JANE GOODALL
If you really want to do something, and work hard
enough, and take advantage of every opportunity, and never give up, you’ll
find a way. Follow your dreams. If you really want to do something, don’t
let anybody tell you that you can’t.
--Jane Goodall
Jane Goodall was born in London, England on April 3,
1934. Her mother was a particularly positive and strong influence in Jane’s
life, and always supported Jane’s interest in nature and the outdoors.
When Jane was four years old, she “disappeared” for a
time at a neighbor’s farm when she became fascinated watching a hen lay
eggs. Her parents did not know where she was, but when Jane returned home
and explained herself, her mother did not scold her even though she had been
frantic with worry about her daughter’s whereabouts. Jane loved to watch
animals in their natural habitats, and “by the time Jane was eight years
old, she promised herself that when she grew up she would travel to Africa
and live among the wild animals.” (Pettit, p. 11)
The rest is history . . . Jane Goodall overcame
tremendous odds to travel to Africa as a young woman in the 1950’s. When
Jane was a teenager, her parents separated and there was not enough money
for her to go to college. She attended secretarial school instead. In 1956, when Jane
was 22, a girl friend from school invited her for a visit in Kenya. Once
again, lack of funds for the journey was an issue; however, Jane’s mother
invited her to live at home to save money on rent and food so that she would
be able to have enough for the trip. By 1957, Jane had saved enough for her
travels and set out for Mombassa, Kenya.
In Kenya, Jane met the famous anthropologist, Dr. Louis
Leakey. He hired her as his secretary at the National Museum of Natural
History, and in 1958 she joined him and his wife on their archeological
excavations at Olduvi Gorge, East Africa. She showed great skill as a
researcher, and Dr. Leakey urged her to pursue a study of chimpanzees at
Gombe Stream to gather information about the parallels between
behavior of monkeys and man. Unfortunately, Jane was again faced with a
shortage of funding for the project, but she did not give up.
Jane returned to England to help Dr. Leakey raise money
for the research. Without a degree in science, many
of her proposals to acquire funds for the project were rejected. At last, in
1960, the Wilkes Foundation donated enough money for equipment and supplies,
but the UK would not allow Jane to travel to Africa alone as a female
researcher. So, once again, Jane’s mother made arrangements to help her
daughter and informed the government that she would accompany Jane to
Africa.
It was not an easy trip. Jane and her mother
arrived in Gombe in June, but by September both had malaria.
Fortunately, they recovered while in Africa. And as soon as she was well
enough to get around, Jane was finally
able to get close enough to observe the chimps without them running away or
vanishing into the jungle. She had been concerned she would not complete her
research in the allotted time, but in a short period of time she made two
very important observations: chimps were like humans in so far as they were the only other
animals to make tools to help them with simple tasks and also they hunted
for meat cooperatively as humans did in the past. “News of Jane Goodall’s
discoveries spread rapidly throughout the scientific world. How was it
possible that a young woman, without a university degree or training in the
field, had made such significant progress in such a short time? (Pettit, p.
36)
Following her discovery, Jane was awarded a grant from
the National Geographic Society that would allow her to continue her work in
Gombe for another year. (Pettit, p. 36) Dr. Leakey also sent an additional assistant to help
Jane when her mother returned to England five months after she and Jane had
come to Gombe. Leakey's ongoing support was great help to Jane, and she made
further important discoveries, including that chimpanzees had a developed
system for communicating with one another and expressing emotions.
At the end of 1961, Dr. Leakey arranged for Jane to
return to England to pursue a Ph.D. in ethology at Cambridge University. She
would spend a semester at Cambridge and then return to Gombe between terms.
(Pettit, p. 50) Jane completed her Ph.D. in 1967. In 1970 her son was born.
In 1974, Jane's first marriage to Hugo van Lawick, her husband of ten
years, came to an end. In 1975,
she married her close friend, Derek Bryceson. Sadly, they had only five
years together, as he died of cancer in 1980.
Today, Jane travels and teaches and spends her time
between her home in California and the Gombe Stream Reseach Center. Her son
lives and works in Africa, and as his mother says, “He grew up with my work
but didn’t get interested in it. He now lives in Tanzania, speaks Kiswahili,
and is very African in his outlook.” (Cummings, p. 48) In addition to Jane
Goodall’s research projects, she also formed The Jane Goodall Institute, an
advocacy group for animal rights and preserving the environment.. “One
of her major concerns is the spread of the human population. Human
development is rapidly closing in on Gombe National Park and other parts of
the equatorial forest that stretches across Africa. When Jane arrived at
Gombe in 1960, ‘there may have been as many as ten thousand chimpanzees
living in Tanzania, while today there can be no more than two thousand five
hundred’” (Pettit, p. 110). The Roots and Shoots Program of The Jane Goodall
Institute encourages members—from kindergarten to university level—to play
their part in making the world around them a better place. Each group
tackles at least three projects that show care and concern—for the
environment, for animals and for the human community.” (Cummings, p. 51)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Picture Book Biographies
Coerr, Eleanor and de Kiefte, Kees (illus.). Jane
Goodall. New York: Putnam, 1976.
