<p>My S had an AP physics teacher who routinely was asked & did write recs for countless students that he had in his classes. He always seemed to be working on them or helping his students after school. He even bought food & snacks for them, including pizza, popcorn and others. It was one of the few people S wanted to give a gift to, especially LOTS of FOOD. Was happy to make him a huge gift basket of munchies he & the kids could eat. I also gave him & his wife a buy one, get one dinner free (at very nice restaurant) when we saw them at the opera.</p>
<p>I’m not sure I’d be willing to have a teacher write me a letter just because my name was drawn in the lottery & would give this instructor a pass, finding others who were more enthusiastic about writing for me.</p>
<p>He doesn’t have the nads to tell some kids “no” and he is lazy. If he accepts a paycheck for a h.s. teaching spot, then he is being paid to write the college rec. letters. If you don’t want the job, teach middle-school.</p>
<p>How many letters should a teacher be required to write each year? Also should they be allowed to require a specific deadline from the student- say two weeks- that if you do not give the teacher that much time he will not write the letter.</p>
<p>I think the student has to have a deadline.</p>
<p>I also think, the administration says, “If you want to teach the top classes, APs, juniors, you will be writing rec letters as a part of your job.” Unless the schools are willing to say to the colleges, this is too much and we can’t handle the work load, the school has an obligation to provide its students with what they need to move on with their education.</p>
<p>Then, the administration needs to provide the system under which this gets done.</p>
<p>It is absolutely part of a high school teacher’s job to write letters of recommendation. Any high school teacher should know that they are a required part of the application at many colleges. What’s more, by writing only a small number, they are shifting the burden to other teachers to write more than their fair share. I do agree that it would be great if teachers were compensated better and given specific paid time to write these letters, especially if they have to write a lot of them. Also, students should absolutely have to request their letters of recommendation by a certain date which gives the teacher plenty of time, as others have said. </p>
<p>Teachers should refuse to write a letter for a student if they don’t have anything positive to say about that student (and explain why they can’t write the letter to the student). Obviously, not every student is top in his or her class, but if the teacher can’t say the student has a great attitude or is a hard worker, it is probably the student’s fault. By the way, one of my kids went to a terribly underfunded inner city school and one went to a private school on an academic scholarship. Both had wonderful teachers happily who wrote them fantastic letters of recommendation. They were both required to request their letters months ahead of time, to give the teachers plenty of time to write thoughtful letters.</p>
<p>My son is a Junior, he would not have to have the letters until he’s applying next fall, he’s asking teachers now to give them a heads up and allow them the opportunity to write them over the summer if they would like. I agree that asking a few days or even a couple of weeks before the letters are needed is not fair to the teachers.
Also, I do not think writing the letters is part of the job, and I think teachers should be able to say no to kids they don’t feel comfortable writing a letter for, or to limit the number of letters they commit to writing(although 6 is ridiculously low).
That is why this lottery concept is unacceptable to me.</p>
<p>My D requested her letters at the end of junior year and she had them the first week of school as a senior. I agree teachers should write recommendations, especially as poet said if they teach top students applying to top schools but again the question is how many?</p>
<p>I also realize that there will be a problem mandating that a teacher write recommendation letters- how would an administration handle a teacher that prepared poor recommendations in spite. How could they prove it. I do not think we want the administration requiring content.</p>
<p>My teacher didn’t even do a lottery. He made all his students write letters about why he should write them a recommendation. Low and behold, I made the cut :D</p>
<p>If teachers are required to write letters for all who ask, then the letters become worthless. Teachers have the right to decline to write for a student they don’t like or don’t know well. The “lottery” idea also seems to make a rec meaningless as it’s not based on teacher choice of a good and worthy student.</p>
<p>Students who want to get into great colleges should have the drive and savvy to cultivate relationships with teachers whom they might someday ask for letters. If they don’t think about this until the week before the application is due, they probably aren’t appropriate candidates for selective schools.</p>
<p>I know of schools that require juniors in the spring to ask two teachers for rec letters and record the results of this “bid” period in the guidance office. All the students know this and they plan accordingly. It seems to work well.</p>
<p>A teacher like this would not be regularly having their student get into the colleges they chose. This information would be easily discernible and a teacher teaching the top classes who was not assisting them in geting the best future academic placement ought not to be teaching these students. It would be a failure of the student’s best interest on the part of the teacher. It would even be a measure of the effectiveness of the teacher, frankly. It’s an outcome based measurement, judged by disinterested outside party, which might be useful, at least in terms of measuring teacher intent. Education, finally, is about the student, which is why the teachers a paid and the students are not.</p>
<p>The letters of recommendations are not usually so confidential. They go in the kids’ college files often to be sent out by the school’s administrative staff. That is usually the protocol. Because if the recs are written and not on file with the school and something happened to the teacher, it could be a problem.</p>
<p>In a private school, the teachers may be treated with more respect and courtesy (or perceive they are) and so writing letters of rec is not considered to be casting pearls at swine. My D wrote thank you letters to the teacher and counselor who wrote her college letters.</p>
<p>When I am asked to write a letter of reference for a sub par student, I actually do not say no. I focus on the student’s strength – everyone has one – even if it is the student’s peer-relationships or positive attitude. Not every college bases much on these letters anyway.</p>
<p>If he’s only willing to write six, then why not the first six that ask him, or the six he would recommend the highest? That’s pretty screwed up, but I suppose he can do it if he wants. Probably wouldn’t be the best person to write a recommendation anyway…</p>
<p>Give me a break, hopscout. This kind of “only if it’s in my contract, when’s my coffee-break, and how many exact sick days do I get, and I want to speak to my union rep right this second” type of teacher is not interesting to parents, anymore.</p>
<p>Sorry.</p>
<p>I’m a huge supporter of teachers. If you want to have the hourly mentality? Go work at wall mart. The point is to find solutions at this point, not to find ways to point out that teachers “don’t hafta.” This is not an auto assembly plant. These are kids.</p>
<p>And Mom4college-- I completely agree. Kids need to write thank you notes, and frankly, if kids don’t realize they need to write thank you notes, the administration and guidance counselors ought to have a mandatory thank you note sesssion in the darn cafeteria and the parent’s whose kids don’t write the notes should be the ones made to attend.</p>
<p>My daughter asked her AP English teacher at the end of 11th grade if she would consider writing her a recommendation letter for college. Her school uses Naviance, and my daughter filed out her teacher and guidance counselor info as soon as it was available.</p>
<p>She will be writing her thank you notes now that she has committed to a college so she can include that information.</p>
<p>SHe did have a good relationship with her AP English teacher, but I think it is courtesy to ask well in advance since the teacher is taking their time to assist you.</p>
<p>poetgrl, where does it end? If a parent thinks that the teacher should pick the kid up for school, are you doing to demand that s/he does it, too? Afterall, it’s “all about the kids” remember. </p>
<p>A teacher’s job is to teach. But parents have demanded and demanded that teaching is only a small part of what a teacher has to do now.</p>
<p>Oh, come on Poetgrl!!! Now it is the teacher’s fault that his/her students don’t get in to top colleges because the recommendation letters weren’t good enough??? I think I’ve heard it all now! LOL</p>
Was happy to make him a huge gift basket of munchies he & the kids could eat. I also gave him & his wife a buy one, get one dinner free (at very nice restaurant) when we saw them at the opera.</p>