who got through the rest of social studies without saying a word. And when the bell rang at the end of the period, it was time for fifth-grade lunch.
More than a hundred and twenty-five kids began hurrying toward the cafeteria.
And by the time they got there, the fifth graders were already talking like crazy—all except one.

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