For his AP English class, reddit user daftzak had to write an essay about a “weight that I carry daily” and he decided to write about being gay. This was his response from his teacher:
“I am honored to be a witness to this weight being lifted off. You are an amazing, dynamic compassionate, ‘with-it’ young man who will give the world a gift just by you being you, offering your love & spirit. If people choose not to be comfortable with your honesty, their loss my friendâtheir loss.”
And this was daftzak’s response: “Never have I teared up from a teacher’s comments before.”
Dakotahgeo
Congratulations and kudos to this young man AND his teacher. As a retired teacher of 25 years, I took special interest of building up any and all students who had low self-esteem, self-image problems, or lacked communication skills with others. This was the most endearing part of my job, along with trying to make learning fun for the students. This man has a tremendous future ahead of him. I’m just happy he had the right teacher to make his best attributes shine!
Dakotahgeo, M.Div. Pastor/Chaplain (Ret. but still active!)
shelair
Well done; and showing you had the courage to write how you felt/feel about your
sexuality. 10/10 must also be awarded to his teacher too. She is credit to her
profession.
gaym50ish
The sad part is that this boy has reached this stage in life and still does not know how his family will react. Parents should be having such discussions with kids from the time they are old enough to understand that some boys like boys and some girls like girls.
This is why the coming-out process is so difficult for so many. Parents do not make their views about homosexuality known, so kids assume that what they hear from the media, from their peers or from the pulpit is shared by their parents.
If such education started in the home at an early age, it would not only prevent the kind of “weight” this boy feels from being gay, but could also prevent the straight kids from becoming bullies and gay-bashers.
Oscar
awesome teacher! đ He’s great.
Kevin B
Okay, it’s sweet and all, but the teacher is silly grading it 100%. Aren’t we supposed to have high standards for papers in AP classes? Even if they have a great sentiment?
Dawster
concept over content? i’m against it.
but in this case… it was brilliant. and i’m not going to lie, i teared up a bit.
the fact is that language and grammar can be taught in a variety of different ways, but humanitarianism cannot. and the response here is inspiring. đ
Fidelio
I’m feeling, somewhat, inadequate he has better grammar skills than me.
Billysees
@gaym50ish: 3
Well said.
amedas
Bravo for the thoughtful teacher who gave both support & essay correction. If I were a high school pupil again (in my personal situation), I’d prefer the correcting (even if there if the teacher wasn’t supportive).
amedas
@Kevin B: Thanks for pointing that out. You’re right, I’d be very upset if that essay were mine (but then, I attended private school). So to be fair to the teacher, I’d have to take into consideration if she was doing this in a public or private school.
dreianj
Never have I teared up from reading a teachers comments about someone else. I just want to hug her forever.
Vman455
@amedas: Gee, I went too public school, but kan somehow I managed to done learn how to wrighte good.
On a more serious note, I DID attend public school and my teachers were sufficiently knowledgeable and had high enough standards to endow me with a command of the English language sufficient to complete a doctoral dissertation. I can’t imagine how that happened without the obviously-higher standards of a private education, but happen it did. Maybe it was because there are strict teachers in public schools and private, just as there are lax teachers in public schools and private, and teachers who know when to lean one way or the other in responding to an emotionally vulnerable piece of writing such as this student’s letter in both?
Jawsch
<3
This is all I have to say.
Danielle HernĂĄndez
This is beautiful! I hope to include it in my lesson about homophobia in the classroom. It will be a great example to future teachers of what they CAN do!