<p>We didn’t have anyone charge for their recommendations, and doing so obviously opens some other questions.</p>
<p>However, to me, unethical refers more to behaviour which is concealed from people, and which is not in their benefit, as opposed to acts which are fully disclosed. It seems to me this is true even if the student is highly dependent on the recommendations. . Charging would not be unethical although it might be repugnant, low class, etc.</p>
<p>What might actually be unethical would be to accept the job of writing recommendations when you feel (or know) that you can’t write a glowing one that will be helpful in the goal of being admitted.</p>
<p>Seems like this would be addressed in the teachers union contract. I’ll bet it is somewhere, even if indirectly.</p>
<p>Has anyone else had a teacher charging for a rec at their high school? Am I the only one? I just reread all the posts on this thread and nobody else has said they knew a teacher charging for a rec. I am wondering how common this is. I had originally thought this teacher was joking/kidding when my D said he charged for a rec. Then I read the original post here and I realized it may not be a joke. My D does not want a rec from this teacher based on what she had heard. I do not think it is ethical to charge. I am tempted to ask other jr/sr parents at the high school if they have heard of this and if it is true. Then I can decide if something needs to be said.</p>
<p>Even were I to accept Dadx’s definition of unethical, I would have great trouble accepting this practice. Students who need to compare financial offers are more likely to need multiple recs (I’m not talking of recs-shoppers, just students who apply to multiple colleges). I doubt that slapping a $20 fee will deter the wealthier rec-shoppers, but it will be another financial hit for the poorer one. </p>
<p>There are better ways to limit the number of recs that need to be written and to discourage rec-shopping.</p>
<p>ALL teachers I know of think writing letters of recommendation is just part of the job description. I think that especially applies to teachers employed by public high schools. I willingly write letters of recommendation for kids that I volunteer coach in math teams or teach in homeschooling “co-op” classes, so I am appalled that there are teachers who charge money for recommendation letters. </p>
<p>Of course a student should only ask for a recommendation letter that will be used, and teachers should know how to hint around, without crushing a child’s self-esteem, whether the recommendation letter will be helpful or not in a particular case. Letting the teacher mail the letter directly (after the student affixes postage) seems to help with the “wasted letter” issue, but charging money for recommendations is not the answer, even for the busiest teacher.</p>
<p>I have never heard of a teacher charging for recs.
My daughter attended a private prep school- very small class but teachers wrote few reqs and advised students to ask them early in year. Daughter didn’t ask her advisor and teacher in her academic focus till November- teacher said “sorry, too late”.
She asked a couple other teachers instead.
She did get the recs on floppy disk, so that when she took time off, and changed the schools she applied to, all she had to do was print out rec, put it in envelope & take it to school to be signed- the teachers didn’t have to do anything but sign letter and envelope.
If the teacher thinks students are not going to use his rec, all he has to do is say that he won’t write their recommendation. Doesn’t have to say they must pay him for it.</p>
<p>At my D’s school the teachers limit the # of recs they will write. My D asked the teachers she wanted at the end of her junior yr to be safe. But especially in the midtrack classes, we have heard teachers saying they have already written their limit of reccomendations. I’m sure though if you would get the principal involved the teachers would have a change of tune.</p>
<p>In my school none of the teachers send the recs out directly to the college. I gave my teachers stamped addressed envelopes and they simply ignored them, wrote the rec, and asked me to read it over and make sure they didn’t make any mistakes. Of course, I didn’t feel comfortable with pointing out mistakes on my teachers recommendations, so I simply thanked them and sent the letters in (after a peak, couldn’t help it). I’ve seen these same teachers and others do the same thing for other students. They were all more than happy to write the recs and are almost as anxious as me to find out my decisions. There was this one girl, though, who completely rewrote one of the recs and had the teacher approve it afterwards. I thought that was inappropriate, but at least she had the teacher approve and sign it.</p>
<p>I think this is unethical. When I was commenting recs to my English teacher she suddenly started telling me how tiring it was to write recs and how she’d like to charge for it as it wasn’t part of her job. Now that’s a big hint there, but as I’m overseas and the number of students asking for recs a year is less than 3 I think she’s making too big a fuss of it. Your opinion?</p>
<p>I think its totally alright for him to ask for money. First off, he is using this as a method to cut down all the students that are abusing the system. He will write some for free to his best students, anyway. Secondly, if the he charges everyone, even his best students, and you have a problem with that, then don’t pay him and dont him as a teacher…duh…it is that simple…</p>
<p>so new question: what do you guys think about teacher recs in general? In my very superior opinion, I believe that they’re useless because they are going to be overwhelmingly positive especially if the student gets to read the recommendation. I remember reading on here a while back that some teacher said in his recommendation a student was good, but would probably not cut it in the Ivy Leagues. The response from CCers was overwhelmingly outraged. So I think teachers are under a lot of pressure to write at least a mediocre review of any student who asks because they know that other teachers will do the same and they don’t want to be responsible for the thin envelope in April. At Duke, they introduced a parent’s recommendation letter which I think is worse.</p>
<p>There’s no doubt in my mind that this teacher is looking to make a quick buck. What a jerk!</p>
<p>Amused - yea, I’ve thought about that too. I figure there’s no better alternative, tho…and sometimes a rec can corroborate a students’ ECs or portrayal of him/herself in essays.</p>
<p>I don’t think teachers should charge, but realists teacher may have been trying to communicate the fact that his/her time and effort has value. You have no idea how some students take it for granted that a teacher will show up when they want them to, and make a face when you tell them when you are available, or how many times a teacher will stay for a meeting only to have the parent not show up. I have and I know other teachers who wrote letters that were never picked up. Nobody likes to have their time wasted.</p>
<p>Right but why can’t he just say -" no "
This I don’t understand.
