Finally, it also bears mentioning that even the schools that come up for complaint more often than most, can only survive if they have teachers that are able and prepared to teach. This in turn suggests that no matter how dodgy these schools may be, they must be keeping most of their teachers happy most of the time.

Hey John

I understand your premiss. It's flawed, but I do understand how someone who applies forethought and common sense in their daily life would draw such conclusion.

Back in Australia, my sister works for the Consumer Affairs Bureau of a State government and I gleaned much knowledge about human behavior from her (often unbelievable) tales of consumer rip offs.

Some made-up but closely-resembling-fact examples:-

The woman who complained of having gained 4 kilograms while consuming (over a couple of months) a $100 pack of so-called slimming tea. An investigation revealed that she had continued to eat 6 cream cakes daily.

The recently widowed little old lady who handed over $50,000 to a door-to-door investment consultant whose business card contained only a cell phone number and an e-mail address.

I'm sure you get my point.

There are many, many unbelievably gullible people in the world. Gullible to the point of stupidity. But even stupid people don't deserve being lied to or cheated.

With regards to the content of many (perhaps even most) complaints, I don't doubt for a minute that they contain exaggerations, to a lesser or greater degree. I suspect there are very few people who can write a complaint objectively.

Nonetheless, I accept that if a person expends the time and effort to write a complaint, then something amiss happened at the school.

I think that you are I are alike insomuch that we are logical, common-sense applying, free-thinking individuals.

I am currently working at my third employer-school here in China but I have applied to as many as 20 schools. In each instance, I searched for information, good, bad or otherwise, about the prospective employer and when I came across less-than-flattering reports, they gave me ammunition to ask specific questions of the school.

I have not, and would not, allow strangers to make decisions on my behalf, e.g. the complainant recommends against working at a particular school. But I am grateful for the existence of school reviews, which provide 'food for thought'.