<p>20 kids? For private colleges, a kid usually needs a recommendation from one math/science teacher and one English/Social Studies teacher. There are way more than 20 kids who need them at my kid’s school and most of them are taking AP courses from the same one or two teachers who teach multiple sections of those courses. Each of those teachers has about 150 students a year. If 100 of them ask for a recommendation (and many ask for multiple ones if they are applying to schools that are not common app schools), it quickly adds up. A good letter of recommendation takes time to write. Since it seems preferable to have an 11th grade teacher over a 10th grade teacher, if possible, the burden on 11th grade teachers is huge. There are not ten teachers sharing that burden for scores and scores of kids. There are just a few and the kids are smart – they have a pretty good idea of who will write the best letters – not just in terms of content, but in terms of time and thought and they tend to approach the same few teachers. Factor in that some teachers will leave during the course of a student’s high school career, and the burden grows larger on those teachers who are there. And even if the number was only 20 – that’s a great deal of work.</p>
<p>mimk: that’s why I’m asking. In my high school, classes are capped at 30 and most do not have that many students (one AP had 18, one Honors class had 15, for instance). While there may be multiple sections of an 11th or 12th grade class, a teacher is not expected to lead several 11th or 12th grade sections. So, suppose a teacher has 2 11th grade classes (unlikely at our school) how many students would the teacher be expected to write recs for? Not 60, surely. Perhaps 20.</p>
<p>I agree that good letters take time to write. But I do consider it part of a teacher’s job, just as I also consider it part of a prof’s job. </p>
<p>My S’s teachers, by the way, asked to be allowed to write recs for him.</p>
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<p>And, the the worst teacher at my kids’ school was a PhD from Vandy. Thank goodness she was ultimately fired…now she’s “blessing” kids in a nearby public school…poor kids.</p>
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<p>If teachers are going to “take issue” with the number of recs that they have to write (and I do understand that’s it an unfair burden to 11th grade math, science, & English teachers), then teachers shouldn’t have an issue with the students. Instead, they should demand that their mighty and powerful national union (NEA) put pressure on colleges to adopt the use of a one page “form-style rec sheet” (check the boxes), otherwise future teacher contracts will prohibit writing recs. </p>
<p>If colleges knew that they either had to adopt the use of a “form-style rec sheet” of box checking or else receive nothing at all, they would adopt the ez rec form. Colleges would certainly understand that they could no longer require something that teachers were prohibited from doing.</p>
<p>and…there you go… :)</p>
<p>If enough teachers insist that writing recs isn’t part of their job and decline to do it, what will happen? It will become part of their job. Under the status quo, the teachers who don’t want to write recs are probably not the ones you want to ask anyway.</p>
<p>Under the status quo, the teachers who don’t want to write recs are probably not the ones you want to ask anyway.</p>
<p>Agreed- although if as a teacher, I was asked to write a recommendation for someone I felt I could not give a fair impression of, I would tell them so- but if it was still needed I would do my best- unless they are totally without merit of any kind, I think you can still find some aspect of their personality/academic work to expand on.</p>
<p>If teachers are interested in education ( and if not- then what the heck are they doing?), they should be thrilled to be asked to write a recommendation for higher ed or work.</p>
<p>My older daughters class had as an advisor her biology teacher, who she also had taken for three years ( in bio, chem & genetics), however she waited too long to ask her for a recommendation ( which was unfortunate particulary as she majored in biology)- oh well- the instructor had already had her 10 or 15 requests by the end of October so my daughter found other writers.</p>
<p>My son faced the odd situation of several teachers who were willing to write his recommendation–but were only willing to send it to three schools! I think they felt they had to write tailored recs for each college. This resulted in some running around, because they didn’t mention this restriction when they first agreed to write the rec.</p>
<p>I don’t think that teachers should write rec letters on behalf of students that they are not genuinely happy about. A rec letter that says that the student is always on time for class or completes most of his homework (and little else) is so damning with faint praise that it is useless or harmful.</p>
<p>OTOH, my son needed a rec letter from one of his music teachers. There were three teachers in the department, two of which he was currently studying with. (He had not had the other teacher for two years). The senior of the two current teachers did not want to write a rec letter and the junior absolutely refused. My son had to get a rec letter from his private teacher, who was delighted to give him one.</p>