Our submitter, an English teacher in Thailand, received this letter from a parent so notorious at the school for notes like this that she has her own nickname among the staff — “SS, as in nuttier than squirrel shit.” The exasperating part, our submitter says, is the mother’s uncanny ability to “correct” non-mistakes in her daughter’s essays. (“As you may guess from reading, the daughter’s English is better than her own,” she says.)
And as tempted as she was to correct the mother’s grammar in her note, “I had to stop, for fear of my head exploding.”
If that note left a bit of a bad taste in your mouth (or you’re one of those short-attention span “TL;DR types,”) not to worry: enjoy this end-of-the-year note written to a first-grade teacher in Atlanta. No, it’s not passive-aggressive…just adorable.
![Dear Mr. [Redacted], You were the best teacher a student could ever have! I love my class too! I am sad that I'm going to second grade. If I had a choice between you getting killed and my favorite tree getting chopped down, I would choose my favorite tree getting chopped down.](http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1343/4593639745_0a396051bd.jpg "Dear Mr. [Redacted], You were the best teacher a student could ever have! I love my class too! I am sad that I'm going to second grade. If I had a choice between you getting killed and my favorite tree getting chopped down, I would choose my favorite tree getting chopped down.")
related: Sympathy for the Devil
98 responses so far ↓
#1
jakeneff
“all the sudden” — AAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!
Jul 1, 2010 at 5:49 pm rating: 9
#2
Snarkmeister
Well, at least the mother in the first note cares about her child’s education. That’s more than you can say for most of the parents here in the U.S. She may be a pushy bitch, but her heart is in the right place.
Jul 1, 2010 at 5:59 pm rating: 50
#3
Angela
She lives in Thailand, all she needs to say in English is “sucky, sucky for 50 dollar”.
Jul 1, 2010 at 6:01 pm rating: 15
#4
shwonline
What if your favorite tree was choped down, and it fell on your teacher? Hm?
Jul 1, 2010 at 6:02 pm rating: 32
#5
ISpy
OMG. If I’d only known that notes to the teacher from wacky parents qualified as PAN. I just thought they were hilarious.
Jul 1, 2010 at 6:20 pm rating: 4
#6
UnclGhost
I’m amazed at how little of that I retained as I read that. It just goes to show how important actual sentence structure is for conveying meaning.
Jul 1, 2010 at 6:38 pm rating: 14
#7
Don
OK, so this parent does not understand English well, and thought that her child was making mistakes where none occurred. But how is this letter passive-aggressive? She is very straight-forward in requesting that her child be held to the highest standards. Not P-A at all!
Jul 1, 2010 at 7:00 pm rating: 15
#8
mamason
I would try to come up with a response for this, but I’m kind of busy trying to scrape up what brain matter I can since my head just exploded.
Jul 1, 2010 at 7:15 pm rating: 4
#9
infant tyrone
If I had a choise…
Think cleaning up BP’s recent disaster is going to be expensive ?
Try hiring primary grade teachers if kids got a choise
between a teacher’s demise and a tree’s.
The Fed’s not equipped…
Jul 1, 2010 at 7:17 pm rating: 4
#10
oi
ahh! future environmentalist in it’s natural habitat!
Jul 1, 2010 at 7:23 pm rating: 2
#11
Lhyzz
I would have returned that note to the parent with my corrections, along with a note asking her to please trust me to evaluate her child’s English grammar, as she seems to have no grasp of the concept. Considering the parent’s reputation, I probably wouldn’t be fired.
Jul 1, 2010 at 7:27 pm rating: 31
#12
daylightsavingscrime
Sometines I think of tines. ‘Pretty Woman’ taught me that there are different ‘tines’. Maybe there are numerous ‘tines’ for every different essay written by a different child… maybe she just doesn’t understand the ‘tines’. Give her SOME credit. When she first read her paper, she feel she no improve! Maybe it’s time for different course? Maybe a NEW and IMPROVED tine would quench her dismay?
Jul 1, 2010 at 8:59 pm rating: 1
#13
Zoe
Everybody is saying the mother isn’t qualified to evaluate here child’s English as her own English is rather poor. The note writer does actually point that out: “If I am mistaken because of my English is incompetent, please let me know.” She’s open to to being wrong. And as someone pointed out, she cares about her kid’s education.
+ 2 for considering she might be wrong
+ 2 for caring about her kid’s education
- 5 for being a pushy bitch
Total kudos: -1
Jul 1, 2010 at 9:40 pm rating: 20
#14
Canthz_B
Sorry for the inconvenience…this comment box is under construction!
Jul 2, 2010 at 1:05 am rating: 2
#15
someone
My 6-y-0 nephew said: A kid in grade 1 wrote that? But it’s written so badly!
