<p>Sue22,</p>
<p>I’ve been turned around on the question of the usefulness of parent letters (anyway, no one ever even asked me for one! :(). Well, scratch that. The GC did. I don’t know what parents of less-than-perfect kids say about their sons and daughters, but I just read my thorough response to the questionnaire about my paragon of teenage virtue. I did not mention the fact that my D considers it a good day when she can watch six (six? more like nine!) episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in a row. Her sense of humor, her intellectual curiosity, her fierce independence as a thinker: All that I did mention, and that’s what will carry her forward in college. (I did mention her work ethic, too! AAARGGGH! I damned my own child with faint praise ;).) As for the “code”: I agree with all those points you made about subject matter for essays. I call that “knowing your audience.” When I talked about the “code” I thought maybe you were hinting at something like the verbal equivalent of a secret handshake. I truly don’t have patience for that. You know, “Like all children of good breeding, my child prefers lacrosse to football.” I assume that’s not what you were suggesting but it just hurts me to think that any student should feel the need to twist him- or herself into the image of what a particular school wants.</p>