About 2 months ago my 6th grade teacher and former vice principal asked to be one of my recommenders. He seemed enthusiastic about it and I feel like he would put in the effort to write me a good letter, but the thing is I haven’t really had much contact with him since my freshman year. I would feel bad not letting him write me a recommendation since he came up to me personally and asked, but at the same time I feel like he hasn’t really had enough recent contact with me in order to write an in-depth letter. What should I do?
Thank him very kindly but let him know that colleges are very succinct in what they are willing to accept. For those that require 2 teacher rec letters, they EXPECT them to be from teachers of recent subjects. The commentary of how you were and how much affection he had for you from when you were 11-14 years old is irrelevant to colleges and frankly, will water down the strength of your package.
Thank him for the offer, but tell him that you have your recommendations covered using the parameters that the colleges have set forth.
What you don’t need to tell him, but what is true: No college wants a recommendation from a 6th grade teacher, nor should any applicant want to send in a rec from a 6th grade teacher. The maturity and qualities you possessed as an 11 year old are probably dramatically different 6 years later, which is why colleges want to see recs from recent teachers.