Although this book is a bit dated, the story truly captures the spirit of
Jane Goodall and is the best material I was able to find available for early
elementary-age readers. Simple, muted black-and-white sketches on every
page draw young readers into a lively narrative that traces Jane's life in
chronological order. Large type makes this book easy to read.
From a feminist perspective, the book reveals the
hardships Jane experienced when her parents separated and also when her
first solo research project in Africa was slow to get off the ground. Jane's
perseverance and persistence clearly pay off in the end when she is able to
successfully found the Gombe Preserve and continue her studies now for
almost 40 years!
The portrait of Jane is realistic. She is shown in the
comfortable clothes she wears in her photographs. We see her aging
throughout the course of the story, and when this book was published in
1976, Jane was forty-two years old. She has become a celebrity over the years,
but the book resonates with a sincere and authentic quality.. I would have
liked to see more pages of Jane interacting with African people, there is only one page in the entire
book that shows her with local villagers.
This book does not touch on the difficult issues of
terrorism at the preserve and loss of life of some of the staff that her other
biographies detail. Given the audience, it seems most practical to focus on
the positive experiences in Jane's life in an attempt to motivate and
interest younger children in conservation and science.
Cummings, Pat and Cummings, Linda. Talking With
Adventurers. Washington, DC: The National Geographic Society, 1998.
Jane is profiled on pages 44-51. She is one of four women
naturalists/scientists featured in this 96-page collection of biographical
sketches of National Geographic adventurers. She introduces herself to young
readers through a personal, first-person narrative in a letter format which
describes her life experiences and personal influences. She credits her
mother as "the most important reason for my doing what I've done and being
who I've been." As with Rachel Carson's biographies which also describe the
influence of her mother, it is clear that Jane Goodall could not have
achieved what she did without the support of her "amazing mother." (Her own
words.)
In Q & A format, Jane frankly discusses the job that
got her started in her field, the scariest thing that ever happened, how she
chooses a project, what a normal working day is like, her family, the
difficulties she encounters in work, and what is left for her to explore.
Beautiful photographs of Jane as a child, as an adult in the field, and
current pictures of her with school children provide a lively glimpse into
her world. Again, the only drawback is that there are not many pictures of
her with African people, and that seems unfortunate as many Africans work at
Gombe.
This book is a "must have" for the library and
classroom because the text is highly engaging and first-person accounts are
always compelling and important for children to read. Moreover, the National
Geographic photos reflect the same high standard of the magazine and capture
Jane's life and work beautifully. The last pages of the interview with Jane
highlight The Jane Goodall Institute and Chimpanzoo and provide readers with
information how they can get involved with conservation efforts.
Lucas, Eileen. Jane Goodall, Friend of the Chimps.
Brookfield, CT: The Millbrook Press, 1992.
This portrait of Jane Goodall focuses primarily on her adult years and her
work. The text is set in a large point size, which makes it easy to read,
and the language is targeted for upper elementary and middle-school age
readers. The author's writing style is intimate and the narrative unfolds at
a fast pace to describe Jane's relationships with family, Dr. Leakey, and
most importantly--the chimps.
Full-page photographs appear on every three to five
pages. The photos are vivid, but highlight the solitary nature of Jane's
work. In each print we see either what she would have seen: animals
of Kenya, the chimps, the forest; or we see her alone with camera, notepad,
or binoculars. There are a few "archival style" black and white images of
her with the Leakeys and a few of the now-famous "celebrity shots" that
appeared frequently in news magazines of the time.
The text is engaging and easy to read, but I
would like to know more about the current team at Gombe Reserve, or the
specifics about the founding of The Jane Goodall Institute and her current
advocacy work. I believe the absence of detail about the day-to-day work in
a Reserve and the author's focus strictly on Jane contributes a bit to an
over-romanticized notion of Jane Goodall. While that may be the image that
most appeals to the media, it is clearly a one-sided portrait.
When Jane speaks of her experiences, she always acknowledges how engaged she
has been with a number of supportive professionals and that her
accomplishments in science are due in large part to collaborations with
others who share her interests. In a biography that focuses as specifically
on her work with the chimps as this one does, more realistic and less
romanticized images would have better complemented the text and created a
more honest portrait of what's involved in working in the field.
Additional Juvenile Biographies
Pettit, Jayne. Jane Goodall, Pioneer Researcher.
Danbury, CT: Franklin Watts, 1999.
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