I’m a high school student in Belarus. I’m going to apply to the university in the US and that’s why it’s a so big problem for me to get good grades at physics subject at school. My teacher is about 65 years old and he hates all Americans and US generally. He always makes fun of me and this makes me feel nervous each lesson. I just sit and think about the next 5 minutes when he will start to mock. However, I do not belong to the part of students who doing nothing want to have a good grade. I study physics every day for several hours to be prepared for lessons.
I wanted to transfer to another form, where this teacher doesn’t teach, but the adviser said that it’s impossible, even illegal. The biggest problem in this situation is that I cannot study the subject in such stressful atmosphere and my grades in physics depend on relationships with the teacher. The school, from its side, cannot fire this teacher because Belarus has a deficit in physics teachers (funny but true).
The problem number 2 is that all my grades satisfy the college I’m applying in, except physics. My chances with such low grades in physics can be greatly reduced.
Did anybody has a similar problem?
I don’t understand the problem. Your physics teacher hates Americans, but you’re not American, right?
@JustOneDad
I believe it’s the fact that he’s leaving for America, and his teacher makes fun of him for it.
OP, I’ll say this. I would say to talk to him and tell him how the stressful environment is affecting you.
Oh, just tell him the great General Sun Tzu said, “To know your Enemy, you must become your Enemy.”
It’s actually not uncommon. In some countries, the fact the student wants to study in the US is a cause for mockery and often public humiliation. There’s a sense that the student is being “too big for his breeches”, or is unpatriotic for applying abroad, is going to attend a college that’s unknown and therefore won’t bring “glory” to the secondary school, or even the school has agreements with specific colleges and as a top student the kid was “sold” to them so the counselor wll sabotage the US application to ensure the top student attends the “agreed upon” national college.
(All of these are situations that really happened. The “mockery + public humiliation” is rather common in some parts of the world, especially if the student who wishes to study in the US is lower-class or a minority.)
OP:
You need to make him forget you’re applying to the US. DO NOT request a recommendation, obviously, and if necessary pretend you’re studiously preparing for Belarus NTU as well as for the US.
You’ll need to show Physics mastery in other ways: take the Physics Subject test and score 730+, for instance.