Observations directed primarily toward future teachers of English concerning a 10-year investigation of freshman student attitudes toward their secondary school English training in retrospect are presented in this article. Based on the patterns of responses evident in the anonymously written student criticisms, the author comments on three critically weak areas: (1) High school English classes are not sufficiently well disciplined to allow for satisfactory achievement; (2) Composition assignments are too infrequent and too often poorly planned to develop acceptable writing skills; and (3) Grading systems are not realistic, causing students to feel more accomplished than they are, and thereby contributing directly to incompetence. A generous selection of the student criticism supports the author's analysis. (RL)