Jul 2, 2010 at 1:07 am rating: 0
#16
MalKatz
“Dear teacher—
In my eyes, you are slightly more valuable than a tree.”
Jul 2, 2010 at 1:32 am rating: 22
#17
Vlad the impaler
“When she turns professional”?
Does SS expect her future hooker-daughter to have high standards “with her grammar”?
Jul 2, 2010 at 1:44 am rating: 6
#18
JetJackson
If I were the teacher I would be making sure that favourite tree didn’t get chopped down… After all I would be the next logical choice in this childs ultimatum.
Jul 2, 2010 at 3:48 am rating: 8
#19
Jennifer
As a former teacher who taught it Thailand, I don’t find this note out of line or offensive. It’s nice to see a parent who is interested in their child’s education. And in the parent’s defense, many “teachers” in Thailand are young travelers, with little or no real teaching experience, so I understand her frustration. These parents pay a lot of money to have their children in special english classes and should expect high standards from their teachers.
Jul 2, 2010 at 6:28 am rating: 7
#20
Splint Chesthair
See, this is why I consistently stayed ranked about #30 in my highschool class of 400. Good enough to be in the top 10% so no one is going to worry about you or think you’re not working hard, but not good enough that someone would take a special interest in you.
Jul 2, 2010 at 8:17 am rating: 3
#21
bunnyfoofoo
I am also a high school English teacher, and the best series of emails I ever had was over the course of last summer. The daughter did not bother to show up for her final presentation and could not pass the course. The mother chose to email me several times, each time increasing more angry at my lack of response. My out-of-office response stated that I would not check my email again until August, and to contact admin. with further issues. The last email I heard from her was “I know you are checking this regularly and choosing to ignore me. I WILL get to the bottom of this!”. It was a lovely surprise when I saw it 2 months later in August. Later she told me her daughter was going to drop out if I didn’t pass her. Oh well!
Jul 2, 2010 at 9:08 am rating: 10
#22
Ethrdg
Dear Passive-Aggressive Notes:
I am not with short attention span. It is that the good grammar that I am always practicing is make it impossible for reading of first of the notes all the way through. When I am reading of the note, my heart is screaming with agony about the verb and the proper tense. Why is there no proper tense or proper use of plural?
When I am reading of this internet blog, I am to be expecting that you are correcting such notes before they are posted. Such bad grammars are offensive to the good learning which I value.
This is why I am skip on to second note.
Sincerely yours,
(Name rescinded )
Jul 2, 2010 at 9:42 am rating: 20
#23
xenylamine
Now I’m wondering if SS has ever questioned the teacher’s English skills or corrected her grammar.
That would REALLY make my head go ‘splody. And I’ve love to see the note(s) she sends for that purpose…
Jul 2, 2010 at 5:14 pm rating: 1
#24
HandyMarigolds
Next time I have to explain the Dunning-Kruger effect to somebody, I’ll just print a copy of this note.
Jul 2, 2010 at 5:23 pm rating: 2
#25
krcamera
To whoever said “It’s only racist if the writer believes it” …. nope! It’s also about the impact and context of the comment. When Richard Pryor did his thing, he was doing it in the face of an oppressive majority, and it was and is hilarious because it took balls and wit. To ridicule an oppressed group of people anonymously, especially when you’re not funny, is not at all the same thing. Ask yourself this question – would you say any of these comments in a stand-up routine in front of a Thai audience? If not, don’t compare yourself to Richard Pryor for God’s sake! You’re not edgy, you’re not ironic and you’re not funny. Your comments are racist, though. You make me think of this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lizhenry/3185596306/
Jul 3, 2010 at 8:25 pm rating: 9
#26
O-PANDA
Oh dear. Clearly Korean. Not a racist comment. The spelling and grammatical errors are in sync with Korean English. I love that in Korea, parents know more about education than the teachers.
Jul 5, 2010 at 6:34 pm rating: 0
#27
Naomi
oh man… as someone who went to high school in thailand, i’m wondering what school this was at…. the moms in those kinds of places are out of control.
Jul 6, 2010 at 2:58 am rating: 1
#28
notolaf
At least her spelling is good…
(Yes, yes, I have heard of spell-check.)
Jul 10, 2010 at 8:02 pm rating: 0
#29
teachinfourth
In reading that second note, I am reminded of some of the things that my own students have said. It’s good to know that we are loved.
http://teachinfourth.blogspot.com/2008/12/whats-going-rate-of-soul-these-days.html
Jul 18, 2010 at 1:24 pm rating: 0
#30 Teacher Appreciation: Letters from First Graders | PassiveAggressiveNotes.com
[...] wrap things up, I just had to pull out this first grader’s letter from the archives. (And no, like many, many notes on this site, it isn’t passive-aggressive — just adorably [...]
Jun 6, 2011 at 1:07 pm rating: 0
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