Before She Turns 10, a Girl with Attention Deficit Receives 20,000 More Negative Messages Than Her Peers
By Terena Elizabeth Bell
April 15, 2024
April 15, 2024
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Terena can be harsh
Terena is a bright girl, but needs to work on her conduct Terena needs to respect her teachers more has difficulty awaiting instructions Terena backtalks the teacher, does not respect adults shows insubordination insubordination This child has very clear problems with insubordination insubordination in·sub·or·di·na·tion. Terena needs to remember we are the grown ups, she is the child Terena needs to be a little lady Terena would be better served if she listened waited tried insubordination insubordination Terena only brings this on herself. |
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Terena Elizabeth Bell is a writer. Her debut short story collection, Tell Me What You See (Whiskey Tit), published December 2022. Her work has appeared in more than 100 publications, including The Atlantic, Playboy, Salamander, and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. A Sinking Fork, Kentucky native, she lives in New York. Get one piece delivered to your inbox every month by subscribing here: patreon.com/terenaelizabethbell.
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Author's Note:
I wrote this in 2021 after a then-friend yelled at me on the phone for nearly an hour straight. She called me insubordinate, something I hadn’t heard since I was a child. As a kid, I always thought insubordination was to children what tax fraud was to Al Capone: When they can't get you on anything real, they get you on it. It always struck me as such a stupid word, one meant only to belittle and not instruct, said by teachers who weren’t bright enough or willing enough to come up with what they really meant to say — exactly the position this caller was in. Her use of that word made me feel like a child again, not yet diagnosed and struggling, doing the absolute best I could to understand while the “grown-up” accused with no reason. So when I got off the phone, I wrote this poem.