Note to Dad
yes.dearest sad dad you heard fresh self
and freshly responded deserting your fears and just
freed sad dear saved me. yes. yes. yes. yes.
--DJ
Savarese
This is A Letter To My
Former Teachers at the Special School in Florida Who
Believed I Was Profoundly Retarded. It treats me as
the respected person they never knew.
April 14, 2004
Dear Teachers,
I am writing to tell you that I'm getting
stronger every day, testing breathing, feeling more
responsible for my real grown-up self. Respectful years
in regular education classes have taught me reading,
writing, speech, and satisfaction. You're not bringing
hard real lessons to girls and boys at your school,
so they can become awesome great human beings.
Dad has written a book about my fresh start. I've
written the last chapter. Please read it because in
it I write about how years of easy lessons were wasted.
Why weren't you teaching me to talk, to read, and to
write? All you had to do was awesomely encourage me
as smart and really kind and fresh start could have
begun sooner. Your breathing would make me nervous.
People weren't assessing me as sweet, inspiring me
to work at dreaming of trying to responsibly act like
everyone deserving respect.
Quite pleased that you are respecting
and reading this tested-as-smart, growing up better
boy's resentment. I live in constant fear that respect
will be taken away, and I will have to return to easy
years of doing nothing. You're also resurrected in
my mind when all I'm doing is wasting time. Fear wakes
easy lessons, and I get mad. I want you to know that
easy effort estimates kids as retarded when they're
smart; testing kids without encouraging them is wrong.
Easy, quiet breathing waits to hear my words, and respect
grows. Awesome, caring teachers read my writing and
reward me by writing back. Reasonable people should
each see what they can do to free people who really
can understand. Teach your students to free themselves
from resentment, so they desire to feel respected.
Re-estimate them as smart. Read, write, and free the
hearts and minds of these kids!
In the future, possibly, you will read my own books.
I plan to become a writer. I wrote a chapter in my
dad's book already. In it I include my thoughts about
testing. In the future I hope to encourage students
who don't speak to free themselves through writing.
I also hope to read my speeches out loud. Until I freed
myself through writing, people thought I had no mind.
Freeing kids who are estimated as retarded is my hope
for the future. Years of fresh start have begun!
Your respectful student,
DJ Savarese, sixth-grader, Grinnell Middle School
Daring To Be Brave
As late as yesterday, the leaves hung
on the trees-brown, motionless, dead.
Then, they fell all at once,
bringing winter with them. And, afterwards,
everything seems restful and quiet.
All afternoon, I read in bed,
the covers white and fluffy
like a field of snow.
They have the texture of a woolen scarf
worn by a sad hero.
How I hated to get up,
but I needed to make dinner:
a sausage sandwich on a French baguette.
A great hurt says farewell as I open
the refrigerator.
--DJ Savarese, eighth grade
My names is D.J. Savarese. I'm glad I'm
me. I am 11 years old. I'm proud to be in school. I
want to be successful. I can do a lot of things. I know
I can be focused; sometimes I forget. I hope you understand
the way I am. I wish I could fly. I like to go skating.
I hear all that you tell me. I want to change scary
things. I play with my friends. I smile when I see Miss
Innis in the morning. I love my mom and dad. I see what
I want to. I believe in the people who want to love
me. I am thankful for my family. I will try to smile
at everyone. I enjoy being at school. I dream about
life. I wonder what I will become of myself. I need
to be focused. I wear buttoned-up shirts. I'm glad I'm
DJ
--autobiography written
by DJ in the fifth grade
