It is also a time for teachers to begin thinking about colleges, too. Now the season of the college recommendation is upon us. Generally, it is a privilege and a pleasure to write these letters for students we've known for four years and watch grow up and excel. The difficulty lay in the format, really. I always tell students the hardest the thing to do is to write about yourself--I think that's what makes the college essay such a challenge for most of them. It is also difficult to write a letter of recommendation on a conceptual level, because usually one has much more to offer up than can fit in a letter.
On the recommendation form, colleges generally ask teachers to sum up the student in three words: or they ask, what three words come to mind when you think of this student? Living and working at a boarding school, and knowing these talented people for four years, I find it terribly difficult to put into a few words my thoughts and feelings about them. The same follows for the letter: how can you put all you need to put into a letter?
Will an anecdote or two suffice? Perhaps, but it certainly does not satisfy one's desire to address the challenge fully. I could write pages on some of these students--Some of them merit novels in terms of the complexities of their lives and the various ways in which they confront those complexities. And yet, a page or so must be the extent of commentary.
It sheds some light, I suspect, on the project that you have the high hopes of these kids hanging in the balance as well. The letter of recommendation may be one of the most challenging writing efforts a teacher has to contend with, because students are so much richer than the language we can portray them in and they deserve as much as they can desire in ways of their ambitions.
After all, there is the practical deed to do--write the letter. The pragmatist in me knows what to do, but the poet is always baffled. First, one has to find three words that are unique--words that don't appear on every other application. The words have to be accurate. "Excellent" always is tempting, because one wants to convey that this student is GRADE A. I like putting down "ethical" the most for some of these students, because I think that that matters. Maybe it could be one word: "superlative."
Try it out. Choose someone who matters to you in your life and try to sum him or her up in three words. Try to distill his or her accomplishments into a page. It isn't easily done. And yet, it is vital to these students that these letters ring true and carry quality content. I have some writing to do.
-->
Posted by Matthew Kearney at October 25, 2007 10:00 PM
Comments
TrackBack Link
copyright 2006 Mercersburg Academy 300 East Seminary Street, Mercersburg, PA 17236 Alumni 800-588-2550 | Admission 717-328-6173