If teachers are put out because a student * makes a face*!
Lawdy- they would never cut it at some schools around here.
I imagine it is frustrating when a teacher stays after school waiting for a parent who doesn’t show, I know I was frustrated many times last year when I would come in an hour before school started to meet with principal re PTA issues, and have her not show up at school at all, but of course as I am just a lowly parent everyone knows that I don’t get paid for the time I spend in the schools- so it doesn’t matter I guess :(</p>
<p>flipchick1127 - I am shocked that your teachers would do this. I also would be weary about the colleges then taking these rec’s too seriously. At our school, my son put our adress in the return section of the envelope and his teacher said that he shouldn’t have done that. She said that if the school sees something like this then they don’t take the rec seriously. She did use the envelope, but signed her name over the sealed part of the envelope so the college knew she was the last one to see the rec letter. He was applying to a very good college I don’t know if that is why she took it this seriously, but I sure am glad she did this. When you are applying to top tier schools where everyone’s GPA’s & scores are excellent then it may come down to rec’s in the final decision process. All I can say is that it is no wonder schools would dismiss rec letters after reading these posts. How in the world are schools going to choose which students to accept when grades, GPA’s, EC’s are all the same and they can’t even believe the rec was written by the teacher?</p>
<p>Yep, confidential recommendations can be scary. When I was in HS my teachers would give me a copy of the letter before they sent it and ask if I had any comments (though I never asked them to – I just had some great teachers). In a large public school with a low percentage going to college, btw.</p>
<p>Firstly… writing a letter of recommendation is not part of a teacher’s job. A teacher’s job is to teach a student and to enrich his life in that vein. Writing a letter of recommendation is an extra that most teachers do. A teacher can refuse to write letters of recommendations and he/she would be within his/her right.</p>
<p>Secondly, reading your letter of recommendation is not a bad thing either. If a teacher is willing to give you the letter, it is not unethical for you to choose the better recommendations. Let’s liken this to getting a free fruit from a friend. If the fruit is rotten, why should you eat it? Why should a student send in a letter of recommendation that would harm him/her.</p>
<p>To resolve these two problems, most people would suggest choosing your letter-writers carefully. But how should a student know that the teacher of a course he did exceptionally in, is actually a bad writer? Or that a course that he struggled in and only got a B would yield a better letter of recommendation. It’s almost impossible to know who is going to write the best letter of recommendation and nothing generic. Many students send the same letter of recommendation to all the schools they apply to, a generic letter or a bad letter could be potentially fatal to a student in the application process.</p>
<p>A good way to resolve this problem is for teachers to charge students to write letters of recommendations. Therefore, they get compensation for their time spent. And a student can have the freedom to choose who can write the best letters of recommendations. Of course, this becomes ethical if the money affects the quality of the letter.</p>
<p>EDIT: This point becomes even more important when you observe large schools. The teacher can get hit with up to 100 letters of recommendations and a student could have a letter submitted that pertain to the WRONG PERSON.</p>
<p>I agree in a public school a teacher may have 150 different kids everyday if they taught 5 classes, with 30 kids per class. However I doubt that all of those kids would be attending college, and that all of those colleges would require teacher recommendations.
I don’t think it is unreasonable to a teacher to cite a limit of recs that they will write- say 10, however I do feel that it is part of their job description as it goes toward supporting the student and that any high school teacher is aware that teacher recommendations are required at some point for college/scholarships/special programs/IEPs etc.</p>
<p>My 14 yr old was interested in participating in a special program at her high school for students who were bright but hadn’t had good preparation for high school. A recommendation was required by a teacher. My daughter requested that her math teacher for the past several years ( who also had been her 4th grade teacher) write the recommendation,as math was her weakest area and she had known this teacher the longest. even though this teacher should have felt responsible for my daughter to get into a program which could help her ( especially since the years she had her, my daughter did not progress in math) this teacher refused as she was too busy because she was relocating to new london ct and had to fly back and forth * during the school year * to check out houses to purchase.
So we asked another teacher who already was very busy as she was head of dept as well as a coach for school teams- funny she found the time to do it and said it only took a few minutes to fill out the form.
I don’t expect teachers to give up their personal lives, but I do expect them to do their jobs, and just as if you need a volunteer you ask someone who is already busy, if you need a rec, find a teacher who already shows that they are committed to students by not running out of the building before the school day is over.</p>