No letter of rec

JustAMomOf4
Tue, 21 Aug 2007 09:14:02 +0000

Well I guess I have a different view of a letter of recommendaiton.
This should not be something that teachers do for their “favorites” - it should not be personal. This should be a professional assessment of the student as a student in the classroom not a love letter.
I think it should be a letter of “assessment” vs a letter of “recommendation”.

West Point requires a recommendation from 11th grade Math, Science and English teachers. They provide a form with a check list to assess the candidate -
I can’t remember the exact questions but something along the like of on a scale of 1-5 assess the students leadership in the classroom, and so forth.
There was also a space for teacher comments.

Now, a teacher who is truly a professional can assess the student without personalities getting involved. Personalities, politics and even the grades a student received should have nothing to do with the ability to write a recommendation.

For the teacher in question, to refuse to write a letter of recommendation for a student based on the school to which the student is applying is extremely unprofessional. As a parent, this would certainly cause me to have a conversation with that teacher’s boss. By ignoring this situation you allow this teacher to continue to act in an unprofessional manner.

With that all being said - **** happens. You can’t get blood from a stone - move onto another teacher - if you still have problems call admissions they have been dealing with LOR problems for years.