Topic: Another Q from the flooser

[Andy]

Bear with me, mama always said I was a slow dawg. I'm just chillin here after getting back from a late night foray and I got me a burnin question. I don't know if you dawgs can help your cuz, but maybe Mr Ajarn can. Why is it wrong on some internet forums to diss a school, but yo, gotta post to say the school is great? Catch me if I'm slow, but that is saying, only tell the good stuff and not the bad stuff. WTF? Back where I come from they call it being a hypocrite. If you gonna allow one, you best allow the other. Just so y'all know, both good and bad stories are welcome here. We all brothers and sisters and helpin' each other out is our game.

Perusing a little bit over on other sites, I see posters over there with hidden agendas, posters who are promoting a business and it colors their advice. Again, maybe this dawg is slow, so help steer your cuz in the right direction.

Are we floosers cuz we post the truth?

[ajarnnormal]

Do you tell the truth? From what I have read on some threads NO you don't! I don't mean all the time either. Some people have neither the courage to tell the truth or tell a convincing lie. I don't believe those that percieve that they always tell the truth. Truth exists lies are invented. HofS is one big example. I don't believe ratings unless what I rate is top. Like Che should know the real Che fought for a cause not just to get rid of the effects.

[Andy]

Ain't truth just relative? One man's truth is another man's lie, it's all just perception anyways, aint it? By own perception, the truth is with me, maybe not to your perception. Show me one thread where I am not tellin' the truth as you see it?

If you fight for a cause, the effect will go away, so who is to say that you are fighting the causes or the effects, again, perception. If even a slow dawg like me knows to expose myself to all sides of perceived truth, I hope other dawgs can to. Think about that long and hard, put it in your mouth and chew on it awhile to suck out the flavor.

A school puts up an ad and then brings ya in for an interview. If the ad ain't telling you all the sides of the truth and the interview ain't telling you all the sides of the truth, when ya gonna hear the whole truth? After you have been dicked over?

Websites with job ads ain't gonna tell the truth or schools won't pay for ads next time. Money hungry tefl training programs won't tell the truth. Less people entering the profession means less money from them. Yo, Ajarnnormal,  if you was top dawg here, what would you do to get the truth out? I'm askin' honest, help me out.

[ajarnnormal]

Andy, some sense in what you say. I know you have a difficult job to sniff out the truth. What gets caught between my teeth when I chew over what you say is the bitter and twisted threads that go on this site. All I'm saying brother is this. Just because it is written on this site it does not mean it is gospel. As I have said before it is a good site and at this present time the direction is fine. It gets a bit sidetracked sometimes but that's life.There are some out there that like to drag school through the mud because they feel hard done by. I am not saying that you do not tell the truth. I am saying that some of the teachers out there that are like fish. They look on you as leaders and go around in schools. As I have had to hire teachers myself I have seen some.

[hero]

Wise words as ever ajarnnormal - we do try and pick out the obviously untrue/twisted nonsense.  At the end of the day, the reluctance or lack of motivation for people to post positive stuff means the TEFLwatch site is always going to be a bit one-sided!

If we provide info for people who want it, then we do what we set out to do.  I guess it depends upon readers evaluating the available information for themselves and making a decision.

Much like trawling through the job ads I guess!

[bluefalang]

why not begin to post, for free, ads from schools that have a positive track record in the way they treat teachers?

[RobRoy]

Yo Andy,
We have a Hall of Shame, why not create a Palace of Paradise....schools that are top notch to work for, that actually care about the education of the students, etc.  And set certain criteria for the school to be allowed to enter the PofP.  This would reward schools that are doing great jobs and perhaps provide some inspiration for those schools in the HofS to improve themselves.  It also would make, IMHO, this site a bit more balanced.  While knowing which schools suck is great information, knowing which schools are incredible to work for is really what I want to know.

Just a thought........

[ajarnnormal]

Not just a thought mate a wonderful idea.

[hero]

'Tis a good idea.  However, it is unfortunate that we don't get many threads started by people "bigging up" their schools.

[RobRoy]

I'd be more than happy to start with the school I work at...........but I think one of the criteria should be at least 2 teachers from the school recommending their school for the PofP.

[hero]

As you know, the Hall of Shame entries are picked from the TEFLwatch forums - I guess starting a thread about your school would be the first step.  If we could get a few such (positive) threads then maybe their is some merit in your idea!

[Andy]

Awesome, RobRoy. It's all cool. It looks like we got one, we already got one school that belongs there. I like "Palace of Paradise" but not many schools are paradises, findin' a school that does a-ok most of the time is what we need to look out for.

I will josh the details out with my mods. But I am thinkin',

1. At least one positive significant post with no negative posts.

And

2. A min rating of 4 on Rate This School with no negative comments, if not in Rate This School, then just a 30 day wait on the board.

And

3. Mod/Admin discretion. If a post seems genuine then it's all good. If somethin' don't feel right then it might not be.


These are pretty much the same as Hall of Shame.

I been done asked to make my postins' a bit easier to decipher for all them Brits and Kiwis and Shrimp on the Barbies, I gotta hope this is easier to comprende.

[Pibthong]

   A place to recognize schools positively is a good idea. Calling it a "paradise" definitely would be an overstatement. I mean, I'm very pleased about my present school but paradise it's not. I'd also agree that more than one factor, such as a post or a minimal number of posts, would be a good idea. A school always can get two or three lackeys to post wonderful things about the school, so the additional factor of the discretion of the admin and mods would be vital--indeed, critical. Imagine inducting a bum school into "Paradise" based on the strawberry shortcake posts of several school lackeys?!? The 30-day (or more) wait also would be a vital factor, would it not?

P.S.
Andy,
   We from the US know that we love to play with words, throw in some spice such as the deliberately funny malapropism here and there, use slang, chop up Standard English in general, be really informal and eccentric with the language etc. Remember the highly successful comedian Norm Cosby, whose specialty was the malapropism? He (no relation to Bill Cosby) cracked us up endlessly on everyone's tv show! He had a long and prosperous career.
   We know that people in the US love playing around with the language in such a way. Unfortunately, almost all of our clever innovations to our American English go right past other native speakers of English--or they just slam right into those of another nationalty of the English language. Further, I'm sure a Thai conversant in English easily could get lost reading the playful language of one of your thoughtful and excellent posts.
   Yeah, I admit that I tend to go overboard in the other direction, ie, to be more formal than I am in the States, often to include spelling (neighbor--neighbour). Maybe my ten years of living and teaching English in East Asia have separated me from the eccentricities and the fun of playing around with American English, but I too have to pay closer attention to your witty use of the language than I do to my reading of other posts...keep on truckin'     

[RobRoy]

Andy,
Got to admit, even for an American, at times your lingo is difficult to understand...but I'm an old man....mid 40's, so perhaps its a generation thing too.....

[anyonefortennis]

I'd like to add my agreement, I also think it's a great idea and as has already been said it will even the balance a bit.

People don't normally post saying how good there school is, because there's never been motivation to do so, but I would certainly recommend my employers entering the PofP, as I'm sure many others would.

Like the HofS people posting bull sh8t will normally be spotted pretty quickly, although I'm sure their will plenty of bitching as we all have different ideas about what makes an ideal employer.

Perhaps it would be easier (not for admin) just to send a survey to all TEFLWatch members asking them about where they work, and then compile a school directory from the results you get back. That might help minimize the bitching and personal attacks a little.

Oh, and Andy, thanks for writing in a style I can follow, up to now I ain’t had a clue what on earth you’re writing about!