<p>Wow. That’s completely irresponsible, selfish and downright ballsy. Any teacher worth his or salt would be honored to uphold this end of the mentoring/coaching/development bargain, expected of any respectable teacher.</p>
<p>My point is that the teachers unions protect and make it possible for these people to continue their irresponsible practices. You dont want to write recommendations? Teach in a school where few kids apply to selective schools. I hope all that have know of these teachers complain after their youngest graduates HS.</p>
<p>My SS has a similar science teacher who prefers not to write any recommendation letters for the students. My son took 2 science classes from this person. This teacher also stated clearly that no recommendation letter for early applicants. Our school counselors also prefer all students apply to state universities which do not require any recommendation. (less work for them) For that alone, I can see the argument for private high school!</p>
<p>Guess what this teacher was recently named “teacher of the year” by the district this year what an irony!</p>
<p>Agree wholeheartedly. Sounds like a teacher ready for retirement.</p>
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<p>Brava. They need to get out of the mentality that every act they do needs hourly compensation. That’s not how professionals think. Writing these letters is simply part of their job. If it requires off-hours, private time, or weekends – oh wellz, welcome to the real world.</p>
<p>My teacher H knows the real world well–he probably works 60-70 hours in an average week (less than when he was a doc, but more than most of us.)</p>
<p>He would be astounded by that teacher’s attitude.</p>
<p>elka67, for reference, the AP Lit teacher at QMP’s school wrote 80 letters of recommendation in a single year. I think the vast majority of these went to colleges that take them seriously. The HS administration arranged for a substitute teacher for the class for 2 days, to give her additional time to write the letters.</p>
<p>It occurs to me that this “lottery” might have been a lottery in name only. Suppose the teacher draws slips with names out of a hat. The slip says “Joe Bloggs.” The teacher announces “Tim Goodguy.” It might reduce complaints from students for whom he really doesn’t want to write–“Sorry, your name didn’t get drawn.” Also, if he notifies the students whose names were “drawn” privately, he might write for more than 6. Not saying that’s what’s really going on, just that it’s a thought.</p>
<p>QM–</p>
<p>Your unfailing confidence in others, and your constant willingness to attribute your own good nature to the intentions of others, always shows me what a good person you must be, IRL.</p>
<p>But, your imagined possiblity tells us more about you than about anything else. I hope you have a great day. Sincerely.</p>
<p>My initial reaction was exactly the same as QuantMech’s. Once the teacher has decided how many letters to write, a lottery takes the decision out of his hands. That is not how I would do it, were I in his position, but I understand it. Of course, it is also possible that this was simply a ploy to induce fewer students to request letters. (In the case of OP’s son it worked.) For all I know, the teacher will end up writing for everyone who enters the “lottery.” </p>
<p>As for whether the teacher is lazy or irresponsible, I do not have enough information to make that judgment. If this teacher is known for writing good letters, he may be inundated by requests. Other teachers can then free-ride on his efforts. (So maybe he is not the lazy one at all.) We see this in our lives every day. Some people float along not doing their share while others pick up the slack. Do we know whether this teacher is writing fewer letters than others teaching the same grade? Do we know whether this teacher is spending less time writing letters than others teaching the same grade? I am not willing to excoriate this teacher based on what I have read so far.</p>
<p>80 letters in a year?! :eek: How can any person write so many and not have it become a cookie cutter? And keep it all organized?!!</p>
<p>We have to factor in that in these days of stiff competition, a top student can be putting in 12-20 apps. Yes, you can use the same letter for each application, but some applications often have other short answer questions that the schools would like answered.</p>
<p>At our school, most of the kids don’t apply to private schools that need recommendations. Thank goodness. The two teachers often tapped to write recommendations for the high level kids are the Grade 11 AP Bio teacher and the Grade 11 AP English teacher. Both are known as good writers and dependable people.</p>
<p>Six seems to be a small number though…</p>
<p>So am I wrong to tell my S not to enter this lottery then? This teacher was the first one he thought of when we first discussed asking for letters.</p>
<p>elka67, if your son is planning to major in a field related to the teacher’s area, or if this teacher is your son’s favorite by a large margin, I’d suggest that he go ahead and enter the lottery. I don’t think he would lose anything by doing that.</p>
