Poetry Break: "Speech Class (for Joe)" by Jim Daniels

Introduction
This poem lends itself to a discussion on myriad topics of concern to young people: friendship, ridicule and bullying, change, empathy, role models, and being different. Be sure to mention that the poem is a serious one about feelings so that children will listen reverently. Sharing that this poem is a true story, that Jim Daniels (pictured below) had a speech impediment and went to speech class from kindergarten to eighth grade, will make it more meaningful for students.

Speech Class (for Joe)
by Jim Daniels

We were outcasts—
you with your stutters,
me with my slurring—
and that was plenty for a friendship.

When we left class to go to the therapist
we hoped they wouldn’t laugh—
took turns reminding the teacher:
“Me and Joe have to go to shpeesh clash now,”
or “M-m-me and J-Jim ha-have to go to
s-s-speech now.”

Mrs. Clark, therapist, was also god, friend, mother.
Once she took us to the zoo on a field trip:
“Aw, ya gonna go look at the monkeys?”
“Maybe they’ll teach you how to talk.”
We clenched teeth and went
and felt the sun and fed the animals
and we were a family of broken words.

For years we both tried so hard
and I finally learned
where to put my tongue and how to make the sounds
and graduated,

but the first time you left class without me
I felt that punch in the gut—
I felt like a deserter
and wanted you
to have my voice.

[from The Place My Words Are Looking For, poems selected by Paul Janeczko (Bradbury Press, 1990)]

Extension
The serious nature of this poem doesn't require fancy formal extension. The best extension is heartfelt discussion with students, allowing them to make connections and express their own concerns, experiences, and possible solutions to the negative aspects. You can guide students to think about the positives of the poem, too, and what real friendship means (the selflessness of the narrator's wanting to give Joe his voice), as well as how adults like teachers (the therapist, in the poem) can provide a steady rock for students to lean on. The fact that one of the boys in the poem "graduates" from speech class before the other may lead to talk about how sometimes there is change within friendships or to friendships, which is not necessarily a bad thing, or how people work at their own pace and that one person's earlier achievement of a goal doesn't make him or her better than another person.