76 pages • 2 hours read
No Talking
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Themes
The Value of Silence
What starts as an insult grows into a contest and takes on a life of its own: The no-talking battle at Laketon Elementary changes how both children and teachers think about the learning process for the better.
When Dave and Lynsey square off angrily to see which gender talks less, they have little idea of what they’ve started. As soon as the contest gets under way, they find they’ve taken on almost more than they can handle. Quickly, all the kids find clever ways to make their three-word rule work well enough to communicate effectively without talking too much. They learn that they’re more inventive than they thought, and the limitations cause them to be more intentional and specific in their communication. The fifth graders invent a whole new way to communicate and think about their class work that improves student engagement and simplifies learning. Though they didn’t intend this, the students discover the value of brevity, and it alters their thinking about how to learn and how to study together.
The Teachers also find that the talking limit makes their students more involved in their class work. Some of the instructors feel enthusiastic about the change, but others fear that this experiment threatens their authority and might lead to chaos, even as the contest creates the quiet classroom atmosphere they have struggled to establish before. A schism quickly divides the educators, though most agree that the no-talking game brings benefits. The challenge to authority also encourages the teachers to reflect upon their goals for the students in their classes. While Mrs. Escobar is at first angry that Lynsey defies Principal Hiatt and continues to speak in three-word sentences, she realizes that asserting control through disciplinary action is less important than accomplishing engaged learning in her classroom. Mrs. Hiatt comes to a similar realization, as she realizes that her outburst in the cafeteria was a desperate effort to assert authority, and not actually determined by what is best—emotionally and educationally—for the students.
Outside of class, many of the kids are intrigued by how silence changes the way they think. The simplicity of being quiet allows them to ponder ideas more thoroughly and become more aware of the world around them. Lynsey realizes that “I’ve been just blurting out whatever’s on my mind” (93), and that silence feels valuable: “Thinking. And being quiet. It was different. And it was good” (94). These kind of introspective thoughts help Lynsey, David, and the other fifth graders develop maturity both at school and interpersonally.
The contest shows potential as a powerful educational tool, and it attracts the attention of Mr. Burton, who writes a scholarly paper on the classroom effects. Even Principal Hiatt, who believes strongly in the value of words, finds that she can rise to the occasion and speak in three-word sentences to everyone, including parents, officials, and even an electrician who’s on campus to make some repairs.
Central to this theme is the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi, who practiced a day of silence each week to quiet his mind and make his thoughts and ideas more powerful. As the students and adults practice limits on talking, they find themselves thinking more clearly and behaving more powerfully as a group. Though the impetus for the contest is determining whether boys or girls are chattier, what really captures everyone’s attention is how interesting, engaging, and useful the limits on talking can be.
Standing Up to Authority
Freedom and power become major issues at Laketon Elementary during the fifth grader’s contest. The teachers want to dictate how the students participate in their classes, but the fifth graders—deeply competitive—believe that the stakes of the competition are too high to acquiesce to the teachers’ demands. Evading discipline while maintaining the contest becomes part of the fun of the competition, and this forces the students into conflict with the adults as they all re-examine the limits of student freedom at school.
Clements portrays the fifth-grade class as having a history of disciplinary issues; ironically, these issues largely stem from the class’s noisy reputation. This particular group of children already has a complicated relationship to authority, and Clements emphasizes this by making Gandhi Dave’s primary inspiration for practicing silence. Clements aligns Gandhi’s resistance to unfair systems of power with Dave’s desire for agency over his own actions, indicating the author’s belief that children’s agency must be honored within the educational structure.
Many Laketon teachers are annoyed by the three-word sentences at first, but class work and learning are achieved despite the verbal limits, and the relative quiet feels blissful. Intrigued, the teachers set aside their concerns and the confrontation gets postponed. The kids realize that, if they’re smart and respectful about it, they can bend the rules and continue what they want to do without too much interference. Both sides find that the kids can have their silence game and classwork can continue.
However, some of the staff believes that letting the kids make this arbitrary change without pushback will threaten the control these teachers believe they must exercise over the children. Principal Hiatt finally forces Dave, a leader in the contest, to break the game by speaking in long sentences. Dave, however, does this in a surprising way: He scolds the principal for her bullying tactics and insists that kids should be able to use their free time at lunch and elsewhere as they see fit. He turns to the students and shouts, “You have the right to remain silent!” (130). It’s an act of open rebellion, but Dave and Mrs. Hiatt resolve it in an inventive way: They apologize to each other, he invites her to participate in the game, and she accepts and calls on the entire student body to join in as well. Dave’s impassioned speech reminds Mrs. Hiatt that the goals of learning—including learned self-control and developing maturity—are more important that maintaining total authority.
Thus, students and staff reach an understanding that preserves both the kids’ freedom to innovate and the teacher’s ability to maintain order. Instead of a confrontation that only one side can dominate, the outcome is that both sides get what they want. The no-talking game is meant to pick a winner and a loser, but the main result is that everyone—girls, boys, and staff—wins.
Finding Common Ground with an Enemy
Young children often believe that kids of the opposite sex have “cooties,” an imaginary disease that symbolizes discomfort with difference, and a common trope in children’s literature. Typically, children outgrow the idea of cooties by late grade school, but the Laketon fifth graders persist in their gender biases. The no-talking contest at Laketon becomes a final attempt by the fifth grade boys and girls to prove, once and for all, that the other side is inferior. The game surprises many of the kids, especially Dave and Lynsey, by having the opposite effect: They end up respecting each other.
Lynsey and Dave hate one another because of immature gender bias, and on that basis they launch the game to prove who is right. As the game progresses, though, Dave finds its effects “interesting,” and he says as much to Lynsey, who agrees. Under social pressure to dislike Lynsey, Dave quickly tries to prove to one of his friends that he’s not being friendly to a girl, so he insults her again and the game continues. Later, when the contest is in danger of getting derailed by Mrs. Hiatt, Lynsey and Dave work together to find a solution. In doing so, both begin to learn that their nemesis is actually smart, persistent, and fair-minded. The very process of competing undermines their mutual contempt.
Dave sacrifices the boys’ chance for victory with his lengthy verbal defiance of Principal Hiatt. This impresses Lynsey, who recognizes and admires Dave’s good intentions. Near the end of the contest, she returns the favor by speaking just as long as Dave did, which cancels out the points he lost and makes the game a draw, and the competition which began in mutual dislike ends in two-way admiration. The no-talking game shifts from a symbol of irreconcilable differences to a symbol of what the kids can accomplish together. The fifth graders begin to understand that none of them really has cooties, which Clements suggests may be the biggest victory of all. For Dave and Lynsey, it means that they each have made a new friend out of an old enemy. In the end, they “just sat there grinning at each other” (145), expressing their new appreciation through the very silence which fostered it.
Dave also finds common ground with Mrs. Hiatt, who functions antagonistically for much of the novel as she seeks to end the contest and reassert control over the fifth graders. As between Dave and Lynsey, it is Dave and Mrs. Hiatt’s ability to be humble, admit their mistakes, and work together to find a new solution which helps them to transform their adversarial relationship into an alliance. Clements suggests that there is no difference—including differences of power—which prevent two individuals from reconciliation, as long as those individuals engage with compassion and mutual respect.
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