Recommendation

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Suppose a student asks a teacher to write a letter of recommendation for a scholarship, college admissions, etc. Is the teacher morally obligated to mention negative information about the student, or may the teacher only include information that is beneficial to the student?
 
Honesty is paramount. However, if the negatives are significant, then perhaps the teacher should decline writing the letter.

On the other hand, a letter with nothing but glowing remarks may not be entirely believable. A gently worded mention, poerhaps in passing may be adequate.

For example, if the negatives were the fact that the student was occasionall rude to classmates, I see no need to mention it. On the other hand, if there were repeated disciplinary problems, perhaps not writing the letter would be best. But if it was that the student was good but lazy, always doing the minimum amount of work, then saying something like, “While a good student, [name] could work harder.” would be acceptable.
 
If you cannot recommend the student, then do not write the letter.

If you can recommend the student then the letter is an explanation of **why **you are recommending them for the opportunity. Negative information is not appropriate in a letter of recommendation.
 
Or you can say things like this:

You would be very lucky if you could get this student to attend your classes.

We would be very happy to have this student graduate and attend your college.

I see in this student much untapped potential.

There is a world of knowledge out there that we look forward to this student pursuing.

This student added much to our classroom discussions.

See? It’s easy! 😃
 
Or

“I can recommend this applicant without any qualifications whatsoever.”
 
Very often, the person reading the reference will pay as much attention to what is not written as to what is written! Be honest, write the positive and if you don’t think a student deserves the reference, keep it really bland.
 
Example:

‘With supervision, Johnny is able to work well alongside his colleagues.’
‘He is a punctual worker who manages his time well.’ or 'Johnny is able to demonstrate puncuality and can, on occasions, manage his time well.
‘With support, he is able to communicate well with the customer/ work with outside agencies’ etc etc.

You can qualify every positive comment with a ‘support statement’😉
 
1ke said:
If you cannot recommend the student, then do not write the letter.

If you can recommend the student then the letter is an explanation of **why **you are recommending them for the opportunity. Negative information is not appropriate in a letter of recommendation.
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Exactly. That’s why it’s called a letter of recomendation. If I felt compelled to write negatives, then I would simply not write a letter of recommendation.
 
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