A Letter to Myself in Ten Years

Letter #1

Dear Mr. Chen,

It has been ten years since I last sat in your classroom, listening to your fascinating stories, your random movie critiques and your funny rants on what went wrong around the world.

From your class, I gained a different perspective on how a real positive classroom environment can be constructed, and I was able to learn a lot from your class. In fact, I became more interested mathematics, and I went on to study mathematics for my undergrad. Now I'm pursuing my PhD and teaching my little ones simple math problems in creative ways.

I want to thank you for inspiring me to love the subject that I have spent years studying and researching.

Next June will be my graduation convocation. I hope your calendar hasn't been taken up by then.

Sincerely Yours,
Your Best Student

Letter #2

Dear Mr. Chen,

First of all, I want to thank you for all these years that you have tried to teach the complexities of mathematics to me. I do realize that while I have certain limitations, I probably had more potential than most realize.

I've always disliked the subject of math, partly because every class I would be just taking notes and drawing graphs that will be left asleep in my notebook for days. I hoped that someone would help me understand what I had just written down, but it seemed like the lecturers would just go on and on, and I was more interested in staring at the clock than the board.

Personally, I respected your teaching and attitude towards your students.

However, in the end, I feel like I have underachieved in mathematics. As I step into the real world and actually work with numbers, mathematics actually seemed easier than I thought. All I needed was some guidance, probably.

Sincerely Yours,
Your Past Student