<p>poetgrl, thank you for your comments in post #28. I might not have thought of this for myself, except that over time I heard of several lotteries in QMP’s elementary school where the outcome was satisfyingly “right”–a student who could really benefit from a book, other gift or special opportunity got it (not speaking of QMP)–and after a while, I started to think that the lotteries were not completely random. </p>
<p>Students are pretty vulnerable when they are asking for letters of recommendation, I think. (I’ve written for grad schools, med schools, and fellowships, and I requested letters years and years ago.) The teacher might find it really awkward to tell a student, “You really ought to look for someone else to recommend you.”</p>
<p>I would have been in the principal’s office 5 minutes after that announcement by the teacher. I can understand the need to limit recommendation letters to a reasonable number (certainly more than 6!), but the number should be set by the school, and the criteria for choosing should be how well the teacher knows the student and how positive a recommendation the teacher feels he can give. I also happen to believe that all teacher recommendations should be vetted by another party, someone n the guidance office or the department head, to be sure that they are properly written and appropriate. Even if he doesn’t take the lottery route, a lazy or spiteful teacher can do plenty of damage with a badly written, incomplete or unfair letter.</p>
<p>My first impression was to forget him and ask someone else. I do know someone whose son was told by a teacher that he would be better off to ask someone else. I thought this teacher was astonishing honest, and told the other parent I thought that as well.</p>
<p>Both Ds had high school teachers who announced that they did not write letter of recommendation, period. Although one would have been a particularly helpful one (potentially), luckily both had other teachers to choose from who were glad to help them (and both had teachers who offered before being asked). Because of the potential of meaningless “cookie cutter” letters, if a teacher isn’t interested in doing it, move on. I don’t think it should be a requirement of teachers.</p>
<p>At my Ds HS, 99% of kids go to 4 year colleges, many to very selective schools. I would hope anyone interviewing for a job there would understand recs are part of the job (and that the admin would communicate that). That doesnt mean every teacher should be writing for every kid, but if a teacher refused to write, or only a limited number, I would hope the administration would get involved.</p>
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<p>Uh, are you from a public school in California in a not so well funded school district? If so, you have NO IDEA of the increase in the workload in the last several years for the teachers. There are districts that have lots of funding (great foundations and wonderful fundraising by the PTAs) and then there are the OTHER districts which have been cutting back consistently for the past 5 years or so. The increase in workload is unbelieveable!</p>
<p>Now I have no idea what kind of district the OP is from. If this is a well-funded fully supported district, then yes, it seems quite a bit on the low side to just offer 6 recommendations a year.</p>
<p>But, if this is a district that has been hit hard for the past 5 years, well then, it may be survival for the teacher to limit recommendations this way. </p>
<p>Believe me, for one of these underfunded districts, there is no one in the guidance office that has time to “vet” a teacher’s recommendations. Not to mention the fact that colleges require the recommendations to come directly from the teacher. </p>
<p>MommaJ, if you are not from a well-funded district, I have some advice for you. No one (teacher nor administrator) pays any attention to you. We all just roll our eyes at your sense of entitlement.</p>
<p>It’s a very well funded, suburban, blue ribbon public school.</p>
<p>poetgrl:
<strong>That’s like saying I’m not being compensated to mentor my replacement. This is exactly the kind of attitudie that is driving people crazy with the teachers these days.</strong></p>
<p>No argument, poetgrl, but if the lottery teacher were paid $100K a year, I am almost positive that he would write more than six letters per year.</p>
<p>kayf: I am not sure why this lottery teacher holds this lottery. It may not have anything to do with his union. Maybe he is showing the kids that not everyone receives what they think they deserve or that which they may deserve; maybe he wants the other teachers to write their fair share of letters, too. Maybe he hates writing. Maybe he already coaches the wrestling team and heads the committee on whatever. Maybe he’s a jerk.</p>
<p>Mom4–</p>
<p>I don’t want to get into an argument about the “value” of teachers, or how much they are paid for the months they work, etc…</p>
<p>If someone doesn’t want to do the job, they should do something where they can be paid 100K for 12 months of work. And, then, they can live on the money they put in their 401K and social security when they retire at 67 years old, or maybe older, depending on their age.</p>
<p>Or, maybe they can write a few more recs. It’s tough all over.</p>