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This writing was accepted for publication in the 108 page perfect-bound ISSN# / ISBN# issue/book “Tracks” Down in the Dirt, v199 (the 9/22 Issue) Order the paperback book:

Order this writing that appears in the one-of-a-kind anthology The Paths Less Traveled the Down in the Dirt September-December 2022 issues collection book		get the 422 page September-December 2022 Down in the Dirt 6" x 9" ISBN# perfect-bound paperback book:

That Rotten Kid

Bill Tope

There once was a boy named Eddie. And
clearly, there was something very wrong
with this nine-year old. Ask anybody: they’d
tell you, with an eye roll, that Eddie was
disruptive, distracted, and inattentive in the
classroom. It was 1962 and Eddie had just
been enrolled in the third grade.

He was forever shouting out non-sequitors,
throwing his pencils and erasers across the
room and striking other students and
teachers; constantly making his unwelcome
presence felt.

No one knew quite what to do with Eddie.
He had been held back in school and so was
bigger and stronger—and more destructive—
that his fellow students.

Though it was suspected by some school
officials that he was, deep-down, quite
intelligent, Eddie was unable—or, they
thought, unwilling—to work with other
children or to complete an assignment.
Rarely could he finish a single written
sentence before his attention wandered
again.

Other children tried to ignore him, as
they were instructed, but he was a
handful, always out of his seat, in
everybody’s business and fighting with
the class bully, who couldn’t quite
grapple with Eddie’s size and manic
strength.

Teachers washed their hands of him. He
was sequestered to a far corner of the
room, but kept dragging his desk, like a
security blanket, back amongst the rest
of the students, on the other side of the
room. He got lonely. Teaching him, they
discovered, was impossible; he was
admonished to “just sit and be quiet.” For
Eddie, however, that too was impossible.

After the third grade, Eddie ceased being
a student; once again he had failed and
been held back. No one I knew ever saw
the young man again. Word had it that he
was declared “unteachable” and “incorrigible”
and institutionalized. One teacher was heard
muttering about “That rotten kid...” Eddie’s
departure came as a relief to the the
teachers and the other students, but in a
sad way

ADHD was not officially transcribed into
The Diagnostic Manual of the American
Psychological Association until 1987.
Today there are more than 6 million
Children diagnosed as affected by this
Condition.

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