Thanks To Our English Teachers...

[Dannika Andersen]

[Insert rag on English teachers here] If you are living in a suburban, high-income, expensive, privileged school district in Palatine, Illinois, you have probably have had some of the absolute best English teachers around. Get over it. Stop hating your teachers; stop complaining about your homework. Suck it up and accept the fact that you have awesome teachers. I know, it's hard to believe. Breathe in. Now breathe out.

Frankly, I'm fed up with hearing all my classmates droning on about how "f****** stupid" it is that they got a bad grade on their paper. If they did it "write" in the first place, they wouldn't have to deal with a bad grade. There are these lovely people who work in our school called "teachers." They are out to get you. To learn. Their purpose in the classroom is not to give you unfair grades and demand you spend eight hours a night on homework. If they think that your work is not up to par, go and ask them why! Learn.

Writing is an invaluable tool that I love having. I helped edit my sister's college essays because I took in interest in writing and learned how to write and edit well. I'm not saying I'm a fantastic writer or that my pieces are better than anyone else's. I just know that when you put your heart into something enough and work at it, you learn it.

The teachers that have helped our writing skills have been there for us all along. I know because I have a cousin who moved in with my family in seventh grade. She came from a horrible district in Wheeling, Illinois where the teachers did not care about the education of their students. The writing pieces she did when she first came here was unrecognizable as writing. She knew nothing about tense consistency, noun-verb agreement, or even basic punctuation rules. I was shocked at this, as Mr. G. Anderson puts it, "educational malpractice." Her pieces were a sharp contrast from anything that anyone I knew wrote at that point. Her writing skills were no fault of hers, but rather the apathy her teachers showed throughout her developmental writing years.

My teachers gave me graphic organizers, Venn diagrams, and charts to better my writing throughout elementary school. Her teachers were too lazy to do anything more than sit on their butts and collect the money the government gives them. I am really thankful to the teachers that gave me my start, and continue to build into my education. I believe that everything they've done for me so far- assigning research papers, giving comma-rules tests, etc.- has done nothing but benefited me. And if you are living in a suburban, high-income, expensive, privileged school district in Palatine, Illinois, I'm sure your teachers' assignments have done nothing but benefited you. So, please, stop it with the hate on our English teachers.

End of rant.

And if you haven't caught the theme yet, I have absolutely no problem with sucking up for a good grade. So you rock, Mr. Anderson!

If you agree or disagree with my view on English teachers, go ahead and tell me why! I'm curious to know if anyone else thinks these teachers don't get enough credit.

[Maggie Madden]

Okay, I'll be the brave one to comment here but.... I totally agree with Dannika. 100%. Everyone always says that it was "stupid" and "unfair" that my teacher, Mr. R. Anderson, grades us "too harshly". Honestly? I'm kind of glad he does. From what I've heard, it doesn't get much easier and teachers won't get any nicer than the ones we have here in D211. Not only that, be he's preparing us for the more difficult teachers who aren't as lenient with grades. It's always better to have a tougher grader and learn more because of how hard you had to work to succeed than to do nothing and be totally unprepared when the going gets tough.

"Want to do well on your paper? I hope you do too. So come meet with me during one of my lunch hours." That's what my English teacher told our class. I mean.. During one of his personal LUNCH HOURS. Teachers sacrifice so much for us and I feel like we can take that for granted. They're willing to give up their free time for us because they want us to succeed and be the best that we can be. Teachers need to receive more appreciation.

Shoutout to all the Fremd English teachers! You guys rock and we should show you guys some appreciation once in a while!

[Maddy Moscinski]

Oh Dannika, you never disappoint with your posts. I totally agree with you, and I’ll admit, I am one of those people that tend to rant about how hard my teacher grades. Your post has made me appreciate my English teacher more. Great post!