Someone said, "write a letter to anyone" so I am writing a letter to my freshmen.
Dear students,
When I first heard we were going to spend the year together, I cried. While you will never admit it, I know you were scared. And so was I. I spent most of my lifetime disgusted by teenagers. I didn't even like teenagers when I was a teenager. The only thing worse than teenagers, in my mind, were middle schoolers.
In our first week together, I promised you that I would not pass you unless you could read, write, and learn to be responsible. The truth is that I refuse to let you lose. I refuse to stand by and watch you fail. It is infuriating sometimes and there are days when the challenge of imparting my limited wisdom to you seems overwhelming and almost impossible. But, no matter what happens, I will not quit. Not ever.
Your generation has huge obstacles to overcome and my generation is making sure we live the world in a shambles for you to fix. The future might be too much for you to even think about but I promise you that I will not waste your time teaching you anything that won't benefit you in the future. If you don't believe me, then believe this... I don't want to grade papers that are just time-fillers. That's the truth.
What I know for sure is that I love being a teacher and I hope that some days, you witness my passion. I also know for sure that you are destined for great things. You have a responsibility to be excellent and I have a responsibility to make sure I help you build some stepping stones toward that end.
This year is not easy for any of us. But we will get through it. And we will be grateful for the experiences we shared. It might take twenty years for some of you to be grateful but it will happen. THREE MORE MONTHS until you're sophomores!
Hang in there!
Ms. R
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