Letter To Mr Waugh
Dear Mr Waugh
My name is Ben McNabb and I have lived in Wanaka for my whole life. My family consists of Kay McFarlane, Ian McNabb and Hannah McNabb who I am sure you have all met before through the school. English in my past has not been my greatest subject therefore I have not enjoyed it as much as other subjects like science and maths of which I am better at and understand more. I enjoy sports with Football being my main winter sport and cricket as my summer sport and some weight lifting where I can snatch lift 107.3kg when I am half that mass. I will speak up in class often if I am understanding the topic or what we are learning but otherwise if I am quiet I will probably not understand or be trying to understand.
This changed last year although where I understood it more when I had Mrs Waide as my teacher and was able to get two merits in my externals. I was very happy with this. My favourite topic from last year was the speeches as it was the first year where I decided to try and enjoy the speeches and not just try hide away and be forgotten about. I then found out how fun the speeches are as only half or the mark was about the writing and the other half was how I presented it and drew the audience in. My least favourite was the creative writing as I have never understood how to do that well and it showed as I ended up getting a low achieved.
To be honest my main goal this year is to get at least achieved in all of the internals and externals in English as I want the UE credits where next year I will probably drop English and focus on a more mathematical and science based career. Although I understand the usefulness of English in all my other subjects which is to communicate my ideas through writing and through getting better I can make it so others can understand my ideas easier. I tend to do a lot of homework so if you assign any expect that I will get it done and if not I will have something on or something is wrong. Otherwise I would say I am a hard worker and will compete any assignments on time.
Dear Ben,
Thanks so much for taking the time to write this letter and explain where things are with English at this stage. I was a student who preferred Maths and Science – particularly Calculus and Physics when I was at school. I think the reasons were the same. I really enjoyed the precision of those subjects. I felt proud of what I understood. Whereas English was always so ill-defined. I never knew where I stood.
Obviously things have changed. I’ll never forget the wonderful feeling I got when I grasped the concepts in maths and science, but in the end I’ve really enjoyed wrangling English into a form that makes sense to me and over which I have some control.
I think, perhaps, over time, I have considered life to be a little less precise than I originally thought, and my subject lends itself well to that.
I love hearing about the decision you made about speaking last year. I’ll work to create situations where you can do the same again this year.
Even if you don’t end up loving it, I understand the importance of your gaining the literacy credits you need for further study, and I will take that responsibility seriously.
Thanks again for the letter,
Kind regards,
Chris Waugh