I know that one of the things that Jen enjoys posting about is the ridiculous things that happen at work. To that end, I thought I would share some recent apology letters that I received. Apology letters have to be one of my favorite occurrences. They mean that a teacher or teachers, usually at a program that doesn't have a lot of control over its students and where the kids constantly disrespect and challenge any form of authority, has felt so badly about the way that the kids act during a program that they actually make them site down and write apology letters. The most common form is a form apology letter- one that is written by the teacher in a fit of "why are my children uncontrollable" remorse, dictated and copied down by children of varying ages. The apology letters that I received this past Tuesday are of an even more enjoyable version. That's right--entirely created by the mind of 13 year old girls!

(1)
Dear.
Ms. Kate sorry for acting up during the time you were in my class for the girl scouts I was having a very bad day so Im wondering will you please except my apology in if you do thank you N if you don't sorry you feel dat way.
{This first one is actually the best one. Ironically, it's from a girl that I had in my outreach groups long before summer outreach--formerly in a youth detention center group! The letter speaks for itself}

(2)
Dear Miss Kate,
I am sorry about our class in Girl Scouts. I hope you do come back and I will try to listen and be respectful next time.
{After reading the rest of the letters I'm sure that you will, as I did, conclude that this girl is most likely to have a future in bright, polite society. Probably accounts for why she was the least badly behaved of the badly behaved girls?}

(3)
I am so sorry Love ya (unintelligible scribble)
{Why thank you girl whose name I cannot read. The fact that you took the time to write five words so gigantic and diagonally across a piece of lined paper really warms my heart.}

(4)
To: Miss K
I'm sorry if you think I disrespected you I promise it won't happen again Come back
{Wait a second, I'm not even sure if this one is really an apology... but the lack of punctuation is, again, heartwarming.}

(5)
I am sorry for whatever I did me personaly dont think think I did anything wrong but if you the I disrespected you in any way I apologize.
{So this letter has poor spelling, no punctuation, inattention to word use or word order and is AGAIN not really an apology. I don't even know how to explain the fact that she is missing words not once but twice. I can't even pretend that this letter warmed my heart. I know she's not sorry--she was so convinced of her innocence that she chased me out of the building trying to bargain for the candy I promised them if they behaved. The blatantly unapologetic tone of the letter also begs another question. Did the teachers not read the apologies before they stapled them together and put my name on, or was this the best they could get out of her?}