Letter to a teacher I didn’t like

So my first thought was an elementary school teacher I had, but I really don’t remember much about her. I don’t even remember why I wasn’t fond of her, just that nobody really liked her. Then I remembered a professor from college. So, that is who I’m going to write to…

Dear Mr. Whatever-your-name-is,

            Students need to be told what they are doing right and wrong, especially English student. You cannot just slap a grade on a paper without writing any other remarks. I know my papers had grammatical errors and I sometimes word things oddly. There is always something that can be improved upon. So tell me so that I can work on it! I know it was your first semester teaching college, and I’m sure you were very busy. But even the TA—who had however many classes to go to—gave notes, and lots of them!
            Also, we read some pretty involved books in that class, but we never really dug in to many of them. We talked about their subjects and things related to the books, but I wanted to get to the heart of the book and the issues in the book, not just touch on them. Yeah, the class had a lot of reading, but there is such a thing as quantity and quality. I took the same class for a few days a previous semester before I had to drop it, and that week was an amazing realization to me. In both classes I read Perk of Being a Wallflower and Speak, but I didn’t feel nearly as moved in your class. Those two books have very heavy subject matter, which was discussed, but not really brought to life. I was not challenged to relate the book to my life or experiences. I wanted to be asked what I had remained silent about (see blog from 8/29/2012) or if my high school experience was anything like these books.
            My favorite classes have always been those that challenged me, that invited me look at the world from a different angle, and that made me look twice at what I had read. Your class was far from that. I hope that in these two years since, you have learned how to challenge students properly and inspire them.
            Oh, and if you give us an assignment at the beginning of the semester that will take all semester to finish and many students scrambled to reach the goal in its entirety, make sure you keep that goal. Yes, there was a computer glitch, but we’re in college, we know we need to save our work. Ask them to resend their last book card. 3,000 pages of reading outside of class on top of all the reading for your class and others wasn’t easy, but just assuming everyone fulfilled it because the last week’s book cards got deleted is not acceptable. I know some people probably BSed that last week to reach the goal, but at least they took the time to read a really long book or write a bogus book card. Don’t let those who didn’t even try get the same credit.

Sincerely,

A disappointed student from the past