Biden and Brayden

Joe Biden has often been ridiculed for his diction, his elocution while public speaking. Talking before groups, whether you are a celebrity figure, maybe a teacher or a local club president,  takes a bit of courage, assurance, and self-confidence. When you have a speech impediment, self-consciousness can feel like a tidal wave of anxiety and stage fright. No matter how tolerant the audience, your onstage presence battles the demons that tell you run, ask what are you doing here, as you try to calmly go through your presentation, each syllable a bullet to dodge. Your attention divided between masking your stutter and delivering the material may lead to mistakes in your words, syntax—the dreaded flubs.

Septuagenarian Biden, after five decades of Senate and campaign speeches, still fights the  stutter of the little boy Joe. He also takes up the cause for others. He has fifteen stutterers with whom he stays in contact., There is now a sixteenth. Back in February, Biden met Brayden Harrington on a campaign stop in New Hampshire. Biden took him backstage to offer him tips about conquering the affliction. He showed him his marked-up speech, signaling his pacing to control the impulse to stutter. While meeting together, Biden offered Brayden additional advice to suppress the shared speech impediment.

The most important outcome was the respect and personal time the 77-year-old Biden gave to the 14-year-old Harrington. He told him they were members of the same club, the presidential candidate and the teen from New Hampshire. Brayden exalted: “I’m just a regular kid. In a short time he made me feel more confident about something that bothered me my whole life.” Teachers could spend careers in the classroom and never hear that from a student.

A newly confident Brayden went on national television during a political convention and spoke, with one stuttering episode. He came through with flying colors. Adolescent Harrington and White House hopeful Biden both became role models not only for people and children with a stutter, but all those with any speech impediment or other disability. It was an extraordinary moment, made possible by a man who might be the next president of the United States, who gave all of us in education a lesson in teaching, respecting youth, and humanity. Joe Biden, you earn two dollops for your extraordinary compassion, leadership and example. A role model for all of us.