An Extraordinary Letter

I never deviate much from the theme of Alan's Italy, but a situation arose three days ago which was quite amazing that I wish to relate. As you may know I have returned to my former profession of teaching mathematics at a community college in New York City after a three year retirement. In that regard I gave my final exam last Thursday with 17 of the 21 students passing the test. Please forgive me as I immodestly say that this is my usual passing result contrary to general occurrences in the department. I always answer every question that a student poses no matter what the query is or how many times it has been asked. One of my students asks a lot of questions as he was having a very hard time understanding. Many of the students have not been in a school setting for many years, and their normal difficulty learning mathematics has been compounded by their absence for reasons as varied as raising a family, earning a living, or just disgust with their inability to succeed. This young man recently served in the United States Marine Corps overseas in some of the explosive locales to which the country has sent troops. He struggled all semester, attaining low grades on unit exams. When he scored a remarkable 82 % on the final exam through his extraordinary devotion to his studies, I wrote an e mail to tell him how proud of him I was and that he has achieved a wonderful accomplishment. He wrote the following response. Please understand that his grammar, punctuation, usage, and spelling are severely lacking, but be assured, he will improve. His language is also "Marine-like" to say the least, but you will have no trouble understanding the essence:

Dear professor Greenhalgh . In the past few weeks your class has been the reasons of a lot of stress ,and sleep apnea , I've invested more time and efforts in in this subject, than in all classes combined but my efforts Alone dint accomplished this , the credits are yours , you are the most dedicated , caring and professional man I've seen, and trust me I've seen a lot of good pipe layer man in my short time in this earth, not once you complained about redoing a problem ,getting interrupted ,or having to explain things over and over , I might not say it in class because Marines  do not "kiss ass" ever!! .I'm actually sad to be honest that in the near future I won't get to stumble with an educator like yourself , you don't do it for the money like you said , " I will retire when I die " thank you for all your time expend and frustrations and dedication, from my part is highly appreciated with the utmost respect.        Thank you.
It pays to be a winner semper fi*

*Semper Fi is the abbreviation for semper fidelis, the US Marine Motto which means "forever faithful"

This exemplifies the reasons I returned to teaching after a three year absence. It doesn't get any better than this!