I wanna start off by at least saying thank you. You taught me a lot, you really did. And as much as I can try to deny it, I learned a lot of valuable lessons during my four years of high school. Unfortunately, those valuable lessons didn’t come from the curriculum you attempted to but failed to teach me.

When I was in middle school, I was put into advanced placement math classes, because I was told I was smarter than the other kids. I was told I could handle harder math. And I succeeded in those classes.

Then when I got to high school, I was put into the regular math classes. Not like that was a problem, I hated math. I didn’t mind being in the general math class. But what you did to me was unfair. You gave me a teacher that had no idea how to teach math to students. He was a first-year teacher, so I took my chances. But when he relied on Khan Academy and worksheets to do the teaching he was supposed to do himself, I knew something was wrong. I barely passed with a C.

My sophomore year was the only year I actually got a decent teacher who actually knew how to teach math. I passed my math class that year with an A.

Junior year was completely ridiculous. You assigned me a teacher that was more concerned with basketball than math. He would give us worksheets and expect us to know how to do it. Then he would work a couple problems from the worksheet out on the board and expect us to understand the reasoning behind it. When we would ask questions, he never answered them. My final grade in there was a really low C, but that doesn’t mean I understood anything that was “taught” to me.

Senior year I decided to only take a semester of math so that I would actually have a nice chance of getting into college. I got another teacher who acted like he hated being there, but at least he knew how to answer questions when we had them. He was one of two math teachers that actually seemed to understand the concepts of what they were teaching.

I barely reached the benchmark in math on my ACT score. So thank you for that. I am thankful that the college I attend accepted me with my awful score. But I also want you guys to realize that I’m stuck in regular freshman math classes (which are far below the math class I need for my major) because of your failures.

There were only a few teachers that worked at that school that were helpful. Some of them no longer work there, and I’m hoping they’re teaching at a much better place now, where the academic standards aren’t so low.

Thank you for cheating me out of about two years of useful math education. Thank you for allowing me to be completely finished with my minor before I’m even able to start working on my major. I appreciate the fact that you lied to me by making me believe your job was to prepare me for college; no one can adequately prepare you for college except college. Thank you for failing me. I believed in you, and you let me down. So thank you.

I wish the best for your current and future students. May they know that your standards are low. May they be encouraged to shoot higher.

Sincerely,

A frustrated, annoyed, college freshman who graduated thinking she was ready to take on college only to realize that she was nowhere near ready, because of you.

P.S. Hire some better math teachers.