Dear Teacher,

Within the first week I was in your class I knew you did not like me. I heard it in the words you chose to speak to me, your tone of voice whenever I asked a question or spoke in class and by what you wrote on my papers. You seem to dislike everything I did, and you made me feel like I was a failure.

Before having you as my teacher, I never experienced the way you treated me at all. Every teacher I had in the past liked me and wanted to help me succeed in their class. I felt welcomed and wanted in your class, but you did not make me feel this way in your class. I grew to hate coming to class every day because I never knew how you were going act that day and I knew you would dislike whatever I turned in. I became scared of you because of your actions and you ended up taking away every ounce of confidence I had in myself. It was obvious to the whole class who were your favorites and who were not. It is because of you that I lost my love I had for that subject.

It has been two years since I have had your class and I think about it almost every day. I hear your voice in my head as I write a paper for my college classes, causing me to question what I've written, which brings back that fear of not being good enough and having some professor leave me comments about my work like you did. I am currently rebuilding that confidence you took away from me.

One of the reasons I joined Odyssey was to regain confidence in my writing. I am going to prove you wrong. I may not be the best writer according to your standards, but all that matters is that I enjoy it. I am falling in love with writing again, and no one will ever take it away from me.

As a future teacher, I hope I never treat a student the way you treated me. I do not know much about teaching yet, but your job is to build up students, not tear them down. No matter what is going on in your own personal life, it does not give you the right to take it out on your students. I want my students to think back to me and only have positive memories and feelings, not negative ones that I associate with you.

I do not know if you remember me at all, but I will not forget you. You showed me that some people are not meant to be teachers. You made my high school experience a negative one, but I am a stronger person now because of you. I hope that no other student ever has to feel or get treated the way I was. I pray that you learn from your mistakes and become a better teacher.