"whole person" concept

Jenny - we did get a copy of the letter when he asked for hard copies for the MOC's and he opted not to use that one for any of them. Had a few questionable phases in it - one saying that he was a member of a family led by two WP grads and that going to an academy would be a culmination of not only his, but also "their" dreams. :confused: Just came across more than a bit that mom and dad were forcing him into this. She also included the phrase (I just looked up the letter) "there is still room for improvement on how he takes direction or criticism". :rolleyes: Now she did say some basic nice things about him, but they were more along the strictly academic lines ("he took Calculus as a sophomore"). Having read this letter a few months later makes me think it was a miracle that it didn't send up incredible red flags to the committee saying "here's a kid only going because of his parents and who can't take orders". :mad:

However, it didn't keep him from getting the LOA to either AF or Navy, so I guess either the committees skipped over those parts or weren't totally biased by them in comparison to the rest of his packet and his other letters of recommendation. I am though submitting (for the first time ever) a teacher request form for next year requesting that neither of my younger two sons has her (again). It will say simply "Please do not put A or B with Ms. X since she is biased against me, my children, and the military. Thank you!" Luckily the principal doesn't care for her and does care for my kids (especially after my oldest being the first to attend an academy from our school since 1983) so I'm confident it will be honored! He at least gets it! :thumb:
 
I'm thinking a talk with a questionable teacher might be in order.

One would think this might be a reasonable approach ...w/ reasonable people. The one noted THRIVED ...and still does ...at ranting about our military. To boot she hates Christians and men. Thankfully, she retires this year. God is good! If not always on USNA timeclock.
 
Marci: Wow. At least you got the letters. And hopefully the form the teachers fill out........or do they send letters.....via email to USNA did not allow her to express her bias too much. Sometimes there are those teachers. We have never requested not to have one in particular. Although my daughter has just completed pre AP Chem and will not take
AP Chem next year to avoid the teacher. There's only one AP Chem teacher. The teacher openly disliked her older brother who is at USNA now. Both my kid say the class is worthless. Oldest son had wonderful chem teacher who retired. But how to get across to admin that this one is not getting the job done? Oldest son's class had lots of 5's on AP exam. Next son and daughter's classes had only 3's. So, daughter will avoid her and be prepared to start out with chem at ground zero in college.

I still think a conversation about a kid's desire to attend USXA and maybe involving the principal as well, might help out in these situations. We did have to get after a Vice Prin to fill out the forms USNA requested electronically that told of the strength of the school. Hubby finally went in to her office and patiently explained that she was standing between our son and his hope of attending USNA and becoming a marine officer.
 
Jenny - good point that the recs that went to the academies themselves were done online and may have just been more fill-in-the-blank or short answer so maybe they weren't as negative.

I know we're getting off topic here, but not sure what we'll do if son #2 decides after NASS that he does want to apply for USNA (right now he doesn't think he does). He also had that teacher this year as a junior, and would theoretically be supposed to use her as a reference as well. I do agree that bringing in the principal would work if it became necessary. I have never brought this up with the principal yet though (any of these issues) and kind of prefer not to make waves unless necessary. And unfortunately my kids' schedules are locked in enough (because of other AP classes, college classes, and things like band that are only offered one hour) that they still may end up with this teacher again just to get the AP classes (Lit & Lang) in. Guess we'll do what we can.

On the flip side, our Chem/AP Chem teacher has been so good at our school that I now have 3 kids planning to major in chemistry in some fashion. All loved both the Honors Chem and the AP Chem class - last few Saturdays she's been having study sessions for the AP test all afternoon and my younger two have spent hours hanging out with her and even her kids when they show up (all in the preschool age range). Personally I never found Chem even remotely interesting in HS and I think it's great to see what one motivated teacher can do. You'd think in your situation it wouldn't take long for the admin to start noticing the difference in test scores. Incidentally, I did ask casually if kid #3 could have this teacher for Chem when he took it a couple years ago (she's the only AP teacher, but there are other regular chem teachers) and the counselor said she'd try to see if it worked in his schedule, which it did, but that was more a "wow, what a great teacher - can my kid have her?" request than anything against the other teachers (who I don't even know at all).
 
Marciemi, if I read that letter from the teacher you mentioned, I would most certainly see the bias, and I'm sure the admissions officers would see it as well. Did she really think they wanted to hear her slanted history of your family? Wow. Hey, have you considered the possiblity of having your second son take a course at the local college, maybe a summer writing course or something. That way he could use that teacher as a reference instead.

I agree that talking with the teacher one-on-one might be beneficial. I wonder if some of these teachers know, or care, that it "looks good" for a school to have appointees to the SA's. It adds to the scholarship numbers as well (after all, they aren't collecting that info just so they can pat their students on the backs). Perhaps one could subtly mention this fact, but a word of warning, "these things have to be delicately..." Just a thought.
 
MomoftheMagik - unfortunately all 3 of my kids are not "writing-inclined" so trying to talk them into doing anything extra in that field would be an exercise in futility! If son #2 gets either of the other LA teachers (which would depend on which AP they can fit into his schedule), he knows both of them. One he had for sophomore English and the other he was a mentor for her freshman study hall, so even if he did the recs early in the year, they would know enough about him to be able to write a standard form "what a great kid" letter, which is I think all they're really asking for. And yes, I think they understand the scholarship/money/honor side of it and would do a good job just from that perspective even if they didn't know him that well.

However, this LA teacher is one of those "I could have gone to USNA if I had wanted to, and even had a NROTC scholarship but opted to do better things with my life" mindsets. :rolleyes: I know some of you are on the SA Misconceptions thread and thus know my belief that when someone tells you that, most likely they couldn't have gotten in, or at least gotten through it. Probably had a random recruiter at their HS 20 years ago tell them that they should go in the Navy and improvised the rest from there!
 
Marci: What about your son taking the non AP version of the class. Nothing says they have to be AP..........we see quite a few kids do this and finish ranked really well as their classes were "easier" than the challenging AP.
 
Thanks for the suggestions, but I think he needs to take the AP because 1. I don't think our school even offers a regular "senior" English class - he'd need to take electives instead like Drama or Speech or Sociology. 2. Most likely he won't end up at an academy and taking the AP would allow him to place out of the freshman English class at a normal college (theoretically), and 3. Our school only weights AP's so even if he gets a B+ in the class, it would still help his GPA/class rank compared to an A in regular LA classes.

Guess for now we just have to see how NASS goes and if a SA is even in his mindset for the future. If not, then I think for most regular colleges you get to choose your rec's (if you even need them), or at least they'd be later in the year. If he does want to try, then I'd see if we could use his senior teacher (assuming he gets someone else) or I guess possibly ask the principal to supervise the rec from the LA teacher.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread - sorry about the hijack! :wink:

Edited to add - did you see the English Teacher Recommendation thread a few below this one? I wanted to add to it "Oh, if only we could be so lucky!" but figured it might not be taken quite the right way for those who haven't followed this thread! And probably isn't a very nice thing to say!
 
Just a gentle reminder, posts should pose questions or provide guidance of general interest to candidates and potential candidates. If you want to discuss personal issues involved with the application process that really only apply to individuals, please PM each other.

Thanks.:smile:
 
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