<p>smartaleck123, you’ve taken the reference-waiver completely out of context. There is nothing inherently unethical about a student reading a letter of recommendation, assuming his or her teacher is willing to share it</p>
<p>It is unethical to charge for recommendations. I can’t even believe that anyone would do such a thing! Truly sleezy in a time where high schools have zero-tolerance for just about everything. My son supplied each teacher and his counsellor with a resume and a pre-addressed, stamped envelope. I think one college even accepted online recommendations. It is a big job to write alot of recs, but some (if not all) teachers write one per student and just make copies for subsequent apps or scholarships. Just part of the job, IMO. It would be polite to ask the teachers if they would be willing to write a recommendation before presenting them with the form…they can always say “no” if it is such a burden on their time. Also, I wonder what kind of rec a teacher would compose if they feel so inconvenienced by the whole process?</p>
<p>SpoonyJ - My mother is going through the same thing. She had to pay the doctor to fill out the information for her to send to the courts regarding disability. The lawyer found out… wasn’t very happy about it and I think might be trying to do something about it.</p>
<p>What I wonder about is what kind of school thinks it’s OK for teachers to charge for recommendations?</p>
<p>Completely unethical. Can’t believe this is permitted by the school’s administration. If I were the parent, I’d make a fuss about it. </p>
<p>Spoonyj – the difference I see with the example of the doctor is that doctors charge by the service or by the hour for all of their services. Here’s one that takes the cake…I once had a lawyer who charged me for 15 minutes of his time when I called him to ask a question about his bill.</p>
<p>This is some rediculous occurance, charging for recommendation letters. Since my grade only has 77 kids in it I’m not exposed to the notion of teachers literally having 75+ kids wanting a letter from him or her, so this kind of thing would never go on in my school because quite frankly teachers have the time to do 10-15 letters over a 3+ month period. </p>
<p>How could a teacher sleep at night knowing that he charges for recommendation letters? If I were a parent in a district that did this and I found out I would be calling for immediate Board of Education meetings in order to get this person punished or have him or her stop this nonsense. How pathetic are people these days…</p>
<p>raven, i really don’t think I was taking it out of context, i was just making another point… that at my school, we aren’t even ALLOWED to read the letters of recommendation… therefore the whole problem w/ ‘recommendation shopping’ doesn’t AND couldn’t exist…</p>
<p>Come to think of it, I did buy my teachers presents after they send my ED rec but before the RD ones…is that unethical? The intention was definitely not to bribe them, and I think they sent he same rec to all schools…</p>
<p>I must admit that coming to CC was the first I saw that people read their recs. Nobody in my schools does; we just give our teachers all the forms and stamped/addressed envelopes. I’m uncomfortable with the idea of teachers writing recs knowing the students are going to read them, but I guess if they want to share, it doesn’t violate the confidentiality waiver. </p>
<p>I think that writing recs IS part of the job, as in, you’re being paid for it in your salary. If you’re a popular teacher, yes you will get more requests, but it’s easy to say “I’m only writing recs for the first 30 people that ask.” I think we have that rule at school. In fact, people aren’t allowed to sollicit teachers for recs until after a certain date (It was Sept 20something last year).</p>
<p>It is wrong for him to charge for recomendations. How would your AP teacher felt if his teachers had charged him for recomendations. Instead, he needs to somehow limit his # of recomendations instead of trying to make a business out of it.</p>
<p>If a teacher asked my child to pay them for writing a letter of recommendation, I would be at the door of the superintendent of school’s office by the end of the day. This is unethical. If that teacher doesn’t want his “time wasted” then he should simply say no to everyone. If his concern is that the recs won’t get mailed, than I agree with the above poster who says…only do recommendations that he can mail himself directly to the colleges. Most teachers here don’t give students copies of the recommendations anyway. These are considered confidential between the college and the writer. Of course, some teachers will voluntarily give a student a recommendation, but this is not a requirement.</p>
<p>The only thing I paid my rec-writing techers with was cookies!</p>
<p>isn’t this their job?</p>
<p>I keep wondering about the administration and students at this school. Like others have said, how has the administration not stopped this teacher’s policy? How is it that this teacher remains popular enough among students to be able to charge, anyways? Are they really that desperate for an available teacher? Are the students rich enough to not care about the fee?</p>
<p>I am absolutely stunned that any teacher would have the gall to do this! I have to hope it is rare. But some teachers and other aspects of public school never cease to amaze me. . .I see it every day at WORK. Sigh.</p>
<p>Teachers charging to write a letter is as unethical and sleazy as students recommendation shopping. I’d be furious at a student requesting me to write a letter and then holding on to it, hoping for some better letter to come along. I might be tempted to contact the college, scholarship program, summer program, etc. and let them know what this student was doing.</p>
<p>I think that what teachers should do is charge students like $10 for a rec so students wont “rec shop,” and then the teacher should call the college until they have received the rec, if they do. If the college HAS received the rec that the teacher wrote, then he/she should return the $10 back to the student…I think this is a very good way to make sure students actually use a rec a teacher worked so hard to write…</p>
<p>I think the above mentioned options: limiting the number of recommendations, requiring an addressed, stamped envelope, or simply refusing are reasonable, I do not think charging to write a letter is.</p>
<p>I am a middle school teacher who occassionally writes a letter to get a student into a private school or a special program. I let them know if the letter is going to be strong or luke warm, and if they still want a letter, I talk with them about what they want and then write and mail the letter myself. </p>
<p>I think that writing letters of recommendation, tutoring, and visiting with families is part of what a teacher does. The best gift I ever got was a well written letter of thanks; second place was a gift certificate so I could get some books for my room.</p>
<p>Think of how many teachers wrote letters this year and try not to focus on this one mistake.</p>
<p>I got my teachers coffee and chocolate.</p>
<p>topcat,</p>
<p>Thanks for your response. I see the logic of you perspective, of course, and while it may save doctors on technical grounds, the practice of charging for reports still strikes me as sleazy and small; in fact, most physicians don’t do it. Still, charging for reports is not nearly as sleazy as ignoring the requests for reports altogether, which has been the case with three of my wife’s doctors. These people are a disgrace to their profession, effectively violating their oath to do no harm to patients, although the harm they do by not filing reports is not physical (at least not directly). Sorry to all for the digression here. Just a build-up of frustration.</p>
<p>definitely unethical.</p>
<p>at our school, teacher recs are sent out directly to the school… so it’s not like we can take a look at them anyways… that english teacher should consider doing that, therefore discouraging kids from just throwing recs around… instead of charging… jeez…</p>