Now, I'll not attempt to play the hypocrite by attempting to conceal my contributions to the barrage of insults being slung about on this board, albeit such activity has occasionally provided me with some much-needed humor in my rather tense coexistence. The truly sad aspect of the entire business, nonetheless, has probably been the rather negative impression all these personal attacks have rendered to first-time observers of this forum. After all, we ARE supposed to be "teachers," while setting a positive example professional deportment is truly part of our rle, if not obligation. GRANTED, disagreement is part of the learning process (even for teachers), however, as we all know from our classroom experiences, CHAOS never accomplishes much aside of creating negative sentiments, bigotry, and even vendetta. Lord knows, there's more than enough of this in our contemporary society both on international and national levels.

Each of us has his/her own way of looking at the circumstances of ESL, our chosen line of activity. Be it of temporary or lasting interest, be the accompanying conditions good, bad, or indifferent, we ALL have an equal right to air our opinion in this forum. It's only that, as in ANY conclave, not everyone will agree with -- and HERE comes the challenge -- the METHOD by which we agree or disagree. Issuing personal slurs, ofttimes progressing to ethnic defamation is SERIOUS business and totally unnecessary. I quite recently recommended 'eslteachersboard' to one of my advanced students, a Russian, whose English is exceptionally good. He has strong aspirations for teaching English in his native land following achievement of his goals here in the USA. I should say he "HAD" such an interest ... that is, until he tuned in to our board! He couldn't believe the amount of calumny flowing about in the various posts he read. Also, he had trouble in comprehending HOW (supposed) 'English teachers' could issue so many spelling and punctuation errors in their posts. I explained that we are ALL subject to committing typographical errors in our posts, as well as failing to proofread what we have authored. He didn't buy it, for many spelling errors were repeated in the same post! MY QUESTION: How are we to gain, much less maintain, the respect of our students -- not to mention our employers, current and prospective -- when we are not qualified to teach others what we, ourselves, have failed to perfect? The answer(s)?

#1 - Those of us who have an ambition to teach, yet are unqualified, should do what is necessary to obtain the proper education and experience before embarking upon such a venture. Otherwise, you should cease and desist from committing mental masturbation by thinking you can perpetrate a hoax and succeed in permanently escaping detection and subsequent penalty.

#2 - I've always said it, and I'll say it again: Before offering employment to ANYONE, an employer should DEMAND that his agency acquire copies of both diplomas and transcripts of each candidate. Therefore, should the teacher not prove to be versed in all areas of English, FORGERY can be added to his/her list of transgressions! Tough? Yes, but it is those very charlatans who give a bad reputation to those of us who represent The Real McCoy of the teaching industry!

Please respond. Thank you for your time and interest.

Love,
The Arrogant One